Grow long or grow quick, what’s right for you?
We were in conversation with a client last week about their growth challenges.
As they were describing them, it struck us that they were not clear on whether they wanted their team to focus on finding growth in the short or long term. Which meant their teams weren’t clear either.
Now you may be thinking that they have to choose one or the other in order to have focus and do it justice. We would contend however that you CAN do both well, it’s just about how.
For clarity’s sake, what we’re talking about here is:
Grow Long: putting in place plans, investment and behaviours now that will reap long term and sustainable future growth
Grow quick: deploying tactical interventions and support that increase the chances of winning now and for the rest of the year
We think there is room for both but it requires focus and discipline. Because there are challenges. Big challenges. In getting both right.
We think it’s worth it though. The pots at the end of these short and long rainbows will be full of happy clients and profitable work if you get these approaches right.
We’ve picked out six of the most common challenges clients are telling us about right now, to show you you’re not alone in this fight for long and quick growth, and to give you some ideas on where to start.
Growing Long
As exciting and necessary as growing quick? Some may think not, but it most definitely is.
Before we outline the three challenges we’ve chosen in this space it’s important to remember that, by definition, these challenges will take time to overcome. You’ve got to start somewhere though, so we’ve included how to do exactly that for each one.
Challenge 1: Moving back from transactional to close client relationships
Not doing so means: Lower proposal values, less client knowledge leading to less opportunity spotting, and even the potential commoditizing of your offer
The pandemic didn’t do a huge amount to help client service people build closer ties with their clients. Sure, there might have been the occasional openness on Zoom or Teams where a personal situation was shared or a cat showed their whiskers. But the increased structure of the working day, fixed and shorter meetings, mostly virtual contact and the task-focused nature of these conversations have all contributed to a watering-down of client relationships.
Get started: Build closeness back in near the start of a meeting by asking your client if the scheduled amount of time is still ok for them. Shows instant consideration and lack of self-orientation. Win-win.
Challenge 2: Increasing the Life Time Value (LTV) of your clients
Not doing so means: Lack of a strong contact network within client organization, lower opportunities to scale and cross-sell, may get pigeon-holed, may move more towards transactional relationship
Once a client has decided to work with you, some of the focus needs to rightly shift towards delivering what you promised and delivering it well. If you are to retain that client though, and increase their value to your business, focus also needs to be pointed at how you proactively expand what you’re doing with the client over time.
Get started: If you’re already working with a client, think about where you/your service is having an impact, then ask your contact if another part of the business would benefit from this type of work. This is the start of scaling what you do.
Challenge 3: Getting your forecasting in order
Not doing so means: Can’t resource plan effectively, can’t justify additional recruitment/marketing/spend in general, firefighting all the time, the pressures leak out to clients, you may get micro-managed until you do
We get it. Forecasting can be a chore and feel quite exposing. If you haven’t got one in place already then it will take some time and effort to get one up and running.
Thing is, you have to have one in order for your working world to run more smoothly. For you to be able to point at evidence that justifies what you want to invest in. To be able to plan out your resource across the year so you don’t feel like the whole team is constantly firefighting. To align with your client’s plans so that you’re working in harmony.
Big benefits.
And the good thing is that nobody’s expecting your forecast to be 100% accurate. Some research we found shows commercial leaders are within 10% of forecast over half the time. Getting close to that level means a feeling of control of your own destiny and enhanced team motivation.
Get started: Choose a forecasting method. Commit. Then share with your team and agree how you’re going to operate it. Stress honesty when applying likelihoods, and rigour when you/they know a deal needs to be taken out of the forecast.
Growing quick
You’re likely already spending time and energy on this and seeing some rewards. Problem is, whenever there’s pressure, the focus often shifts purely to growing quick. An over-emphasis in fact. It also can lead to you self-sabotaging your ability to hit target, as often that exact pressure encourages focus on all the wrong things.
There needs to be a balance in your commitment between long and quick.
That’s for later though. This is an action-focused blog, to help you get started addressing your challenges. These are three of the ones we hear about from our clients that they are looking to sort out now.
Challenge 1 – Getting more reactive briefs coming in
Not doing so means: Reduced proposal volumes and revenue, lower market awareness, higher pressure on proactive go-to market channels
We can’t think of a single client we work with who doesn’t have this problem. In fact, we’re working with lots of companies right now to help them support their client-facing teams in addressing this issue in a way that works for them and their clients.
But why is it happening in the first place?
Lots of reasons – more competition, less spending, economic reasons. The one though that we think has one of the biggest influences on this however, is that your clients and potential clients are doing most of the supplier decision-making away from you. They are only coming into the market when they’ve whittled the potential number of suppliers down to 2 or 3. So you may not even be aware of this happening. But where you have unwittingly made it to the final 2 or 3, your chances of winning it are likely higher. The question is, how do you position yourself to be one of those finalists more often?
Get started: Enhance your brand awareness. Yes, it’s a longer-term solution to an immediate challenge, but you’ve got to become top-of-mind more if you’re to receive more briefs in this channel.
Challenge 2 – Converting more of the briefs you get
Not doing so means: Inefficient commercial processes
You and your team have done all the hard work, be it through building your brand awareness or going out and finding opportunities that result in a client brief.
A proposal is written and sent. It’s followed up a few days later. Then again a few days after that. Then again.
Sometimes it’s good news, such as tweaking it a little bit or answering a few objections. It’s maybe even a full-blown ‘yes’!
Other times the follow-ups lead to nothing. No replies, or a terse ‘I haven’t read it yet’, and ultimately a no. This, you believe, seems to be happening more than it should be. What can you do about it?
The good news here is that you can do quite a lot, and do it quickly.
Get started: A couple of things to help you here, as there are a couple of areas to help in:
In the proposal – Does it meet the three S’s clients want now? Simple to understand, simple to socialize, simple to implement your solution? Test all your proposals using these. And do it from the client’s perspective
In the follow-up – Keep client-focused. Following up nearly always becomes a you-centric stage. ‘Emailing to find out if you have read the proposal…’ is classic self-orientation. Might as well add-on ‘…so I can adapt my forecast/hit target’! Keeping it client-centric means exactly that. Have they got all the info they need? Everything clear? Are you offering to help them in any way get it across the line?
Two simple Grow Quick steps to try out straight away. Go on, get your team to give them a go.
Challenge 3: Need to keep winning but at a more profitable level
Not doing so means: Less investment across all functions, lower future growth, lower competitiveness
Inflation is the bain of many at the moment. It’s a struggle to make sure all links in the chain are connected to keep businesses in the black.
You’ve got rising staff costs, recruitment costs, production costs, procurement costs
You’ve got declining asset value, cash value and general spending power
Plus, you’ve got a market where there are fewer reactive briefs coming through the door, you may need to invest in changing how you support your buyer’s journey and clients looking to cut costs.
Ouch.
The one ray of light in this situation is that all your competitors are facing exactly the same problem. How do you rise above the rest and get on the front foot?
Get started: Get your teams using the word ‘you’ more in their client conversations.
This is the easiest way to get everyone to focus on value, which is the ultimate profit-saving deliverable.
Your team must deliver value, gain evidence of value/impact delivered, and also find out what value looks like to their client contacts. Not just to their client business, but to their individual contacts. That is what will elevate you in the minds of your buyers as the supplier of choice.
That’s why it’s so important for them to use ‘you’:
‘What’s important to you in the next few months?’
‘What do you want to see from this project, specifically?’
‘What are your priorities to fix?’
These kinds of questions encourage clients to be more open about their own ambitions and priorities. When you know that and deliver to it, you’ll become more sticky and have fans inside your client’s business that will fight to work with you again.
Grow long, grow quick, do both. Would love to hear from you if you found this helpful and what you’re prioritizing now. Best of luck.