High Revenue Growth Requires a Company-wide Mindset and Effort
While most CEOs seek (or are required to achieve) high growth, the vast majority of companies grow revenue less than 10 percent per year and, for the last 30 years, only one in ten S&P 500 companies grew faster than the GDP. Consistent and profitable high revenue growth does not come easily because it is a company-wide effort that requires an aspirational, thoughtful, and achievable company-wide plan that everyone buys into personally and professionally.
What does it take to become one of the high growth leaders?
4 Fundamental Steps to High Revenue Growth
Unless you have invented the next best new thing that everyone must have, sustainable high growth takes company-wide focus, effort, and perseverance. When achieved, high revenue growth is the engine of success for your people and for your business. It engages your workforce and reinforces your organizational vision and purpose. Here are the 4 main steps to high revenue growth:
- Set the Stage with Strategic Clarity
Our organizational alignment research found that strategic sales clarity accounts for up to 31% of the difference between high and low growth organizations. The first step to high revenue growth is to actively engage all key internal and external stakeholders in the strategy design process to ensure that they have the level of buy-in and commitment required for growth. Everyone should agree that high growth is necessary either to stave off competition, minimize complacency, survive a turbulent time, or to fulfill your company mission and vision.
There is no doubt that sustainable high growth requires high commitment with crystal clear company-wide goals and accountabilities, meaningful rewards, and relevant intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. It also requires making tough choices about how and when to invest in innovations versus optimizing current offerings and capabilities.
Is your high revenue growth strategy clear enough, believable enough, and implementable enough to get you where you want to go?
- Purposefully Shape Your Culture to Drive High Revenue Growth
Organizational culture, how work gets done on a daily basis, exists by design or by default. We believe that it is the responsibility of high growth leaders to shape a high growth culture that fully supports their go-to-market strategy. We know from our organizational culture assessment data that high growth requires a sales driven culture that is healthy, high performing, and aligned enough to help, and not hinder, growth.
To grow, company-wide behaviors, mindsets, and decisions must be growth-oriented; any silo-based mentalities and priorities must be shifted. Business practices and ways of thinking must encourage the reallocation and focus of resources toward a commitment to growth initiatives, a bias toward growth actions, and an intimate understanding of customer needs.
Is your culture helping or hindering your plans for growth?
- Focus on High Growth-Oriented Talent
High growth is not for every leader or for every employee. High growth companies expect and need more from everyone – typically at a faster and more hectic (but also a more opportunistic) pace. High growth companies are typically fast moving, pressure-laden, and everchanging environments.
To make sustainable growth happen, you must proactively and aggressively invest in attracting, onboarding, developing, engaging, and retaining talent that have a growth mindset. You must thoughtfully identify and double down on the skills, knowledge, and motivation required to make high growth happen in both the short- and long-term.
Are your succession planning and talent management strategies geared toward high growth?
- Be Great at Executing Strategy at Speed and Scale
Strategy execution is where the rubber meets the road, where aspiration becomes action. Grand plans without effective execution are pretty meaningless. Strategy execution trumps strategy design every time.
Once you have aligned your culture and talent with your strategy, your next step is to make it as easy as possible to scale. Ensure that every growth initiative is fully understood, supported, and aligned with how people think, behave, and work. Then create the communication, accountability, and support mechanisms to know where you stand, to reward growth-oriented decisions, and to empower people to succeed.
Are you set up to execute your growth strategies quickly enough to take advantage of market opportunities and offset competitive threats?
The Bottom Line
Whether it is based upon necessity or desire, if you make the choice to pursue high revenue grow, be ready to explicitly align your strategy, culture, and talent with your growth aspirations on a daily basis. Have the fortitude to create enough directional clarity and cultural meaning to inspire everyone to strive for more.
To learn more about how to create high revenue growth, download 3 Sales Trends Impacting Your Sales Strategy
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