I would assess my business model success. If we had not grown our top line revenues 20% to 25% year over year (with corresponding profitability) from new business from new prospects, I would change my business model immediately to correct our operating success inefficiencies.
To adjust this process I would:
- Determine the demographic characteristics of my most likely buyer
- Assess why my buyers buy
- Assess why my buyers don’t buy
- Assess my operations, development and project team’s abilities to maximize my client’s value perception of our offerings
- Calculate what my marketing cost per lead is
- Determine how many marketing leads it takes to generate one qualified proposal
- Build a marketing and messaging campaign around why my most likely buyer should buy
- Have my marketing department reach out monthly and touch each targeted prospect using multisensory communication devices to build trust, provide thought leadership and educate the buyer
- Train my sales team on how to be hunters – not allowing them to be farmers
- Focus our selling efforts on management – not on lower-titled professional lookers
- If my sales team’s closing ratio from proposal is less than 33%, I would retrain my sales team
- I would identify new blue ocean and market gap opportunities and launch a new offering or professional service
- I would let go any team member who had been in our company longer than two years and who is performing below the standard of performance I need
However, I am not your CEO – so what would they do?
