In order to #effectively #develop a business growth strategy for your business-to-business (B2B) company, you must begin with a thorough assessment. After all, you need to understand your present growth capacity before you make plans that rely on a healthy #ability to execute.
Still, many #CEOs have an innate aversion to assessments, preferring instead to focus on the #possibilities of the #future, rather than the problems of the present. However, if you’ve ever been hesitant to seek (or perform) an #assessment of your business growth readiness, the good news is that you can perform a quick, three-step ‘litmus test’ of your own.
#businessgrowth #ceo #entrepreneur #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurship #sme #b2b #consultancy #sales #marketing #growyourbusiness #success #tips #strategy #guide #readiness #test #evaluate #venturesavenue
STEP 1 – Pick a Card, Any Card.
Go to your desk look for that stack of business cards sitting on the corner of the desk. You know
The one — it’s a collection of cards you’ve gathered from customer meetings, trade shows, sales calls and various business events
Pick up the deck of business cards. Now, shuffle it. Then, randomly remove one business card from the stack.
STEP 2- Connect the Dots from Contact to Relationship
Begin by reading the information on the business card. Then, ask yourself these questions:
- What is the likelihood that this person’s name, title, company and core contact details- If you think the likelihood is good, then search in the system and see if you can find the information.
- What is the likelihood that this same information has also been entered into your company’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system- If you think the likelihood is good, then search in the CRM system and see if you can find the information
- If the information on this contact is entered in your CRM system, which of the following pieces of information can you determine by looking at the contact record? What your company needs to do to build a relations ? -What is the likelihood that this person’s contact information is still accurate?
STEP 3- From a Relationship to Revenue
Ask yourself these questions
- Is this person a current customer, potential customer, potential partner or potential promoter of your business? Did you just know that off the top of your head?
- Is this person and their company being qualified, and if so, where are they in the qualifying process? Do you know whether or not they are a “fit’ for your company, and if so, for what products/services that you offer?
- Do you have a clearly defined process with specific, listed steps that will be applied to guide this person and their company through consistent pathways to develop the kind of business relationship you seek with them?
The Answers: Yes, No and “I Don’t Know”
consider this: the only answer to the test questions worse than ‘No’ is ‘I don’t know’.
The other key takeaway is that if you got a good result the first time but don’t believe you could reliably repeat it, then you failed the test, period…regardless of your luck with the first business card you chose.
In the realm of business growth, your business relationships are the equivalent of million-dollar orders. Every single one of them. That’s right – failing this test with any business card (yes,*any* card) is the strategic equivalent of losing the paperwork on a million-dollar (or larger order.
If you can’t properly manage your business cards (or your inbound emails, or your website inquiries), then you aren’t properly managing your business relationships. And if you aren’t effectively managing your business relationships, then there’s no point in attending more trade shows, sending out more catalogs, or generating more online leads through inbound marketing. After all, the evidence shows that you’ll just let them wither away.
Don’t Worry, You’re Not Alone
Okay,let’s pause for a moment. Chances are, you didn’t feel too good after taking this self-test. It’s such an easy test, and yet it is so easy to fail.
There is one piece of good news: You’re not alone. The number one problem most B2B companies have with sales is lack of effective follow-up, and the number one reason for that is the lack of a clearly defined process -and a properly configured system – to ensure that follow-up happens.
The follow-up crisis is particularly acute today, with so many sources of leads (online and offline), and so many ways to connect with new contacts (in-person events, email referrals, LinkedIn connections, etc.).
Research shows that about half of all new sales leads that come into B2B companies are just downright ignored. Ignore one lead for more than about two weeks and you might as well just burn it.
There Is a Way Out
Frustrated | Embarrassed | Mortified ?
You can overcome this hurdle. The first thing to do, however, is stop looking for new leads. Right now, at least for the moment, you don’t need new leads. You need strategies, systems, processes and people focused on the leads (and all of the other business contacts) that you already have.
Remember that person you met at an industry event six months ago and who you had a great conversation with, only to drop the ball and not follow up until you thought about it today?
Guess what? They won’t mind if you reach out after all of that time. In fact,by taking that step and overcoming your embarrassment (or that of your team), there is a good chance you’ll stand out.
After all, did they follow up with you? Is there some alternate universe where they’re not
as busy as you are and can’t understand what it’s like to have too much work to do and not enough time to get it all done? Of course not.
Rebuilding Your Company’s Business Growth Engine
it’s time to get serious about rebuilding your business growth engine.
- Proceed with a business growth assessment.
Hire a professional business consultant to come in and fully evaluate your business growth capacity. This includes the four fundamentals of business growth: sales, marketing, strategy and leadership.
- Commit to a business growth strategy.
You need to develop a growth strategy- provide a roadmap for closing gaps in your current internal growth capacity, as well as a model for pursuing clearly-defined target markets and newopportunities.
- Invest in a business growth platform.
A cloud-based application environment in which you can define and guide your strategy, implement proper Customer Relationship Management (CRM) workflows, and support marketing automation and digital engagement.
- Prepare to become a business growth leader.
Change takes leadership, and with the proper guidance from expert business growth consultants and advisors. Take the time (and the training) necessary to evolve your executive skillset and transform your company. into a growth-drive business.
Ventures Avenue supports business and assist them in validating business ideas and scaling them as profitable ventures for more information visit our website www.venturesavenue.com or reach us via email at [email protected]