3 Biggest Mistakes CEOs Make Executing their Growth Strategy
An organization may have a VP of Sales or some other top of the sales department title, but the CEO is really the head of the Sales Organization. The CEO sets the objectives for the company and the sales leadership is supposed to execute.
The Growth Strategy may not be achieved when the plan is not Execution Ready. This can happen across all departments. When there is a new Sales Development plan to be rolled out we see several problems that occur, but the big three are:
- Sales people are trained before front-line sales managers.
- Sales leadership is not held accountable for Sales Objectives.
- The entire sales team is not measured or evaluated as to their abilities to execute.
It is not uncommon for a CEO to rely on the sales leadership to develop the plan, metrics and dashboards; after all he or she is getting paid to do so. Consider these recent statistics from the Objective Management Group, 68% of companies claim to have a Sales Process, but 9% of Sales People actually use the Sales Process. Sales Leadership may be controlling the narrative with the CEO and not able to execute. Not with any malice, but just cannot execute.
#1: Let’s train our sales people, says the sales leadership. Sales training is great. The Sales Managers who have to hold the sales people accountable are rarely trained separately or first. The sales managers are the CEOs front line officers for driving the sales activities that are aligned with the organization’s growth strategy, yet they are often not given the tools and training required to do their job effectively.
#2: In our opinion the CEO is the head of the sales organization. He or she does not need to direct the team on a daily basis, but they need to see leading indicator data; NOT results data. The CEO should be able to review monthly reports that tract sales activity that have impact on the sales objectives. This data might not be what “we have always reviewed.” There is Pre-Work sessions needed to create alignment of goals, resources, cross-functional teams, sales activities and dashboards with the CEO’s Growth Strategy.
#3: Measure and evaluate the sales team against a standard. Here is fun exercise, review this data and compare your team. Do you have the right people on the team? 6% of sales people are Elite. Less than 15% are good. The CEO needs to know the capability of the entire organization top to bottom. Not necessarily to make changes, but to understand strengths, weaknesses, and the hidden weaknesses that mitigate a sales person’s strengths.
The evaluation needs to at least answer these four questions:
- Can we be better?
- How much better can we be?
- What will it take to be better?
- How long will it take?
The CEO needs an execution ready strategy for each department, but it is essential for revenue growth.
Is your growth strategy working? If you would like to discuss if you sales organization is ready for 2019, click here to schedule a 30-minute discussion, not a sales pitch.
