What The F*@# Does That Mean To You?
Someone once told me any CEO or seasoned sales or marketing executive knows the importance of revenue growth performance analysis. To be clear I asked if we’re talking about revenue growth in terms of. “A to Z regarding optimizing their brand, lead generation, digital presence, and sales effectiveness. They said yes to all. So, I immediately disputed that claim. We had quite a spirited debate that was within the earshot of a university professor. We were invited to continue this debate during a guest lecture series at the University of North Texas with a Graduating Senior’s Business Strategy Class.
Why dispute that “CEOs and seasoned executives specializing in marketing, brand, sales, and digital presence,” do not know the importance of revenue growth performance analysis?
Here is why I disagreed with the statement. C-Level Global conducted a survey across the US with 218 participants. The survey asked executives in companies ranging from five million to one billion dollars in annual revenues ten questions about their thoughts on analyzing revenue growth performance versus their company’s active efforts with such analysis. We wanted to understand how important it is to top executives and what they actually do to know when, where, and how to evolve revenue growth. This exclusively singled out growth by acquisition/merger and was limited to organic growth measures.
The results of the survey indicated that by a landslide these seasoned professionals lack understanding of how to comprehensively analyze their revenue growth strategy, much less hone the tactics. Most analysis conducted is basic. To cut to the chase, sixty-seven percent said they believe their company needs help designing and implementing a sustainable system to analyze their performance with revenue growth. Of the thirty-three percent that didn’t think they needed help, more than half (seventeen percent) said they are too busy with other priority initiatives to work on performance analysis. Therefore, when I debated the gentleman about his flippant comment, I had some actual data to go on. The real point to glean here is that you need to ask yourself and your colleagues’ thoughtful questions about how to improve your messaging, branding, lead generation, CRM system, automation, sales, training, digital presence, and especially about the measurements, adjustments, and analysis of all this. Do you think your company is doing a good job with this? If it’s not already then what stops this from being a priority? How much of your organization’s time and money is wasted in the pursuit of growth? Who is in charge of this in your company? How will your company’s budgeting process help or hinder such efforts? What dashboards govern these types of measurements and how accurate are they? These are questions to discuss in your next meeting.
Just knowing these efforts need alignment is one thing, but executing is of course an entirely different beast. Thus, revenue growth operations might need to become the biggest part of your company’s concern. Asking the right questions with the right people present is the place to start. Take one bite at a time. Remember, ignoring this problem and allowing the status quo to persist is the exact behavior that got your company in the position it is in now. Start by being willing to rock the boat. The rest falls into place once you get a few others to agree. Check out Renaissance Methodology if you seek some guidance on innovative change management.
