I swear on my sales coach’s retirement fund I am not making this up:
Earlier this week I spoke with a marketing expert who is on-boarding a new client (or, trying to). The company’s revenue goals for 2012: go from 18 million to 50 million in sales this year. Yowsa, now that’s ambitious!
To develop a marketing strategy, she needs to discuss their current sales plan. Imagine this conversation:
- “We plan to go from 18 million to 50 million in sales this year.”
- “Great, so what’s the plan”
- “I hired a bunch of new sales reps.”
- “Okay . . . .?”
- “Oh, you mean a plan. I don’t have time for that right now.”
Is this how you set your goals? How’s that working out?
This kind of thinking always brings to mind Rick Page’s book, “Hope is Not a Strategy”. It’s magical thinking. [Sadly, I often have similar conversations when speaking with prospects about implementing CRM.]
A lot of overwhelmed, overworked managers have a “just set it up, I don’t have time to plan it” mindset. This is a big part of the reason they are overwhelmed and overworked. It’s possible they are in the wrong line of work. It’s possible they aren’t getting the support they need. It’s possible the “plan” is too ambitious. Well, anything’s possbile. No matter, seat-of-the-pants management is not conducive to success.
Anyhow, back to my point.
Achieving sales goals requires a mix of strategy, technology, and talent. In order to maximize sales, management (owner, CEO, VP, and whatnot) needs to have a strategy and clear objectives.
They also need a repeatable, measureable process to enable selling success.
Revenue growth doesn’t happen by accident, it doesn’t happen by looking busy, and it sure doesn’t happen by, “let’s toss all these people at the problem and hope for the best.”
It seems to be a theme lately- I don’t have time to plan. I think a lot of people still think that a plan means stopping everything. Quite the opposite. You have to be selling everyday. And not just blindly throwing sales people at phones, but intelligently. Every day.
We are all guilty of it to some degree, let’s take all the pieces of a business.
Marketing= check! I have a website….
Sales= check! I hired a bunch of salespeople
And voila- we have doubled revenue. Why do we forget that all business is built on trust and relationships? We want things to act like a machine, we push a button, and the money spits out.
Hope is not a strategy. A plan is a dream with a goal and a deadline. Being a visionary is when your idealism gives way to realism and you understand that you have to actually do something.
Great post!
Carole –
What a great way to put it: “Why do we forget that all business is built on trust and relationships? We want things to act like a machine, we push a button, and the money spits out.” Part of the “strategy of hope” is that technology will do the thinking, planning, and preparation that can only be done by human beings. I think, too, that sometimes people (myself included) get overwhelmed and paralyzed. We have to get real and get started.