Business Growth is the reason company owners and executives exist; its the focus of their efforts.
For a business to survive, growth is an imperative, not an option.
Less than one in ten companies succeed in achieving sustained growth. Even more concerning is the fact that:
“70% of CEO/MDs surveyed said they failed to grow due to a lack of management focus. They cited [as the cause] controllable decisions such as a lack of focus, bad decision making and an inability to develop an effective growth strategy.” – Zook and Allen, The Facts about Growth, Bain & Company
Delivering business growth is often complex and challenging in today’s ever-changing marketplace. Delivering sustainable business growth is even more demanding.
The companies that fail in their attempts at sustained growth do so for one or several of three main reasons:
- Because they leave money on the table in their core businesses, failing to optimise revenue opportunities or to expand the core customer base sufficiently.
- Because they need to expand their horizons in a timely fashion if they are selling into mature markets (They needed to look for new sources of revenue – via new products, new distribution channels, customer segments or geographies – but avoid taking a step too far without a substantial Mature market is a complex and difficult barrier to breakthrough.)
- Because they have hit an insurmountable barrier in their traditional business lines and need to renew their core business and/or (Those companies must find successful methodologies and processes to renew their business.)
An underlying requirement is to have in the company the right people who are capable of delivering the results in a timely manner to sustain business growth.
Companies making one any of the above three mistakes often attempt to take action with a delayed sense of urgency as they recognise their business is collapsing beneath them. The momentum in the business has been lost or is eroding at an increasing rate. The two common mistakes that then occur are: firstly, companies try to build on top of weak core business; and secondly, companies overreach into new businesses that aren’t truly related to their core or that they lack the experience to engage in.
Developing a sustainable business growth strategy requires more than the identification of market opportunities and an understanding of market share. Furthermore, it requires more than an understanding of competitors and customers. Sustainable growth is affected by both external and internal forces, namely:
- The right people in the right seats – identifying the right leadership “seats” in your business and developing the key people to fill them along with the teams that report to them; often, legacy personnel are holding companies back
- Effective strategic planning – having a documented strategic plan broken down into departments, with a process to measure, review and adjust it
- Advanced customer management – providing customised solutions to different segmented customer groups to maximise profitability
- Robust processes – defining and developing effective and efficient core business processes
- Differentiated products and services – providing superior, innovative and differentiated products and services
- Strong core values – developing accepted fundamental principles, standards or beliefs that bond and motivate the organisation
- The ability to execute – having the ability to implement your company’s strategies and tactics effectively and efficiently through a detailed plan and to measure the implementation process.
Successful business growth relies heavily on management implementation – that is, the senior executives’ ability to gain accurate information in relation to external forces and the ability to engage the company with the right resources, culture, and skills to execute their growth strategy.
We understand the different business growth requirements of companies and the maturity of their customers and markets. There are those companies that require managed growth, or sales transformation, while others can embrace rapid growth and yet others may have reached a point of distress that requires a sales turnaround.
The Sales Improvement Programme applies the rigour needed to your core business growth. It assists you in developing the right growth strategy that supports sustainable growth. Importantly it sets down the implementation plan that is measurable and keeps the company focused.
Working as a team in-house, your senior executives can apply the methodologies to investigate the growth contributors, challenge the thinking of the business, and establish the best way forward for sustainable growth. A thorough process that combines the engagement of your team, the focus on the right subject matter, and opening fresh thinking.
Over six months, you can transform your business results through our structured approach to achieve growth.
Why this approach?
We have deep experience in the identification of the barriers to growth and establishment of growth plans that meet the company’s short-, medium- and long-term plans. We have assisted companies in rejuvenating after years of plateauing, broken down barriers of eroding revenue and profits, and turned them back into profitable businesses. The results have been that companies with stagnant sales have achieved a 25 per cent increase in revenue in under six months, and companies have broken into new markets and opened sales channels with revenue returns contributing an additional 30 per cent to their annual revenues.
We have reviewed hundreds of companies and identified their growth strategy requirements and, importantly, what changes were required to deliver growth to their business. Those reviews were turning points in the life cycle of the companies reviewed.
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