Take The CEO Grow Your Business Test

Welcome to the October 1st, 2009 edition of BPI News!

In this issue we discuss Growing Your Business.  If you would like to attend a How to Grow Your Business seminar or have it presented to your Executive Team, call or email us today and lets make it happen!

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

If you would like to have this newsletter delivered to your mailbox via email, please send an email to newsletter@bpistrategy.com and include your name, company, phone number and email address. We will add you to our mailing list.

Walt

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Take The CEO Grow Your Business Test

by Paul DiModica

In order to grow your business aggressively, you need to use a premeditated system, take specific action steps to maximize corporate goals, exploit market opportunities, and understand the drivers needed to maintain sustainable growth.

At the Value Forward - BPI Strategy Group, we audit 100+ business growth drivers to determine company strengths and weaknesses in their operating models. Here are 25 of the 100+ drivers we use to audit a company’s potential for success and to measure the areas that need to be adjusted.

The How to Grow Your Business seminar is your opportunity to get one-on-one coaching with us in these 25 areas, plus the other 75 drivers we focus on.

Take the test and measure you revenue growth success potential.

CEO Business Growth Audit Test

1. Are your services, engineering or operations departments set up as individual profit centers?
2. Is your service department, engineering or operations department revenue capture process only the sales team’s responsibility?
3. Does your development, engineering or operations department create new offerings without market gap research or detailed written project plans?
4. Does your development, engineering or operations department create new business offerings without getting written input from your sales and marketing department?
5. Have your operations or development department wrapped your services into a packaged offering with specific pricing options targeting specific buyers to help your prospects buy easier?
6. Is the average success of your entire sales team’s assigned sales quota or target greater than 85% annually?
7. Do you have a written, documented systematic sales process detailing your firm’s entire sales cycle from pre-sale to post-sale that you require your sales team to follow?
8. Do you know your sales capture cost per sale?
9. Do you use a metric-driven method to mathematically calculate sales quotas or sales targets for your sales team?
10. Do you pay your sales team the same commissions for business from existing customers as you do for business from new prospects?
11. Do you know the lifetime dollar value of each of your top ten customers during the last five years?
12. Do you and your management team get a line item detailed profit and loss statement (P&L) showing profits and losses before corporate general and administrative costs (G & A) every month for each of your departments?
13. Do you know specifically (based on research, not conjecture) why your prospects buy from you?
14. Do you know specifically why you lose business (based on research, not conjecture)?
15. Does your vice president of sales have total control over who they hire and fire?
16. Do you raise your product or service pricing every year?
17. Do you calculate marketing Return on Investment (R.O.I.) for each your marketing investments?
18. Is your senior marketing manager paid financial incentives based on revenue growth?
19. Does your marketing department have a written month-by-month marketing action plan listing each activity, its costs and its expected inbound lead generation goals?
20. Has your firm calculated business demand for your products or services through market gap analysis?
21. Are you growing your firm’s top line revenue organically through outbound new market revenue capture?
22. Is at least 50% of your current fiscal year revenue coming from new customers?
23. Do you have any customer responsible for more than 15% of your total revenue?
24. Do you believe that all of your customers primarily buy from you based on your price?
25. Do prospects call you and ask to buy your product or service without you contacting them first?

Scoring Assessment: Give Yourself 5% for each right answer. The following audit is not a complete assessment of your revenue growth potential but a snapshot of where you may be versus where you need to be. How did you score?

60% and Below
Your business model cannot maintain year-over-year sustainable growth. If your revenues are increasing, it is an anomaly, not a methodology and has specific financial and operational leakage issues and corporate instability exposure.

To fix this position, you need a redesign of your business and the integration of your operations, sales, marketing and strategy processes into one revenue capture approach.

61% to 80%
Your current business growth model has some of the best practice attributes needed to grow revenue year-over-year using a planned process. Some of your business structure may need to be adjusted to maximize long-term corporate growth goals.

80% and Above
Your business structure maximizes corporate growth capabilities and uses an interdepartment alignment that focuses on strategy linked to action steps. You have built a sustainable pattern which should foster continued success.

PS: If you want learn more about why your firm may not be growing as fast as you would like it to, schedule the How to Grow Your Business seminar now, I do not want to mislead you, it takes work, commitment by you and your management team but with our 100%  guarantee and  attending this event, you have nothing to lose and revenue to gain.

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

A great salesperson inspires the buyer to see the benefits as their own.” –Anonymous

How to Manage RFPs and Proposal Development Successfully Before They Manage You!

Welcome to the August 15, 2009 edition of BPI News!

In this issue we RFPs and Proposal Development.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

If you would like to have this newsletter delivered to your mailbox via email, please send an email to newsletter@bpistrategy.com and include your name, company, phone number and email address. We will add you to our mailing list.

Check our website ( http://www.bpistrategy.com/news.html) for information on our next free teleseminar - “How to Sell to the Government”, on August 28th, noon to 2 PM EDT.

Walt

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How to Manage RFPs and Proposal Development Successfully Before They Manage You!

by Paul DiModica and Walter Wise

As part of government Source Selection Teams years ago, I sat through many proposal reviews submitted to us by both small and large businesses. Sitting in the room with the technical evaluators, cost evaluators, business evaluators and program and project managers, I was able to observe the strategic, tactical, analytical and emotional selection process used to procure goods and services and to award multimillion dollar, multi-year contracts. It was interesting how the team inspected each proposal, created a short list and made subjective observations about each vendor, their offering and its value contribution to the government. Since it is estimated that 24% of all RFP’s are NEVER implemented even when a short list is compiled, many RFP’s are actually a Request for Information (RFI) in disguise and it is important to manage your time allocation based on logic not emotion.

Often senior management and sales teams assume that an RFP is a big deal and they must submit a response. This approach is called the “rainbow affect” and makes many companies chase RFPs they should otherwise ignore. Yet time and time again, companies chase the RFP rainbow, spending hundreds (or even thousands) of man-hours and dollars trying to win the impossible.

These experiences, coupled with working with clients on capture management and proposal development have given the BPI Strategy Group and the Value Forward Network insight into some best practices you may be interested in considering if you want to increase your proposal success.

The following best practices are recommended for companies that have annual revenues less than $100 million per year or where the sales team is required to put together the RFP response themselves. Often companies with annual revenues greater than $100 million have a dedicated proposal department to manage the submittals. These apply whether you are working on public or private sector proposals.

5 Best Practices for Proposal Success

1. Deals valued over $1,000,000 in the 1st year

Bid ONLY if you have at least 3 of the following variables in your favor:

· You have worked with the client before and know the “hot buttons”

· You know the competition

· You have “done your homework” before the RFP was released

· The work location is within a 2-hour plane ride or less from your office

· You know for a fact you will be placed on the short list by submitting

· You have won this type of business before and have the qualifications to prove it

· You can comply fully with all requirements

· You helped write the RFP

2. Deals valued under $1,000,000 in the 1st year

Bid ONLY if you have at least 3 of the following variables in your favor:

· You know the customer

· The work location is within a 4-hour car ride or less from your office

· You know for a fact you will be placed on the short list by submitting

· You have won this type of business before and have the qualifications to prove it

· You have some knowledge of the competitors

· You can comply fully with all requirements

· You helped write the RFP

3. Packaging

When packaging your proposal, make sure its presentation matches your value. Many companies work on their response up to the last day, then overnight it to the contract office to beat the deadline. Focus on the proposal structure (color, dividers, PDFs, etc.) as well as the content. When sitting in on RFP reviews, I noticed that the best looking physical presentations always seem to get more attention. Remember, proposals are invisible salespeople.

4. The Offer

When writing the financial section in your response, consider giving them 3 price options, not one . . . even when they tell you to give them only one. Why? Because once you submit a proposal — it’s the “don’t call us, we’ll call you” syndrome and you may not have the opportunity to resubmit alternatives they may not have considered or that your competitors have suggested. By supplying three options, you position your response differently than others who only offer one.

5. Over-Produce

When creating your proposal - the key to success is to over-produce, yet companies barely get the finished document out the door. To increase your closing ratio, consider the following: build a better presentation, supply audio CD, DVD, or MP3 file testimonials of your clients, add a 5 minute CD from your President explaining why the prospect should buy from you, create a website specifically for your response to provide additional information, provide the URL in your proposal and track it to see when it was visited. Give the buyer more than they asked for – added value up front.

One business metric we see that seems constant is that companies that respond to too many RFPs, normally do so because the rest of their lead generation programs are weak, and they try to compensate for their lack of revenue growth and lead generation by incorrectly assessing their potential proposal success and respond to everything.

To close more proposals . . . respond less, qualify more and over-produce when you submit!

So, stop saying how great you are and start proving it before the sales cycle begins . . . and you will sell a lot more.

Walter Wise
President
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

A great salesperson inspires the buyer to see the benefits as their own.” –Anonymous

10 Ways to Know If Your Firm Is Pulling Their Value Behind Them

Welcome to the July 15, 2009 edition of BPI News!

In this issue we discuss pulling your value behind you - where it shouldn’t be!

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

If you would like to have this newsletter delivered to your mailbox via email, please send an email to newsletter@bpistrategy.com and include your name, company, phone number and email address. We will add you to our mailing list.

Check our website ( http://www.bpistrategy.com/news.html) for information on our next free teleseminar - “How to grow Your Business in a Recession”, on July 29th, noon to 2 PM EDT.

Walt

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10 Ways to Know If Your Firm Is Pulling
Their Value Behind Them

by Paul DiModica

Every day, management prospects hear the following pitches from vendors:

We have the best product.

My firm’s customer service team is the best.

Our pricing is the most competitive.

Our staffing team is the most qualified.

We are number one in our market.

As management prospects hear this corporate rhetoric day after day, they just stop believing the pitches sales and marketing people tell them and instead look for solid validation.

More often than not, most sales teams “pull” their sales value behind them during the sales cycle by presenting these descriptions as facts which are not up for validation.

This method of “pulling value from behind” is an ineffective marketing and sales process and positions vendors on the same level as their peers who are perceived to be business commodities.

“Value” is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “relative worth, utility, or importance”.

Many sales teams utilize standard methods of vendor communication by talking about their firm’s value and how great they are. This generalist approach places salespeople in a defensive position with prospects about why they should buy from them.

Rather than have your salespeople pull their value behind them, companies need to have their value out in front before the sales cycle begins to make it easier to sell.

Most marketing programs use a passive communication model of “here it is, this is what we do”. This process over the long haul just wastes money and valuable selling time.

How much time during an average sales cycle does your sales team spend prospecting, educating new prospects on why your product or service is different, and managing competitive issues?

Too much!

To sell more, you need to use “experiential marketing” techniques to help the sales team get inbound qualified leads where the prospects see your business value BEFORE the sales team tries to sell them.

If a prospect “experientially” experiences your business value before the sales team talks with them, the result is competitors are eliminated, the sales cycle is shortened, and a profitable gross margin is maintained.

WHY?

When a prospect approaches your firm after having experienced your business value prior to the first sale, your sales team can then spend most of their time personalizing how they will help the prospect use your product or service as a business tool, instead of spending a disproportionate amount of time in the sales cycle cold calling,

So, should you advertise more?

No.

Advertising is a passive medium and does not educate prospects on your value. It is a means to express why “you think” you have value. Prospects must confirm you have value based on their own internal metrics which cannot be done through ads in magazine, TV or direct mail.

In fact, most advertising is focused on projecting what the advertiser wants the prospect to “see”. But at the end of the day, the prospect does not care about anything except their personal business needs.

So how do you create a “value forward” approach to your sales?

Instead of talking about how great you are, show prospects your product or service value by giving them business content for FREE up-front which will induce them into a sales action step to call you.

Marketing tools like webinars, teleseminars, newsletters and workshops are the key to communicating your value first to generate qualified leads. These marketing devices allow your prospects to learn about your value through their own filtering and judgment process and if done correctly, they will call you and say “I am interested.”

Take the following Value Forward Test to see if you pull your value behind you.

Value Forward Test

1. When explaining your sales value proposition to prospects, do you sound like everyone else?
2. When you present your offering to your prospects, do they expect you to drop your price to match your competitors?
3. Do prospects see you as a peer and and provider rather than a vendor and a predator?
4. When you explain your product or service, can the prospect visualize the difference between your company and your competitors?
5. Every time you meet or chat with a new prospect, do they say they have not heard about your company?
6. Are most of your qualified leads generated from cold calling?
7. Does your marketing generate at least 3 qualified leads per salesperson each month?
8. Has your sales cycle timeline increased by at least 25% during the last two years?
9. When you meet with a management prospect, do you have a lot of competitors?
10. Does your marketing budget allocate more money for brochures and trade shows than engagement devices like newsletters, webinars and teleseminars?

Correct Answers:

So, stop saying how great you are and start proving it before the sales cycle begins . . . and you will sell a lot more.

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

A great salesperson inspires the buyer to see the benefits as their own.” –Anonymous

How Much Are You Spending on Marketing and Are You Generating Qualified Leads?

Welcome to the July 1, 2009 edition of BPI News!

In this issue we discuss best practices for marketing in today’s economy.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

If you would like to have this newsletter delivered to your mailbox via email, please send an email to newsletter@bpistrategy.com and include your name, company, phone number and email address. We will add you to our mailing list.

Check our website ( http://www.bpistrategy.com/news.html) for information on our next free teleseminar - “How to grow Your Business in a Recession”, on July 29th, noon to 2 PM EDT.

Walt

======================================================

How Much Are You Spending on Marketing and Are You Generating Qualified Leads?

by Paul DiModica, CEO - Value Forward Network

When coaching CEOs on best practices on how to grow their business, one question we are often asked in this economy is “how do we generate more qualified leads?”

Generating leads — specifically qualified leads — takes knowledge, business funding and a planned strategy.

Often when working with clients, we find that they have a silo approach to lead development and end up focusing on one type of lead generation model with which they or their team members are comfortable.

This silo lead generation approach usually fails because it limits the potential capture of new prospects to one communication medium.

Most successful lead generation programs use multiple communications which we call the “three legged stool of lead generation.” The three legged stool of lead generation includes cold calling, networking and marketing. Each one of these approaches has their own budget, planned process and projected return on investment.

What marketing methods are you using in your firm?

What marketing methods are most successful?

Do you know your real marketing costs?

During a recession, never reduce your marketing budget. There are always buyers buying; you just don’t know who they are. Instead, tighten your marketing focus on your most likely buyer, based on their demographic profile, negotiate better on your vendor pricing and track your lead return on investment.

Marketing should generate qualified leads . . . or else it is a wasted investment.

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

A great salesperson inspires the buyer to see the benefits as their own.” –Anonymous

The Business Value of Your Company

Welcome to the June 15th 2009 edition of BPI News!

In this issue we discuss what comprises the business value of your firm.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

If you would like to sign up to have this newsletter delivered to your mailbox via email, please send an email to newsletter@bpistrategy.com and include your name and email address. We will add you to the list.

Walt

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The Business Value of Your Company is Not the Product or Service you Sell . . . It Is The Strength of Your Sales and Marketing Team

by Paul DiModica, CEO - Value Forward Network

“Good salespeople in poor sales programs . . . always fail“

I hear from VP’s of Sales every week who work for Global 1000 players, small start-ups or family-run businesses — finding good salespeople is very difficult. But like a professional athlete, when you find a great salesperson, you have a franchise player. They can pull your entire team upward to a higher level of performance.

Yet the ability for great salespeople to succeed on demand is many times dependent on other attributes beyond their own sales skills, business experiences, and controls.

Like professional athletes, salespeople may have previous training, previous experience, and a resume that indicates they should be a successful heavy hitter, yet they still can fail.

Is your firm making successful salespeople fail?

This specific issue affects every sales manager, VP of Sales or CEO who is trying to build a replicable, scalable sales model to increase corporate product or service sales.

When seeking the successful salesperson, you interview, check references, analyze candidates through psychological tests, and search for hidden motivations. Then you hire the best salesperson available at the time of your open sales requisition.

Most sales management teams then hope the new sales executive is going to pay for themselves quickly. But if the new sales account manager is not hitting their numbers 180 days into their employment, the management team starts talking about them in hushed conversations behind closed doors wondering whether they should cut their losses and let the new account manager go.

But is it the salesperson’s fault they are missing their sales target numbers?

Maybe yes; maybe no!

Selling successfully requires more than the individual business and emotional characteristics that a salesperson can produce on their own. It also requires the company to be a participant and contributor in their success as well.

Yes, I’m confident you pay them well, but just because a sales rep is paid well does not mean management’s involvement is over.

It is a misperception by management to believe increased corporate revenue is tied to hiring top performing, high paid experienced salespeople — believing pow like a magic trick in Vegas you have instant sales quota capture.

Nope - it does not work that way!

For experienced salespeople to sell successfully (hit quota or higher), management must participate in their success.

Here are 7 reasons why many great salespeople fail. None of these variables have anything to do with the salesperson being lazy, unprofessional, or lacking the appropriate sales skills.

7 Reasons Why Good Salespeople Fail

1. The company they work for has no documented sales process.

   Yes, you need to focus on specific sales techniques but sales training is not sales performance. Having a written sales process will help you and your team build a replicable, scalable sales program that can be duplicated over multiple prospects’ buying cycles. Without a sales process, you end up with isolated sales techniques.

2. Sales training is not enough - sales learning is needed.

   Interesting, 65% of companies say that they actively train their sales teams, but only 35% actually do it. Sales is a business profession. You must continually invest in your sales staff to drive performance. Sales training is a one time event; sales learning is ongoing education and investment in your revenue capture team.

3. Your sales education investment must at least equal other department educational investments.

   Calculate the amount of money your firm invests per program in training and education for your other staff members (operations, HR, engineering, etc.) and compare it to the investment in sales education for your sales team. If there is variance, you have a sales skill gap.

4. Incorrect sales quotas prevent great salespeople from hitting their target.

   Stop pressuring salespeople if your sales quotas or sales targets are based on assumptions. You must use qualified market demand analysis and existing sales metrics that can be documented to correctly forecast sales quotas that are attainable.

5. Management must supply salespeople with qualified sales leads.

   Of course salespeople should cold call and network, but what about the marketing department generating inbound leads for the sales team. Technology, service and logistic companies spend huge amounts of money on marketing that normally creates only a trickle of inbound qualified sales leads.

6. Your market gap demand must be documented, not guessed.

   Great salespeople cannot sell red shoes to blue shoe buying prospects. Just because you tell the sales team to sell your offerings to targeted prospects does not mean there is a buying demand.

7. Your firm must provide a selling environment that is motivational and positive.

   Yes, good salespeople can be prima donnas, but like professional athletes who have negotiated a big compensation contract, salespeople are not just interested in money. To make good salespeople sell more - make work interesting and conducive to their personal needs to compete and succeed.

Selling is a team sport. On any given day, when the team has practiced together and supports each other, anybody can win.

If management does not support good salespeople, they will fail.

A mediocre salesperson tells;
A good salesperson explains;
A superior salesperson demonstrates;
A great salesperson inspires the buyer to see the benefits as their own.”
–Anonymous

Walter Wise
President
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

Thought Leadership is a Value Forward Lead Generation Tool

Welcome to the May 15th 2009 edition of BPI News!

In this issue we discuss using thought leadership as a marketing tool.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

If you would like to sign up to have this newsletter delivered to your mailbox via email, please send an email to newsletter@bpistrategy.com and include your name and email address. We will add you to the list.

Walt

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Thought Leadership is a Value Forward Lead Generation Tool

by Paul DiModica, CEO - Value Forward Network

“Price is what you pay; Value is what you get.” Warren Buffet

• Why do prospects believe your marketing?
• Why should a prospect buy from you?
• Is your marketing about you or about your buyer’s needs?

Most marketing today scares prospects away because most buyers are exposed to vendor centric not prospect centric value presentations. Day in and day out, buyers are all exposed to volumes of hyperbole from the vast communication mediums that attack them.

Today, many companies and marketing departments pull their business value behind them by using antiquated marketing theorems based on their need to spend budgeted marketing money, create visually appealing direct mail, build brand images for investment analysts, create brochures that make them feel good, and develop Internet web sites that generate no qualified inbound leads.

Where’s the marketing ROI?

All prospects are buyers at some time. Their buying cycle might be 2 days, 2 weeks, or 2 years, but at some point if your targeted buyer is exposed to your product or service market gap where demand is greater than supply — they will buy.

To increase your marketing ROI, stop pulling your value behind you hoping that your prospects will buy and start putting your value in front of you where your prospects turn themselves into buyers.

When buyers take action steps on their own to buy, they shorten the acquisition sales timeline, quickly eliminate competitive purchase options, and set up a pricing framework of how much they will spend based on how they perceive your offering.

The concept of Value Forward Marketing® is designed to help you change the pattern of how you capture new prospect sales and extend existing customer purchases by repositioning your marketing messaging and marketing dollar investment allocation where you focus on value first and brand second.

It’s not about what you market - it’s about what the buyer wants.

Value First, Brand Second!

By focusing on value first and brand second, you allow your prospects to see you based on their needs not yours.

Value Forward Marketing gives prospects your value up front and makes your value three dimensional and believable. Expenditures for brand development today is totally disproportionate to marketing ROI. Marketing management teams continually invest in brand management without tying these investments to increased revenue capture.

Brand Awareness Does Not Mean Customer Purchases

The world’s top two recognized brands are Microsoft and Coca-Cola, yet both of these firms’ top line revenue growth and stock prices are flat.

Thought Leaders Have No Price Barriers

Great examples of the Value Forward Marketing companies include firms like Google, John Deere, MarketingSherpa.com, and Harley Davidson. Each one of these companies communicates their value up front by positioning their value to their targeted buyers where they are seen as thought or industry leaders in what they do.

To launch its business model, Google started by giving free Internet searches to position their value to their audience as a knowledge leader and then backed in their revenue capture program from their pay per click advertising after their value was confirmed. Google does not sell searches; instead they are seen as the market thought leader in search then makes money based on that position.

John Deere is not just a manufacturing company that produces consumer and commercial power equipment. In fact, it is a thought leader and uses direct and indirect distribution channels to deliver free educational content to targeted buyers. As a result, John Deere drives new buyer acquisition and existing customer retention while simultaneously increasing customer lifetime value.

Marketingsherpa.com communicates its business value up front by acting as a marketing aggregator of best practices through the distribution of its free newsletters (that do not carry advertising) and positions itself as a thought leader with its readership. The readership then supports the company by buying its ebooks, seminars, and business checklists.

Harley Davidson does not just sell motorcycles; instead, they sell the experience of the ride they provide. They position this value up front through their pre-purchase driver education programs, sponsored rider rallies, great escape trips, and road planner services.

These Value Forward Marketing programs let the prospect experience these companies’ value prior to their purchase, so when they enter into the buying cycle, the prospects themselves shorten the sales cycle, eliminate competitive choices, and increase their allocated budget based on their perceptions that the value of these companies’ offering warrants a higher price.

In all of these examples, none of these companies are the cheapest as compared to their competitors, yet they succeed because their buyers see them as thought leaders and just buy.

Like the cookie store that hands out free samples, Value Forward Marketing allows all companies in both new emerging markets and old established industries to put their value in front of them so buyers will buy.

Value Forward Marketing is not drip marketing.

Often companies use a continuous mass marketeering distribution model, sending continuous marketing materials to prospects hoping that the message if repeated enough will induce prospects to buy. But sending several promotional pieces on a regularly scheduled basis (often called drip marketing) is not Value Forward Marketing. This approach just reconfirms to your prospect that you are a vendor, not a peer. Value Forward Marketing is where you invest in your own value by giving some of your value away to your targeted prospects for free so they pay for the rest of your value.

In Value Forward Marketing, you give 5% away
to get 95% back at retail.

To sell more, become seen as an industry thought leader. Give 5% of your of product or service value away for free by educating your prospects and they will buy 95% of what you sell at retail.

To increase revenues, Value First, Brand Second!

Walter Wise
President
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

Four Management Growth Stages

Welcome to the May 1st, 2009 edition of BPI News!

In this installment, we discuss four management growth stages in which companies operate. How do you run your business?

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

If you would like to sign up to have this newsletter delivered to your mailbox via email, please send an email to newsletter@bpistrategy.com and include your name and email address. We will add you to the list.

Walt

========================================================

Four Management Growth Stages

by Paul DiModica, CEO - Value Forward Network

Are You a Professionally Managed Company . . . or an Entrepreneurially Managed Company?

• Are you a $1 million or $100 million company trying to manage growth correctly?
• Are you growing your top line revenue through organic revenue capture?
• Is your current business model scalable and replicable?

Money and success often hide business mistakes. Your business may be growing 10% a year and you think you are successful. But maybe your business should be growing 30-50% a year and you just don’t know it or know how.

Sit with any CEO and ask them questions about their business model and instantly you can make an accurate judgment call on their operating approach. Do they manage their business entrepreneurially or do they manage it professionally.

At the BPI Strategy Group and Value Forward Consulting Group, we have identified four primary management growth stages in which companies operate.

Stage 1 - Entrepreneurially Managed - The CEO is the founder or a family member, is actively involved in all day-to-day transactions including operations, client sales and accounting, and feels more comfortable in the field than in the office. Corporate growth is achieved through organic revenue capture and the CEO manages their business based on their needs, not the needs of the company. Often the CEO sees the company as an extension of their own self worth and manages their business emotionally.  Many times the CEO uses corporate cash flow and profits as a reward to themselves. The company may have general P&L statements, but they are used mostly for tax purposes and payroll.

Stage 2 - Entrepreneurially Managed - The CEO may not be the founder or a family member but manages the company by gut feel, past experiences and what competitors do. The company may have a corporate management team and infrastructure in place but still manages its business autocratically. The CEO uses company cash and profits as tools to help hit corporate and personal goals. Additionally, the CEO has rudimentary business operational metrics and monthly P&Ls but prefers less data than more data when making decisions.

Stage 3 - Professionally Managed - The CEO understands that this is a business and is not emotionally attached to their decisions. Business growth is planned through strategic acquisitions, outside business funding, business analysis and a planned revenue capture process. Additionally, the CEO uses cash and profits as investment assets that can help maximize the business valuation and reach corporate objectives. The company uses some operational business metrics but does not manage all departments and management team members from a P&L point of view.

Stage 4 - Professionally Managed - The CEO and the executive team manage their business by metrics only, tracking each department’s financial and operational objectives through detailed weekly reports that are consolidated monthly. The CEO evaluates and compensates the management team based on their P&L performance and all decisions are based on a studied, logical approach.

At the DigitalHatch - Value Forward Group, we have worked with over 500 companies on growth methodologies. The principal driver for business to have year-over-year growth of 25% or more is having the management team operate in a professional management stage 3 or 4 environment.

The key success drivers between entrepreneurial management and professional management are business metrics and detailed P&Ls.

Can entrepreneurial companies that are in Stages 1 and 2 grow 25% year over year? Yes, but it is harder.  Without detailed financial statements and management metrics, the valuation of their business for future exit strategies, private investments, and/or mergers is diminished.

Add department metrics and detailed financial management to your business and you increase your growth success.

How do you run your business?

Walter Wise
President
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

Complimentary Teleseminar: How to Hire the Right Salesperson

6 Methods of Growth and How They Affect Business Opportunities

Welcome to the April 15, 2009 edition of BPI News!

Spring is here (at last).  The first quarter is over.  Income taxes are filed (hopefully).  In this installment, we discuss continuing to grow your business, even in a recession.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

Walt

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6 Methods of Growth and How They Affect Business Opportunities

by Paul DiModica, CEO - Value Forward Network

Sustainable year over year growth is a continuous challenge for all management teams who are seeking to expand their business.

Business expansion is tied to the market model you select both for your current success and future expansion and its correct alignment with one of the four growth cycles your firm currently resides in (start-up stage, growth stage, mature stage, and decline stage).

One method to manage this process of aligning growth with your business cycle is a “Growth Scorecard.” Like other scorecards, the Growth Scorecard links customers, financial metrics, learning and growth, and employees to your business goals.

At The Value Forward Network, we have studied sales and marketing models of over 1,000 firms during the last six years and have identified 6 primary models for business growth and 14 secondary models that can be deployed to increase corporate revenue. Each of these models have both positive and negative attributes that have to be managed. Additionally, each one of the primary approaches can be applied to more than one product or service within the same company using a best practices approach to benchmark your success.

The selection and implementation of the method you select is a strategic decision that requires an analytical approach to balance both current cash-flow needs and future corporate goals.

The key to growing your firm is aligning the business growth method you select with your firm’s current business life cycle. Often firms do not correctly match their growth method with the right business life cycle and then wonder why they are not maintaining year over year sustainable growth.

Market Growth Options

1. Market Duplication. This model focuses on paralleling your product/service pricing, features, and business offerings based on your direct competitor’s business model (e.g., UPS and DHL).
2. Market Variation. This model is based on the competition’s model, but adjusts it to visibly offer prospects some improvement in product, feature, price or distribution model (e.g., Siebel, SalesForce.com).
3. Market Symbiotic Attachment. This model is used by firms whose revenue stream is connected directly to the success or failure to other vendors (e.g., IBM Partners, Microsoft Partners).
4. Market Consolidation. This model uses a growth process where vendors buy-up or roll-up revenue by buying other companies and their market share without using internal organic growth techniques (e.g., funeral business).
5. Market Innovation. This growth strategy takes market variation a step further. Instead of a singular market variation, this model creates a new market paradigm (e.g., Amazon.com, Google).
6. Market Entrepreneurial Launch. This model of growth happens when firms use market gap analysis and identify new opportunities where market demand is greater than supply (e.g., Apple iPOD, Overture.com).

It is common for some products and services to have several growth options connected to them, but generally, based on our research, there is usually one dominant business growth attribute that has secondary influences in how the firm deploys its growth model.

Each one of these 6 growth options can be used to increase your firm’s revenue as a whole or a targeted product or service. Understanding the strengths of your current business assets (i.e., human capital, intellectual capital, strategic partnerships, brand perception by targeted prospects, etc.), affects your ability to manage the selected growth strategy correctly.

The key to growth is finding the intersection between your company’s product or service life cycle with your business growth cycle.

When these two business cycles intersect correctly, companies grow. When these two cycles run in opposing positions, company sales become stagnant or decrease.

What business model are you using to grow?

Does it match your current offering life cycle and your company business growth cycle?

If not, you may soon be trying to sell red shoes to blue shoe buyers.

Walter Wise
President
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

Why Most Global 1000 Sales Teams Struggle When Selling to New Accounts

Welcome to the March 20, 2009 edition of BPI News!

Spring is here (at last).  Lets hope winter is really on the way out and warmer weather and melting snow is on the way in.  In this edition, we talk about growing your firm organically.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

Walt

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Why Most Global 1000 Sales Teams
Struggle When Selling to New Accounts

Growing revenues organically instead of through acquisition takes a premeditated approach that most firms struggle with day in and day out. Global 1000 companies struggle with organic growth more than smaller companies because of HR issues that control sales team candidate hiring and compensation plans, rigid corporate structure that prevents flexibility for making decisions, and further impediments caused by Wall Street expectations.

Why did IBM buy PWC Consulting?

Why did Oracle buy PeopleSoft?

Why did HP buy Compaq?

Often, Global 1000 firms find it cheaper to buy market share than to grow market share. Most Global 1000 firms are successful players who have tremendous market share, great product and service offerings, huge cash reserves, and experienced salespeople.

So, why don’t Global 1000 companies just select their top 500 salespeople, put them into a private training session for six months, give them each a $200,000 annual base salary and a two-year sales quota, and say “go get market share from new prospects”?

Because it will not work.

Global 1000 firms believe it is cheaper to buy market share and sales and marketing distribution channels than to win it from the competition by building an outbound sales hunting team that knows how to sell business value instead of brand. Additionally, Global 1000 firms are often the big whale in the ocean and their lack of flexibility forces them to burden their sales teams with excess bureaucracy, channel conflicts with the sales teams of newly acquired companies, and corporate overlays who fight for a small piece of the same pie.

Often, the sales and marketing structure of a Global 1000 firm turns their salespeople into farmers, stifles new account sales growth success, and wastes the capabilities of their experienced sales teams.

But this lack of growth by many Global 1000 firms creates a market gap - for sales teams who are looking to grow top line revenues organically at a lower cost.

How to Beat Global 1000 Firms by Growing Your
Firm Revenue Organically

Here are some of the processes to help grow your firm organically:

1. Measure your net new or key account sales growth. Take the number of Global 1000 accounts you had at the end of last year, add the number of new Global 1000 accounts you have sold this year, and then subtract the accounts you have lost this year to client erosion and lost sales. For example: You had 300 Global 1000 accounts last year, sold 87 new Global 1000 accounts this year, but lost 80 Global 1000 accounts to competition. This gives you a New Account Sales Growth of 7. (300 + 87 - 80 = 307).
2. Study your sales model prototype metrics. If you are trying to organically grow your sales, you need to prototype your buying model based on the historic prospect acquisition characteristics of those who have bought from you before. You want to track average gross margin by industry, buyers’ title, average sales cycle length, etc.
3. Develop a key account pursuit team. To organically grow your sales process, develop a specialized sales team specifically targeting named key accounts within your markets. Create a premeditated approach to win accounts. Don’t just assign individual major accounts to salespeople who are geographically located near the account’s corporate headquarters. (This is the most common pursuit team tactic and an incorrect model.) Instead, create a separate account spearhead team with a separate marketing budget and job responsibilities.
4. Pay salespeople to hunt for organic growth. Salespeople respond to motivational, cultural, and financial incentives that modify behavior. Don’t ask salespeople to sell new prospects if you pay them the same to sell existing customers.
5. To grow organically, focus more on sales, not capabilities. Today more than ever, you can buy delivery capabilities so organic growth will always be tied to the depth of the capabilities of your sales team. When organically growing your firm, recruiting and hiring salespeople is a full-time job.

“Drive thy business or it will drive thee.”
Benjamin Franklin

by Paul DiModica, CEO - Value Forward Network

Walter Wise
President
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com