Questions and ideas for jumpstarting company growth and sales

1. 2010 RESTART, REBOOT AND RE-ENERGIZE Recently, I have met with a number of CEOs and investors who are grappling with the question of how to resurrect or accelerate growth for their companies. Does this sound like you? Yes, some of these companies just finished a frustrating 2009 but all were profitable and none were shrinking. One was recently acquired so there should be synergies from the combination; another has been growing at 350% per year for the last three years; a third is trying to get a new channel to deliver on its promise; a fourth is enamored of its technology but frankly, the market can’t figure out how to use it. QUESTIONS It is especially tough to figure out ways to jumpstart growth when you are busy running the operation so I thought I’d pose a few questions to ask yourself if you are faced with this challenge. Can customers and prospects access effective marketing materials that explain clearly what problems your products and services solve, and demonstrate easily how they would use them? It is difficult for sales people to demonstrate the value of your products without sales tools that help explain today’s complex solutions to intractable business problems. Can you imagine getting a channel partner to deliver new business without well-designed marketing and sales support? Are your products and services aligned with today’s market? I recently read an article that stated that 90% of successful companies had to throw out the product concept on which the company was founded and start over. Not that the technology was discarded, but the products and services were re-purposed to address critical problems that needed solving, not the untested problems that the founders thought were out there, but weren’t. How do customers and prospects experience your company - - your people, your products, your support, your competitive environment? You may think all is well, but it is always a good idea to find out from those who have actually had the experience with your organization and its competitors to see what they think. If you don’t know, you can’t build on the good things or fix the ones that are getting in your way. Are you thinking ahead so that you know how to adjust, when to take advantage of a market opening, and where to align resources over the next five years? It’s easy to stay so involved with today’s growth, just fulfilling the orders and responding to new customers, that you don’t keep watching the horizon when things will change. Sales of existing products will plateau, crises will subside, and new competitors will appear. It may happen in five years or it may happen in two months. If you don’t know, you are jeopardizing your future and you are missing opportunities right now. The questions above should focus your attention on how well your organization is executing, not just on your business plan. Yes, it’s fun to concentrate on strategy and think that if we have figured that out, success will be certain. But just as important is really, really good execution. As investors or as leaders, we need to “inspect what we expect” and help our organizations deliver superbly. Too many CEOs just don’t do that. EXAMPLES Last year. I observed a client CEO who didn’t step in to make sure that the demo for an online product worked flawlessly before it was shown to prospective customers, despite complaints from the sales organization. Can you imagine demo’ing a new online service that had features that didn’t work and that periodically crashed during the demo? As a sales person, how would you feel without the tools to do your job? A few years ago a client asked me to capture feedback about one of their subsidiary companies. The company just wasn’t performing. During in-depth interviews, customers volunteered shortfalls in the product line and suggested impactful changes, while also sharing their experience with competitors. This input from customers (and, by the way, from competitors’ customers) allowed this company to make simple changes and to improve its execution on a number of fronts - - enough to resurrect growth in a declining market. Recently I helped the management team of a fast growing company think way, way outside of their traditional product box to take advantage of critical problems during this financial crisis that will substantially change how loans are underwritten in the future. With twenty years experience in their narrow industry, this was really difficult for these guys but they did a great job! In a two-day work session, we examined very specific questions from the views of six different market segments, and this team was able to create new service concepts (and the underlying implementation requirements) that will spur growth for the next few years. Lastly, an investor’s portfolio company resisted adjusting its services to meet real market needs; they clung to ideas about products that just didn’t pan out. As I said before, this is a huge problem for entrepreneurs who hold onto their original idea long past the point of usefulness. This can be a fatal mistake and I’ll share the following advice (and help) I gave them that helped re-purpose their business. First, understand today's specific market problems including what they are costing and the urgency to solve them. Second, be flexible and fast. Expect to build something that will change and expand and address problems as yet unknown. Architect your service so that it is as nimble as the market needs, and much more nimble than what your competitors deliver. Third, plan on services that are delivered economically and where expenditures and costs are variable. I don’t see many large investments made in “heavy” installations now; Software-as-a-Service and cloud computing are dramatically cutting costs and, as an added benefit, they support transaction pricing. Fourth, build services that can be easily adapted and installed in weeks, not months. Design them to meet the needs of many customers where by turning switches on and off, features can be customized fast. Fifth, think of your service as more than the obvious - - for instance, this client’s service was also a data engine. (IDG projects 4% growth in the business intelligence market to $25 billion this year alone.) I hope these questions are helpful if you find yourself wanting to jumpstart growth in 2010. If this was useful, let’s talk. I’d like to hear about your challenges and share ideas. Gail gail@gailbuergerkerr.com ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Gail Buerger Kerr Business Development Partner for Entrepreneurial Companies Capture Clients, Launch New Products, Forge Key Alliances, Investor Introductions Office: 978-425-9243 Cell: 617-835-1627 Visit my website at www.gailbuergerkerr.com See my profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/gailbuergerkerr My Focus: Business Intelligence Tech Visionaries Financial Services Innovations Analytics and Advice Search and Alert Mobile Communications and Content Security and Transactions Personalized Marketing and Loyalty/Rewards