Igniting Rapid Revenue Growth: 4 Steps to the Holy Grail!

Most enterprise software and SaaS companies revenue expectations soar far beyond the reasonable. CEO's are put under great pressure to perform by investors and board members. While the motive to increase revenue for an investor may be different to those companies who have not taken any funding, the premise is basically the same; Qualify, Drive and Execute. Here are 4 steps that can drive revenue quickly and efficiently:

1. Qualify: If CEOs had their sales organizations focused on the following key attributes, it would make it clear whether their offerings were ready, if they were being marketed to the right audience and their pipelines were being filled with  real deals!

 Why buy? Why would a company buy the technology we sell? This sets the tone for your value proposition to the market.

Why would a company buy from us? You must know your competition to answer this question.

Why would a company buy from us now? Are you sure you offer a compelling value? Can you quantify your value?

2. Drive: This is where many Software Companies fail. It’s easy to hire subject and industry experts, but if your sales staff cannot communicate properly, deals will not get put into proper forecast mode.

Manage a real deal to a set of steps with anticipated timelines and tie the timelines to specific actions.

Communicate to the customer and your internal resources well in advance of the activity. Executives should be reviewing the email communications as they may not actually say what the sales person thinks is being conveyed.

Put the customer on notice. If your customer responds to you positively, try to get those in writing to ensure your forecasted timelines are realistic.

3. Execute: The hardest part; getting your customer to pay you.

Were the commercials reviewed by decision makers and your customer’s legal and procurement teams prior to negotiating a contract? They should be. Otherwise, expect procurement to change the price of the commercials when entering them into the contract negotiation.

Do you know your customer’s buying process? Make sure you know if there is an electronic sign-off process and how many signatures are needed as well as how long this can take before forecasting the timeline of your deal.

4. Hire Marketing Professionals: In today’s age of Social Media, there are lots of ways to find new and exciting opportunities for your companies. It’s critical to have a marketing officer on your executive team, who understands how to navigate through the noise often created by social media platforms. I’ve seen CEOs miss the importance of a true Marketing Professional and think sales professionals are also marketing oriented. These are two separate skills; Marketing is to create and Sales executes! Furthermore, a poor marketing mind may negatively impact your sales staff with innocuous leads. Conversely, a proper Lead-Generation Program can speed results, funneling real potential to your sales team so they can start executing to Holy Grail Status!