Now is the Time to Finalize Your 2018 Strategic Planning

Now is the time to finalize or stress-test your strategic plan, and there’s no time to waste. The NFL season kicks off tonight and before you know it, Thanksgiving will be around the corner.  Average and poor performing companies tend to procrastinate their planning efforts, and then find themselves operating without a formal plan when time runs out.  World-class companies identify their initiatives and gaps to close, and begin delegating sub-plans of action in early Q3 that come to fruition in a comprehensive implementation plan by the beginning of Q4.

To focus your 2018 planning efforts, leverage a Revenue Growth Methodology to guide your planning. Leverage the How to Make Your Number in 2018 Workbook where emerging best practices are codified into a single emerging best practice, called the Revenue Growth Methodology. This management method is used to accelerate the rate of revenue growth.

In compiling this year’s research report, we discovered that top-producing organizations systematize revenue growth according to a specific, six-step process.

Before you consider implementing the Revenue Growth Methodology, you’ll probably ask yourself one key question: What is the size of the prize?

Executives who have put a Revenue Growth Methodology in place point to four primary benefits:

• Improved probability of achieving revenue growth objectives

   

• Increased customer lifetime value

   

• Higher productivity per sales head count 

   

• Decreased customer acquisition cost

   

However, these benefits are achieved only when great business leaders implement the Revenue Growth Methodology.

Enforcing a Standard of Excellence

 

By enabling executive leadership teams to blend strategy perfectly with execution, the Revenue Growth Methodology enforces a standard of excellence across the enterprise. It also embraces emerging best practices that provide a competitive edge, as opposed to standard operating procedures. Moreover, the Revenue Growth Methodology facilitates and achieves strategic alignment among the external market, the corporate strategy, and the functional areas.

Organizations that implement emerging best practices spend roughly the same on sales and marketing as organizations that do not. The difference is they acquire significantly more customers, resulting in much lower customer acquisition costs.

Heightening Customer Lifetime Value

 

Emerging best practices also impact customer lifetime value. Companies can charge more for their solutions when they consistently provide a more valuable customer experience. They also deliver solutions in a way that satisfies customers and results in lower customer churn.

Increasing Sales Productivity

 

Furthermore, implementation of emerging best practices results in higher productivity per sales rep, outpacing the industry. The entire organization is aligned around serving customers in areas where they need the most help. Executive leadership, product, marketing, HR, and customer service teams support the sales force in its pursuit of revenue growth. Win rates, plan attainment, and productivity all increase. Organizations that have adopted the Revenue Growth Methodology report a 94 percent success rate. However, less than a quarter of companies are working on implementing emerging best practices.

Before embarking on the Revenue Growth Methodology, leadership teams must understand this is not a quick fix. It is a long-lasting transformation that takes time to deploy and perfect. Success requires agility and continuous refinement in the field.

Have expectations gone up and left you wondering if you can make your number? Here is an that will help you understand if you have a chance at success. Take the Revenue Growth Diagnostic test and rate yourself against SBI’s sales and marketing strategy to find out if:

• Your revenue goal is realistic
• You will earn your bonus
• You are setting yourself up for success in 2018

Image Source:

WikiMedia Commons, Staff Sgt/Kristi Machado of the U.S. Air Force