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Hiring The Best Sales Athletes
The principal driver of sales productivity is the quality of an organization’s salespeople. The best sales strategies slide into oblivion without strong salespeople. No sales management theory, practice or system can make up for having less than the...
How to Cut Duty Cost and Increase Profit as an Importer
Import duties continue to be significant elements in the cost of international trade. Yet many companies and businesses still pay more duties than the law requires – which impacts adversely on landed cost and ultimately on business...
Riding The Sales Rollercoaster
Riding the Sales Rollercoaster By Mark Wardell
It's one of the biggest frustrations in business. One month
you're busier than you've ever been, and the next month you're
wondering if you'll make payroll. Why is it that so many
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The Millionaire's Favorite Author
YOU WON'T FIND W.G. HILL ON ANY BEST SELLER LISTS, BUT IT'S HARD TO FIND A MILLIONAIRE WHO HASN'T READ MOST OF HIS $100 "SPECIAL REPORTS".
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The Traits Of Great Sales Leaders
The key to sales performance is the quality of an organization’s salespeople. That includes, and starts with, having a great sales leader. But, what makes a great sales leader? There isn’t a single extraordinary defining characteristic. But, there...
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Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business - A Book Summary
This article is based on the following book:
Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business
"10 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning"
By Ram Charan
Published by Crown Publishing Group, 2004
ISBN 1-4000-5152-5
198 pages
The days of ruthless downsizing and drastic cost cutting are long gone. Nowadays, companies have realized that the best way to earn profit is only through growth – profitable growth. In this book, author Ram Charan provides 10 tools anyone can use to hurdle obstacles and achieve profitable growth.
These tools are:
1. Revenue growth is everyone’s business, so make it part of everyone’s daily work routine.
2. Hit many singles and doubles, not just home runs.
3. Seek good growth and avoid bad growth.
4. Dispel the myths that inhibit both people and organizations from growing.
5. Turn the idea of productivity on its head by increasing revenue productivity.
6. Develop and implement a growth budget.
7. Beef up upstream marketing.
8. Understand how to do effective cross-selling (or value/solutions selling).
9. Create a social engine to accelerate revenue growth.
10. Operationalize innovation by converting ideas into revenue growth. One of the most critical points discussed is the need for re-orientation of thinking. Most
businessmen and executives think about growth as “home-runs” and more often than not disregard the “singles
and doubles”. Managers often look forward to the big breakthrough or the grand new product without realizing
that home runs don’t happen everywhere – sometimes, they
don’t even happen in a decade.
Instead of aiming for that one grand home run, aim for singles and doubles. This is a surer and more consistent
path. Of course, it is important to note that while aiming for singles and doubles, one should not exclude
home runs. These singles and doubles come from an in-depth analysis of ALL the fundamentals of a business.
Another factor to be considered is the difference between good growth and bad growth. Managers should dispel the
myth that growth in whatever form is a victory. Although growth (both good and bad) builds revenue, only good
growth increases not only revenues but also improves profits and is sustainable over time.
Bad growth, on the other hand, lowers shareholder value. Unwise mergers and acquisitions are examples of bad
growth. Price cutting to gain market share without cutting costs can also be detrimental to your company’s health.
Here are some questions that can help you diagnose whether or not you are part of a growth business:
1. What percentage of time and emotional energy does the management team routinely
Associated Websites
devote to revenue growth?
2. Are there just exhortations and talk about growth or is there actually follow through?
3. Do managers talk about growth only in terms of home runs? Do they understand the importance of singles and doubles for long-term, sustained organic growth?
4. How much of each management team member’s time is devoted to making effective visits with customers? Do
they do more than listen and probe for information and then try to “connect the dots”?
5. Does the management team come into contact with the final user of your product?
6. Are people in the business clear about what the specific future sources of revenue growth will be? Do they know who is accountable?
7. Would you characterize your company or business unit’s culture as cost cutting or growth oriented? If the answer is one or another you need to start doing both. Do people in leadership positions have the skill, orientation, and determination to grow revenues?
8. Does the company practice revenue productivity? Does it think through whether there are ways to more effectively use current resources to generate higher revenues?
9. How well does your sales force extract intelligence from customers and other players in the marketplace? How well is this information communicated and acted on by other parts of your organization, such as product development?
10. How good are the upstream marketing skills- that is, the ability to segment markets and identify consumer attributes- in your business?
About the Author:
Ram Charan is coauthor of the landmark Fortune article "Why CEOs Fail" and an adviser on corporate governance,
CEO succession, and strategy implementation. He was named as Best Teacher by Northwestern's Kellogg School and as a top-rated executive educator by Business Week. He is
author of Boards at Work, coauthor of Every Business Is a Growth Business, and a frequent contributor to Harvard
Business Review. (6/2000)
By: Regine P. Azurin
Regine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.
http://www.bizsum.com
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Wisdom In A Nutshell
About the Author
Regine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.
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