What should small businesses look at to refine their sales and pipeline process for maximum success? Once that’s identified, how do you actually decide what you need to do and how you need to do it? From our experience here at Nuvem9, it’s not the what, that’s usually the easy bit. Its the how.
I was recently asked a question that got me thinking. What is the difference between a good CEO and a great CEO?
Now there are obviously many ways to answer this, and in some ways it’s quite subjective.
What really got me thinking was considering what the core elements are for a great CEO across the board – and if great CEOs have the balance and freedom in life that many entrepreneurs and small business owners strive for. That’s certainly what we work towards here and what we help our clients achieve.
One core element for me is the ability to condense. Smooth Operator style. Knowing the quickest way to get to the finish line without losing an ounce of quality – and often adding to it along the way.
One of the absolute necessities to be a Smooth Operator is 3 level-deep principle:
- Get quick regular access to the right, accurate data
- Understand how to interpret the data and know what it’s telling you
- Know what action to take to either fix or excel what it’s telling you.
Have you read our other blog all about assessing a revenue forecast for small business owners? (Here’s it is if you missed it).
Well, in that blog we promised you phase 2, and here it is.
If you don’t know how to interpret a Management Accounts pack – we’re all about deciphering the accounting jargon – I felt with the current climate of revenue and cash flow concerns in small businesses, it would be an opportune time to share what a sales revenue forecast review looks like.
“Data will talk to you if you’re willing to listen”
Jim Bergeson
Let’s take action
Having completed your analysis in part 1, now it’s time to take decisive action to learn from what you have learnt and observed.
Here are some examples of how you can do that in your business right now:
1. Market Conditions
Observation: Economic downturn in your sector is impacting consumer behaviour, or changes in market dynamics is leading to lower-than-expected revenues.
Action: Conducting fresh, thorough market research and adjusting / tweaking your sales strategies accordingly to diversify product offerings, focus on other geographical new markets, or invest in marketing campaigns to stimulate demand.
2. Competitive Pressure
Observation: Intense competition is placing pressure on prices, eroding market share and impacting revenue growth.
Action: Focus on your service deliverability and enhancing customer service. Conduct competitive analysis to identify strengths and weaknesses relative to competitors and formulate strategies to gain a competitive edge.
3. Internal Issues
Observation: Internal factors such as operational inefficiencies or workforce challenges are hindering revenue generation.
Action: Review what processes may need streamlining and how; investing in employee training, development and wellbeing. Aim to foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement to proactively flag and address these issues in the future should they arise.
4. Service Problems
Observation: Issues with service quality, performance, or relevance to customer needs is leading to reduced sales.
Action: Ask for (and listen to!) customer feedback and use it to iterate and improve services.
5. Sales & Marketing Execution
Observation: Ineffective sales and marketing strategies, poor campaign execution, or insufficient lead generation efforts is resulting in lower-than-expected revenues.
Action: Dig into the data analytics to review trends that will allow you to optimise marketing campaigns, improve sales forecasting accuracy, and identify areas for sales team training and development.
6. External Factors
Observation: Macro factors are playing a part by impacting even your best and well defined sales strategy. Review any events that may have impacted the month from regulatory changes, natural disasters, or geopolitical events.
Action: Assess any possible impact such events may have had and more importantly will continue to have and respond and adjust accordingly; they fall firmly into “you cannot change them” territory so be fast and flexible to adjust.
Refine & Learn
As we move forward into March and Q2 thereafter, the lessons learned from January should be fed back into the customer journey and sales strategy to learn, refine and strive for even greater success.
Remember, each month offers new opportunities for growth and improvement. A focus on the data will ensure that you are making the right decisions with the analysis supporting them.
If you are interested in finding out more about improving your Monthly Management Accounts packs or our CFO Reporting and Advisory services, please reach out to speak to us to find out what it can help with in your revenue, sales generation strategies and cash flow.
Helping leaders and businesses drive growth
Here at Nuvem9, we do things a bit differently – we’re not your traditional accountants or CFO Partner.
We utilise our 50+ years of combined knowledge and experience, leverage technology and proven methodologies in a proactive approach to provide the best guidance and support that spans your whole business.
We work with our portfolio of clients to utilise their finances, operations, data and people to maximise their potential and build robust foundations and resilience into their business model towards stability and growth.
Get in touch for a free no-obligation chat with one of our experienced team to explore how we can support your accounting, financial planning and business strategy or find out more about our story.
Main Image Credit: Photo by Afif Ramdhasuma on Unsplash
