Sales And Marketing: Growth’s Largest Catalyst
Sales and Marketing: Growth’s Largest Catalyst
Many businesses, especially within the technology space, grow without investing significant resources into sales and marketing. Despite the lack of a repeatable, scalable customer acquisition processes, entrepreneurs can get by leveraging personal relationships, word of mouth, or by depending on key talent to operate.
A non-structured model will impair the long-term value of your business. Failing to invest in sales and marketing optimization will create a blockade for growth. Getting to $10m in revenue is an arduous task, but the journey to $100m+ is near impossible without a working distribution formula.
There is no singular answer for sales and marketing success as every business is unique. A commonality among the top performing technology companies is a refined, efficient distribution model. An experienced partner with industry insight can shed light on best practices and technologies to best replicate market leaders.
Deciding on the right marketing and sales model is a massively important decision for any management team. A metric-driven approach is imperative to refine your model over time. Here are some questions we believe entrepreneurs should be asking themselves when they think about sales & marketing:
- What is the correct messaging for my marketing campaign?
- What are the right channels to spend marketing dollars on?
- Who are the decision makers I need to be targeting?
- What metrics do I need to pay attention to?
- How do I qualify leads? What resources do I dedicate?
- How important is thought leadership in validating my solution?
- What is the right mix of business development versus closing? Do I need to stand up different teams?
- What is the right persona for a new sales hire?
- How does compensation drive behavior? Does this behavior drive business value?
- Should I target specific client verticals or horizontals?
- What is my sales velocity? Does it matter?
- How should I track and maintain an efficient pipeline?
- What is my technology stack? Do I need to be spending money on best-of-breed software / services to drive operational improvements?
- Is an “on the ground” presence needed in key customer geographies? Is it worth the cost?
Working with an experienced board/partner is a great way to iterate & improve practices on an ongoing basis. A metric-driven approach can help you quantify the ebb & flow of your organization as you track goals. Investing in establishing your process early is the best way to lay the foundation for future growth & value.