How Revenue Capture Strategies Help Business Growth
Posted on August 12, 2013 by Rick Erling, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.
Is your revenue and profits not where you want or need it to be? Are you still running your business the same way as you did last year?
Virtually every start-up, small or medium sized company is driven by a tenacious CEO or owner that is the visionary, focusing on the future and guiding the company’s direction and success. As their businesses grow, it’s not unusual for these firms to have sophisticated revenue strategy challenges like large companies. While they’re ultimately responsible for growing efficient, predictable, revenue faster, today’s CEOs have less and less time to devote to it.
Further complicating the problem is that VP’s of Sales, VP’s of Marketing and Operations teams have created silos of activity that don’t recognize holistic revenue growth. As a result, CEOs are appointing “Chief Revenue Officers” (CROs)—executives specifically tasked with creating, communicating, executing, and sustaining a company’s strategic revenue initiatives and business growth.
If your business is growing, there’s a good chance your Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) needs are expanding in proportion. Fortune 500 companies have long afforded Chief Revenue Officer services to improve revenue capture strategies, business process efficiencies and create competitive advantages.
Forbes Magazine calls the Chief Revenue Officer, the CEO’s new secret weapon. A recent report by the Harvard Business Review and CBS News sums it up best as to why you need a revenue focused strategy executive; "Ensure corporate strategy gets translated into action, communicate strategy to people throughout the organization and help them see how their work supports it, ride herd on change initiatives needed to carry out strategy, and make sure decisions at all levels align with business growth strategic objectives. Hire a CRO, and you help your senior team deliver faster, better decisions while building world-class revenue capture capabilities throughout your company.
A recent Frost & Sullivan CEO survey, found that many CEOs don’t believe in their current revenue model, by which 80 percent of CEOs did not have confidence in their organizations’ abilities to achieve above industry-average sustainable growth rates. The reason frequently lies within their sales and marketing operations, which tend to be disconnected.
Revenue capture is a company responsibility, not just that of the sales teams. A CRO must be able to see and clearly communicate the game plan – or in this case the revenue capture strategy – across all sales, marketing, and strategy functions and monitor the results with financial metrics as the team executes. He must also focus the team on executing the right goals with metrics, compensation and promotions tied to holistic results, not just to emotions.
For many growth businesses, hiring a full-time CRO is not financially feasible. So there are many start-up, small and medium sized business owners that don’t have a trusted adviser to help them formulate their growth strategies.
The Balanced Scorecard Report finds “90% of companies fail to execute their business growth strategies.” The Association for Strategic Planning Conference finds “Only 25% of managers have their initiatives linked to company strategy.” The most alarming fact may be that depending on which study you read, they indicate that sales professionals spend only 10 – 50 percent of their available time actually selling, and the remainder of time trying to figure out what to do. It goes without saying that companies without a Chief Revenue Officer are at a competitive disadvantage.
This often means that the CEO or the owner of the business needs the expertise of a senior strategy executive. An outsourced Chief Revenue Officer provides an affordable alternative for businesses that need an expert to drive revenue strategy without the significant cost and commitment associated with hiring full-time employees.
A separate set of eyes means you can focus on your core business. The Chief Revenue Officer is a visionary ‘revenue architect’ who is accountable to identify the activities that lead to revenue and for driving better integration and alignment between all revenue-related areas – namely, corporate strategy, sales and marketing and financial metrics. They will develop business growth strategies in regards to how to grow more profitable and how to remain competitive. The CRO will helm your companies’ strategic initiatives and turn strategy into action and visions into reality.
It’s an affordable solution for start-up, small and mid-sized firms. Every company, regardless of size, can benefit greatly from the services of a Chief Revenue Officer. However, many start-up, small and mid-size businesses lack the necessary budget to add a full time CRO to staff. That places the burden of business growth strategies and revenue capture directly on the owners. The problem is that most business owners lack the expertise and time to handle such responsibilities. This is why the Wall Street Journal and many other business publications are touting the advantages of part time C-level services, which are far less costly than hiring a full time CRO.
Focus on taking your business growth to the next level, knowing that your tough strategy decisions are being expertly addressed. The Business Growth U.S. CRO approach to your business is holistic. Our 360-degree focus ensures a fluid operation in which all elements support each other and cycle forward seamlessly. Your CRO will integrate sales, marketing, financial management and strategy milestones into one singular outbound premeditated program to increase company revenue.
Reduce costs significantly by avoiding the salaries, benefits, bonuses and other perks often required to attract and retain an in-house CRO. Business Growth U.S. clients benefit from our services in a number of significant ways. CEOs achieve higher levels of understanding that support better business decisions. They move from reactive to proactive stances and gain greater control. CROs get through burdensome special projects to see complex requirements addressed on time. These benefits – derived from identifying opportunities, defining solutions, and taking action – far outweigh the costs and risks of delay. Ultimately, Business Growth U.S. CRO services deliver improved performance that results in greater profitability and enhanced business value.
