Moe Revenue

CRO Leadership Matrix

The CRO role – like all executive roles – is a combination of coaching, accountability, motivation and staffing. All too often CRO’s get busy with prospects, customers, and new market opportunities such that the consistency and effectiveness in their leadership role gets set aside. To avoid that mistake, we use a leadership activity matrix in our coaching programs to keep CRO’s on track. This matrix is now available in the Downloads section of our website for those who want to track their own leadership performance.

New Book Edition – Chief Revenue Officer!

I admit to being more than tardy since my last post but the major distraction has been finishing a new edition of the book. Briefly, our reviewers felt the content was more about the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) leadership role in B2B organizations and recommended repositioning the publication for that market segment.  Thus the name change and new cover became part of this edition. It is in stock and available through both our C.R.O Store and Amazon.com. The cover price remains at $19.95.

My best wishes to all of you for a safe and Happy Holiday Season.

Revenue Robots

Part of our Differentiating Value is to help companies identify and hire the right talent for their staffing plan. One consistent leadership error involves hiring a business development “hunter” and not providing an effective on-boarding program. Yes, these candidates are typically very independent in their sales efforts but they are not revenue robots. They still need CRO leadership to guide their successful launch in your business.

Effective CRO’s typically invest 10-20% of their time with new hire talent – more at the front end dealing with performance metrics like new contacts per week, new qualified opportunities per the 4 Aces, etc. It is not a situation where new hunters can’t figure out management’s expectations – they will just launch faster with focused CRO leadership.

Some Levity for Your Day

Cold is a relative thing ya know….

At 65 degrees, Arizonans turn on the heat. People in Minnesota plant gardens.
At 60, Californians shiver uncontrollably. People in Minnesota sunbathe.
At 50, Italian & English cars won’t start. People in Minnesota drive with the windows down..
At 40, Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats. People in Minnesota throw on a flannel shirt.
At 35, New York landlords finally turn up the heat. People in Minnesota have the last cookout before it gets cold.
At 20, People in Miami all die. Minnesotans close their windows.
At 0, Californians fly away to Mexico . People in Minnesota get out their winter coats.
At 10 below zero, Hollywood disintegrates. The Girl Scouts in Minnesota are selling cookies door to door.
At 20 below, Washington DC runs out of hot air. (Ya think? Nah.). People in Minnesota let their dogs sleep indoors.
At 30 below, Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Minnesotans get upset because they can’t start the snowmobile.
At 40 below, ALL atomic motion stops. People in Minnesota start saying…"Cold enough for ya, eh?"
At 50 below, hell freezes over. Minnesota public schools will open 2 hours late.

Top 10 Signs You Are Not Interviewing a Hunter

The top 10 indications you are not interviewing a sales ‘hunter’ (aka business development) when the applicant:

1. Cannot describe a successful sales campaign against a larger competitor in a major new account.

2. Wants to know if the base compensation is upgraded annually.

3. Wants to know more about the benefits program and PTO (paid time off).

4. Asks if travel is required and if overnight stays qualify for comp time off.

5. Expect marketing to provide all the leads.

6. Wants to be measured on proposal quality and number of quoted issued.

7. Wants to know how often s/he has to make quota.

8. Specifically confirms the workday is 8-5.

9. Believes top sales performers are just lucky.

10. Wants to know if quotas can negotiated.

And a bonus 2 for you:

1. Believes quotes are the best way to qualify a new opportunity.

2. Believes quality, service and support are the only ways to grow revenue.

The Key Concept for All Selling

A quick description of Differentiating Value can be heard in this short video interview I did recently with Jeff Fritz for his Accelerator Blog.  There is no more important concept – it is the foundation of all successful selling.  Please take a moment to watch the interview.

Core of Most Business Challenges

One of our clients sent over a quote by Red Adair, a global expert (and Texas legend) in extinguishing oil well fires:

“If you think it is expensive to hire a professional to do the job wait until you hire an amateur.”

That about sums up what goes on in many companies today when it comes to staffing decisions. It doesn’t mean you have to pay the most but it does mean you have to know the template of skills, talents, motivations and behaviors that are critical for success in each position so you can separate amateurs from professionals before you make a hiring decision. If your team doesn’t have the time to do the template and the separation process, give us a call. Without the right people, success if just a virtual concept.

Hello from Asia

I had a chance to catch up on a backlog of unopened emails during a 12+ hour flight from New York to Tokyo last week and decided it was time to speak up about all the “pseudo sales” webinars, seminars and conferences being promoted to the world of Chief Revenue Officers. The number of ‘expert’ events ranging from how to host and deliver a B2B webinar to etiquette for B2B tweeting has simply gone overboard. Sales people today could spend so much time ‘training’ there would be zero time left to even think about making the numbers.

The process of selling (prospecting, qualifying and closing) and the responsibilities of sales management (coaching, accountability, incenting and staffing) have not changed – the tools are advancing but the end game is still the same – make the numbers. These new tools are interesting, some totally entertaining, and the global computer and communications technology industries are enjoying substantial revenue uplifts trying to convince you these are ‘must have’ resources but tools alone won’t make the business successful. Time to get your head out of the ‘cloud’ (yes, another technology must have) and back to the blocking and tackling basics for making the numbers.

Zero Visibility Sales Forecasts Spell Trouble

Here is an article I wrote for the B2B Buzz blog.

An excerpt:

When you take a close look at how companies utilize their sales staffs, there are two clear reasons for Zero Visibility Sales Forecasts:

1. Salespeople are allowed to create their own forecast process
2. The forecast process aligns perfectly with the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Sales Model

Left to their own devices, sales reps will routinely forecast optimistic numbers for business that will most likely never close. This spells revenue roulette for the Chief Revenue Officer.

As they say, please read the entire thing.

Revenue as a System

What is the real benefit of “Revenue as a System” (RaaS)?

The short answer is:  Leadership teams strategize systems – not tactics.

My experience suggests most companies will strategically plan and develop their infrastructure systems (lean manufacturing systems, global IT systems, ISO 9000 systems, etc.) as core assets of the business but invest little time on their revenue processes.  That is not surprising when you consider sales is not a college degree discipline (in sales, you earn your PhD on the street) so the typical planning discussion for sales ends up being a series of tactical decisions like attending more trade shows, increasing promotions, upgrading the web site, adding social networking, etc.   Once leadership teams realize how the 4 core processes of a closed-loop Revenue System can be integrated into a system that actually supports the business vision, the roadmap for growth becomes much less virtual.