The Advisory Partnership: sales

Are you a small to medium-sized business relying on sales tactics for growth because you haven't been able to put together a strategic plan?

Thought so.

But it's likely that this focus on short-term sales means you're missing out on the opportunity to grow your business significantly and sustainably for the long term.

Don't worry.

You're not alone.

80% of all the meetings we conducted in 2015 were with clients who did not have a clear strategy on how to grow their business. More generally, of those that have a plan, according to Harvard Business Review, 86% fail to implement it effectively.

Let's be clear, when we talk about your strategic plan, we're not talking about a multi-page spreadsheet filled with comprehensive analytics and the ROI on market entry, nor are we talking about the extensive corporate presentation designed to appease the board and shareholders ... you know, the one that you work on for days, trying to work out what they want to hear and then never refer to it again after the presentation.

It doesn't have to be so hard to reach the next stage of your growth vision.

When we talk about strategy we are talking about an understanding of what your business stands for today, what you want it to achieve in the long-term and building a series of clear practical steps towards achieving that vision within your own capabilities.

Simple.

Our clients have no shortage of vision, there is always a clear idea of what success represents:

to become market leader
to expand into new markets
to double the size of the business
to take advantage of market conditions by developing new products & services
to become leaner and more profitable

But, in most cases, there is no straightforward step by step strategic plan to achieve that vision.

Our experience has revealed a consistent issue especially with our clients in creative services and broadcast media; that they have a tendency to adopt a short term focus on tactics to achieve revenue with little strategic or operational plan to support their long term business goals.

This is fine for us as it represents the starting point in assisting our clients to grow. We help them understand their potential, assess any limitations or blockages to growth and provide practical steps to take their business forward to new levels of success.

In all cases, we assist our clients to develop a strategic approach that still delivers on their short term needs but introduces a framework that allows them to develop their potential for the long-term.

Here's an example:

We met a client that was seeking to enter a $30M per annum market with a disruptive product. By looking at their business, we could see that they were fully equipped to successfully address this market immediately with their existing product set. There was very little risk. However, they had not fully understood the size of the opportunity in front of them and did not want to invest in additional resource. So instead, they set their focus on a "safe and easy" $200k per annum subset of that market. To address this, they took a tactical approach aiming to win a series of accounts through the networking skills of their existing sales team.

They will be successful in this but look at the missed opportunity; a lack of strategy and planning is sacrificing the multi-million dollar opportunity in favour of a best attempt at a share of $200k.

Which would you rather have?

Vision without strategy is just fantasy. Your business vision can't be achieved solely by a tactical sales approach.

Of course, it's easy to be distracted by the day-to-day demands of our operations and lose focus on the long term strategy of the business. This is exactly where it's possible to develop a 'blind spot' that limits the ability to see the opportunities in front of us.

So, where do you start to shift the focus from tactical to strategic without it all being too hard?

Answer this ...

What is the true state of the growth opportunities in front of your business?
What is the current operational health of your business?
What level of profitability do you need to maintain?
What adjustments need to be made to your operations to support your growth plans?
How will you bridge the gap between the capabilities of your business and the unique needs of your clients?

Once you can answer these questions, you are immediately focused on the long term health of your organisation and your short term goals will take care of themselves, packaged neatly within a sustainable strategic framework.

So, just as you don't become famous by making more friends, you don't make your business grow exponentially by focusing solely on short-term account wins.

We help our clients build a strategy for continents not just countries and provide practical steps towards long-term strategic growth so that success for you is not just about struggling to reach a quarterly budget.

Don't sell yourself short.

Once you can support your business vision with the substance of a strategic plan and know the steps you need to take to achieve it, you are no longer short sighted... the result is scalable, sustainable growth, achieved faster.

The Advisory Partnership assists its broadcast and creative services clients with operational strategy, delivering outputs that are scalable to meet the challenges of technological change and international growth.

Post by James Douglas

www.theadvisorypartnership.com

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The Advisory Partnership

Sales vs Ops - Whatever happened to the operational review?
International Growth Cheatsheet
Case Notes: APAC Centre of Excellence

The Advisory Partnership reports on the dangers of over-promising our operational commitments when we're caught in the middle of a sales pitch 'high'.

We’ve all been there. It’s a good meeting. The rapport is strong. The client has the problem and we have the solution. We’re already mentally registering the sale and toasting our success.

Then comes the question:

Is it possible for you to include an additional feature, product or service?

And we say, "Sure! No problem".

It’s all too easy to be drunk on a sales pitch high and say yes to things we’ll regret the next day.

We do this for two reasons; one is our eagerness to please our new client and the other, darker reason is the fear that we’ll lose the sale or the client’s respect if we don’t agree to everything immediately.

But all too often when we answer ‘no problem’ we’re really just taking an indirect route to a disappointed client and we simply reveal our own failure to adequately convert an opportunity into a profitable sale that is easily implemented.

Keep in mind that it is often a closing negotiation tactic of the client to get more of our product and service for either the same price or a faster turnaround. It is not at all accidental that the question comes towards the end of the negotiation when we may have begun to let down our guard.

Everyone wants a project that is well managed, cost effective and operationally efficient. So, here's how we deal with the situation.

We need to see the client's last minute question as a new brief and to be confident that, in the end, we’ll be respected for taking the time to consider the answer and to revise our offer if necessary.

This is where we must stop and think. We may have arrived at our meeting with a beautifully balanced business case for the project that we are about to sell but in one single word, we can turn that profit into pain.

The end result of making unrealistic promises is a place nobody wants to be.

So, before saying yes to what is an extended brief, we have to take the time to think through the effects on our team’s existing commitments. If we take on work than can’t be delivered effectively, then it's directly connected to our operational efficiency and therefore our business' bottom line. It's impossible to do a profitability analysis on the spot so it's smart to leave the matter and respond promptly after the meeting.

Failure to do this, inevitably leads to project failure which can impact our reputation in the market and undermine the revenue growth we thought we had already achieved when we said ‘yes’ in the first place!

So in this situation, if you truly know the answer then of course you say it but if you’re at all unsure, agree to respond later. When you respond with a new, carefully crafted proposal, you will ensure not only your profitability but also your own ability to deliver effectively. Hopefully you'll also be building a long and trusted relationship with your client in the process.

The Advisory Partnership assists its clients with effectiveness reviews that remove barriers to growth and international business development.

www.theadvisorypartnership.com
Post by James Douglas

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Advisory #17 - Sales vs Strategy - The Missed Opportunity