Attended a seminar in Holland recently with Verne Harnish of Gazells Inc. I got so much from his practical and clear approach to strategy execution. He has some excellent tools freely available on his website here
Verne wrote a down to earth practical approach to Strategies for Doubling Revenue. Get the full article here.
Meanwhile, here are the 5 strategies and the essence of what they are about:
1. Dramatically Reduce Sales Cycle Time
NEVER present a sales proposal to a customer without being on the phone or in person with them. Emailing a proposal to a customer ahead of a meeting doesn’t give you the opportunity to react immediately to potential concerns and objections that might arise as they read through your proposal. And the more time the customer has to ponder an objection and potentially pollute their colleagues with negative reactions (or spouse if it’s a business to consumer sale), the more difficult it will be to move the sales process forward.
2. Pricing with Confidence
“too many firms have gotten caught flat-footed and are using price discounts in a panic to try to keep demand that is going away no matter what they do. The firms that do this are creating two very significant long-term problems. First, they are destroying the integrity of their pricing and the value of their brands. Second, they are training their customers to negotiate for every last penny thus undermining their most valuable asset – trusting customer relationships.”
Look objectively at pricing as a strategic tool that must be managed systematically based on value, market demand, cost structure, product lifecycle, and firm capabilities. This view leads one to make decisions on the basis of preserving and gaining pricing power be it through reducing capacity to match demand, introducing low price – low value offerings, or making systematic adjustments to price lists so that list and street prices are more in line.
3. Multiple Channels
Companies with more sales channels trump competing firms with less. This means setting aside all the debate about protecting various territories and giving your customers as many options for purchasing your product as you can. In the end, you can’t dictate from whom and how your customers will purchase your products and services. They all have different preferences and will find competitors who give them these options.
4. Half the Customers; Twice the Attention
Focus on your Best Buyer or Best sales area and then create a nurturing marketing campaign that touches these customers 10 to 15 times with educational information. If you’re not familiar with nurturing marketing, read Jim Cecil’s book Nurturing Customer Relationships. Verne gives an example in his article of a roofing company who applied market research intelligence to focus a drip feed educational programme to the actual decision makers. Do you have a market research intelligence file in your company? I’d recommend it.
5. Web 2.0
Verne doesn’t say much on this but recommends you read David Meerman Scott’s best-selling book The New Rules of PR and Marketing: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly. The title he says itself gives you a flavor for the array of inexpensive promotional opportunities available to a growth firm. And his book is the first to explain the options in a way Verne finds non-tech growth company executives can understand and implement.