As companies look forward to 2014 there are likely many common questions being asked… How much can we grow revenue? How much can we improve our profit margins?
These same questions have been asked by business leaders forever. Unfortunately, they are also likely to be answered in a common way… Hire more sales people! Increase our marketing efforts! Reduce our costs! Introduce New Products! Enter new markets!
Although none of these individual answers are wrong, where they typically fall short is a lack of a coordinated effort to leverage all of them together to achieve the best possible results.
The most important question to ask when there is a desire to grow is…What do we need to do differently?
If you don’t know the answer, you are in the majority. It is also likely true that you don’t have a Demand Generation System in place. A Demand Generation System coordinates your market approach (selling and marketing) and provides a constant feedback loop from the market regarding customer needs, trends, competitive pressures, etc.
That feedback enables you to constantly refine your market approach as necessary to win, and in turn, grow. It also allows you to stop having to ask “What do we need to do differently?”, and move on to more fun questions like “How do we fulfill all of these orders?”