Want to Restart Revenue Growth? Get These 4 Pillars Right

Well, it’s official. The holiday season has begun. We just had Thanksgiving in New York, visiting family, and I was reminded of the “food-to-plate ratio” dilemma. 

What’s that? It’s where there’s too much tempting food available, and it doesn’t all fit on your plate - that dilemma. My plate usually became a collage with a little bit of everything.  And it got me thinking…

Business owners often do the same thing in their work, but it’s not because everything looks appetizing. When things feel a bit stalled - especially revenue growth - it’s just hard to prioritize. 

There are fires to put out. Emails to send. Meetings to attend. The list is always too long.

That’s why if you need the shortest distance between now and reigniting revenue growth, these are the four areas to focus on. Get these right, and you can return to growing the way you want.

1. Get Aligned with Your Ideal Customer

Have you ever put the wrong destination in your GPS? It doesn’t matter how fast you drive or if you hit traffic – you won’t get where you want to go. If we’re being candid, this is a big reason most businesses struggle when they struggle.

I mean they’re trying to grow, but it’s more light than heat. Your progress is in the wrong direction if you’re not aligned with what your ideal (or best for your company) customer wants.

Feels obvious, doesn’t it? So why do so many businesses struggle this way?

Because it’s easy to focus on what you do well, not what your best customer wants most. 

Take a look at your own website. Is it more focused on your features? Or on your ideal customer’s needs?

So, how do you find the answer to this question? It may feel old-fashioned, but I’m a big fan of picking up the phone. Call your best customers. Call industry mentors. Call the kind of person you want to do business with. As far as a system – develop recurring activities that help you gain and keep clarity on this point. Ask them questions like:

1. What critical problem should my business focus on solving for customers (like you)?
2. How does this problem impact your business? How does it limit your success?
3. What would a partnership look like if you could “snap your fingers” and have a provider helping you solve what you most want to solve?  

2. Make Sure Your Marketing is Based on Strategic Priorities

If marketing feels like a necessary (but unproductive) evil, then here’s the approach I recommend. I call it priorities-based marketing.

Marketing will likely be unsuccessful when goals aren’t clear, and strategies get murky. “Why are we even doing this?” This is especially true when you don’t have an unlimited budget. Priorities help you focus your resources and increase your ability to learn from the different strategies and tactics you employ.

Focus on key metrics that aren’t murky. Goals like:

1. Are we growing our audience of ideal prospects? (not just fluff followers)
2. Are we getting engagement from the right kind of people?
3. Are we growing our email list?
4. How many publicity opportunities are we earning in our target industry?

Bottom line: is my investment in marketing activities yielding the strategic results I am seeking?

3. Follow a Repeatable Sales System (Not Just Rainmakers)

If your top salesperson left tomorrow, how long would it take you to recover? 

Any time you lose an “A player,” it takes time to replace their production. That being said, if your sales success depends on having an ace, it makes your long-term growth and stability highly… unstable.

You need a systematic approach to sales that empowers you to quickly onboard new talent and increase your current team's growth.

So, what is a sales system?

A sales system is an organized and efficient way of selling products or services. Imagine it as a step-by-step process to find potential customers, persuade them to buy, and then make the actual sale. It involves everything from identifying leads and reaching out to them to understanding their needs, presenting the product or service, and finally closing the deal. The goal is to have a structured approach that increases the chances of turning interested prospects into satisfied customers. 

Here are a few examples of key benchmarks I like to target to gauge the health of your sales system:

1. Marketing Handoff: Are your inquiries from qualified prospects? 
2. Contact Forms: Are you getting inquiries that go quiet once you reach out?
3. First Meeting: Do you need help getting people on the phone or Zoom?
4. Follow Up: How is your engagement after a meeting? Do you have an established process?

This keeps going as you need it, but you get the ideas.

4. Expand Your Existing Accounts

The hardest sale to make to a customer is the first one. Once someone is a customer and has gotten to know you better, upsells become easier and are essential to revenue growth.

The key is identifying opportunities to add meaningful value to your relationship. Upsells only work as a business model if they offer customers a compelling value proposition.

The challenge? It takes strong relationships to capitalize on upsells. Many owners can imagine potential upsells, but you can hit paydirt when you ask your best customers what they need.

Pick up the phone, or better yet, spend some time face to face. This comes back to aligning with your ideal prospect. Spend some time listening before you start brainstorming.

Better yet, do this regularly. I like to recommend doing this on a quarterly cadence. Systematize it and make it consistent. Set reminders to reach out and identify the most critical questions you want your clients to answer.

We Help You Get Unstuck

Stuck is one of the worst places to be, but it’s not a life sentence. At Value Prop, we help B2B owners between $2M and $20M in revenue identify what’s holding them back and plot the critical path forward.

We use a proprietary Revenue Throughput Analysis that removes the guesswork from getting unstuck—no “secrets” in the secret sauce. You can see exactly how it works and how it will help you.

If you think that would help you, grab 15 minutes on my calendar, and we’ll show you how it works.