Sometimes your business hits a plateau. It happens to the best of teams. What’s important is how you get off of that plateau and keep gaining ground with your business.
Growing a business is a lot like climbing a mountain; for the most part it’s a slow, steady hike. But occasionally, you find yourself at a plateau and the path up isn’t always clear. Plateaus present you with choices: Do you stop here? Do you go it alone and risk taking the wrong path forward? Or do you hire a Sherpa; someone who’s made the climb successfully, multiple times, and will help carry your things and take your picture at the top?
Knowing that you are ready to take your team to the top is exciting, but at the same time there are many precautions and careful steps you should take to avoid leading your team into failure.
So where should you start?
Audit Your Sales Process
Even though your team might have worked well under your current sales process, it is not guaranteed to be the most effective one. There’s a reason that “what got you here won’t get you there” is a business cliché.
Make sure that you audit your sales process and make changes accordingly in order to create a more effective sales cycle for your team.
If you don’t have a concise sales process, you should design one that is specifically curated for your team and your company’s specific goals. Clearly set up the proper deal stages that are reflective of your product and its typical sales cycle.
Work with your team and map out your sales process. Make sure that your reps are properly trained and understand each step, then follow it every time. Not deviating from the process will help you to understand if it actually works, then create an easy and repeatable cycle for your team.
Make sure your sales process follows the following characteristics:
- Must be repeatable. One of the most important features of your sales process is the ability for it to be reproduced consistently.
- Simple and straightforward. The more complicated your sales process is, the harder it can be to replicate and scale with efficiency.
- Easy to maintain. Sustainability is the key, so your sales process needs to have tools in place to properly maintain its proficiency as you scale.
- Trackable KPIs. A sales process should be measurable throughout each of its deal stages to ensure that performance meets expectations.
Move Towards Activity-Based Selling
A scalable sales process gives new reps focus by clarifying the exact tasks they need to complete during a sales cycle to generate the best possible performance.
You cannot control results, so you shouldn’t stress your growing team by tracking raw numbers alone. Remember; when climbing a mountain sometimes it takes multiple days, and your team won’t travel the same distance each day. Instead, you need to focus on what they can control—their activities, as well as measuring results to assess performance.
Your job is to optimize your sales process and tweak the flow of activities your team needs to complete in an effort to continually maximize positive results (and ultimately, sales). Here’s why this tried and tested philosophy works so well for companies looking to scale up fast:
Focus: Activity-based selling keeps reps focused on what they should be doing now, rather than heaping pressure onto the chase for quarterly revenue targets.
Consistency: By focusing everyone on the same activities, you can easily measure and monitor your sales process as your organization expands without constantly checking in on new reps.
Management: If one rep alone is struggling, there’s a good chance it’s not your process at fault. You can help that rep with individual training, mentoring, or a specific performance improvement plan.
Morale: You should be able to plug a rep right into an activity-based sales model and start seeing results almost immediately. There is no confusion over their role or the way to execute. This is very important when you’re growing fast.
Invest in the Right CRM
Sometimes when you’re preparing to climb a mountain you will find you need specialized tools. The same is true with scaling your business. It's time to start looking into areas where you can gain more free time and take away the responsibility you once put towards sales. Your business is growing. You're scaling up. It's time to evolve with, and properly equip, your business.
So how do you do this, and what exactly is a CRM? It stands for Customer Relationship Management.
Simply put, it's the technology and processes that a business uses to manage its contacts and relationships.
Examples include email subscribers, sales leads, sales opportunities, customers, and employees. CRM software can help you organize and track relevant information for any prospects, leads, deals, and retaining customer information/data.
This can lead to stronger relationships, increased sales, and make your business more efficient overall. It also helps your sales team by tracking their performance. If you're a fast-scaling company, you need to find a CRM best suited for that. Just like finding the right tool to climb a mountain, it’s specific to the mountain (aka your goals)..
Here's a list of the best CRM software to use. Take your time and research to find which one suits your scaling business the best and is up to date with technology and the times. Consider asking someone who has already implemented this type of tool, and find out what they learned during the process.
Learn How To Grow Your Organization with OneAccord
Our seasoned team of specialists first determine what your goals are, then help you prepare for a sale that fulfills those goals. We are, in effect, business Sherpas; we’ve climbed more than one mountain, and our mission is to help others make their climb. We walk with you side-by-side through the process to avoid common pitfalls and to successfully transition your business.
We’ll work as an extension of your company, providing you with both the tools and manpower you need to get off that plateau and keep climbing.
Whether you simply want to diagnose your leadership symptoms, or if you want a guide to take you over the rocky terrain of mergers & acquisitions, we’re here to help.
Uncover what drives your business and gain strategic and tactical steps for immediate implementation.
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