Are you sick of all the suggested unrealistic New Year’s resolutions yet? Well we just had to join the club. But we’ve come up with 5 SIMPLE resolutions for growth leaders to achieve in 2015.
1. Become a front lines leader not a back office dictator
Whether you’re a sales manager or a CEO, the success of your company will often come with new employees, projects, and responsibilities. It sounds logical to have subordinates take the reigns over their departmental expertise, but too much could remove you from the first hand experience altogether. Spend a day or an hour a week with your sales team to participate in demo’s and introductory sales meetings. You’re likely to get a different perspective from your prospects and internal processes than what the Harvard Business Review article will tell you.
2. Reduce or eliminate “Hail Mary” tactics
Oh yes, the major industry trade show. You’re thinking we HAVE TO exhibit because it’s our industry and that’s what we have always done. Put simply, “if it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense” – unknown. Consider calling an audible in 2015 and double down on something that’s already working or trying something different, such as using that $10k+ to invest in a monthly/quarterly webinar series.
3. Simplify the value proposition
We all like to think we’re REALLY smart and our SOPHISTICATED talk will really wow our prospects. There’s a lot to be said with a really simple message that reminds your customers and prospects why they do business with you or why they invest in your solution. De-clutter your elevator pitch, website, collateral, and content. Focus on ONE message and make it really count in 2015.
4. Be coachable and invest in smart people
As growth leaders, we’re looking for coachable employees. We want our team to be successful and to be open to new strategies and skill sets that we have learned. Great leaders should also be coachable by their employees. After all, if we’re hiring intelligent people then you should want some coaching too!
5. Approach the growth strategy by the numbers
Similar to our “Hail Mary” resolution, this resolution is really about the SMART game plan. The first step to eliminating wasteful strategies is to really understand how each dollar spent is attributed to growth. The game is simple – prioritize the tactics that equal the lowest cost of customer acquisitions (COCA). Manage the numbers through marketing automation and CRM applications…be sure to never have a growth strategy meeting without some data insights to guide the discussion.
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