Christoffer Hansen
ch@hanei.se
Christoffer Hansen
ch@hanei.se
There is a mathematical formula for growth with four points for organic growth:
1. Number of opportunities created
2. Win rate
3. Average order/contract size
4. Retention rate
The number of opportunities created x Win rate (in %) x Average order size constitutes the revenue generated in any period on top of recurring business. The retention rate is a measure of the company’s ability to keep customers on board after their first purchase. Any percent-increase or -decrease in any of the four drivers directly influences the growth rate.
If your retention rate remains constant, but you improve the number of opportunities created, win rate, and Average order/ Contract size by just 5% each, your new sales growth is close to 16%. If at the same time, you increase the retention rate by 5 -10%, you will be looking at growth rates way beyond the market- or industry average.
Every day, salespeople go to work and repeat their routines as they did yesterday and the day before, which results in the same outcome as always.
Once commercial habits have been established, additional growth with the same organizational setup and the same products becomes difficult.
Key to transforming result is simple:
If you combine these four points with the involvement of your sales leaders, better results are a likely outcome that we call Commercial Acceleration.
A survey conducted by Forbes with European companies shows that significant data adoption reached 53% in 2017, from 17% in 2015. The early adopters being telecommunications and financial sectors in the lead. Three out of four companies say that they are working towards being more data-driven and will invest more in data technologies, like data warehousing, dashboards, and self-service end-user tools.
Transforming data into actionable insight
The focus has been on collecting and structuring data in dashboard solutions and systems to measure development and effects in customer touchpoints. What is missing is the ability to transform data into actionable insights that support the strategy and create business value. While some organizations struggle, others succeed. What can we learn from successful datadriven companies?
It is crucial to have a global combination of sales processes and behaviors, which require a global behavioral change in the entire sales organization and the engagement of the local sales managers and the development of their coaching abilities.
There are two elements to creating sustainable change in sales.
• There must be processes and tools in place that promote and encourage desired behavior
• Sales managers must change the conversation they are having with their salespeople so that they reflect the conversation they want them to have with their customers.
IMPLEMENTING A GLOBAL SALES METHODOLOGY
When implementing a new sales method, process, or tool, it can be tempting to apply a “one size fits all” solution. However, this can bring on resistance since the local management and employees might feel that they were not involved in the decision making about their daily job. To avoid this, include sales management from the beginning of the process.
Five checkpoints:
1. Create a global unity, engagement, and ownership
2. Co-create across cultures
3. Agree on minimum standards and a few non-negotiable tools
4. Make the change journey a social responsibility
5. Train the trainer
There are a lot of benefits to leadership coaching, such as higher motivation, higher goal attainment, and reduced churn. 42% of sales managers’ effectiveness is due to coaching activities with the sales reps. Their success is also dependent on the relationship the sales leader has with their sales reps.
By mixing global change ambition with local autonomy, global sales transformation can be successful, which results in a common objective, a common language, responsible sales management, and improved customer experience. And, subsequently, growth.
SO WHAT?
Some companies are stuck in a negative routine, doing the same process repeatedly, and always getting the same sales results, which means that they need to rethink their habits to increase their sales growth.
Companies also need the right strategy and collect quality data that reveal how humans behave, to create valuable solutions.
If something is not working, it is time to change the company and rework its current policies and global sales teams. Find what needs to change for your sales to grow.
Sales growth can happen by small incremental adjustments and does not need to be more complicated than that.
If you want to learn more about how to increase your companies sales growth, feel free to reach out to us at Hanei Consulting Group.
If you want to learn more about how to increase your companies sales growth, feel free to reach out to us at Hanei Consulting Group.
We are a team of independent professionals from diverse backgrounds who want to make consulting simple. We have extensive experience from strategy- and technology consulting firms, start-ups, and corporations, where we have solved problems in 50+ countries – from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. We are the architects of your growth.