The Key to Growth Isn’t More Sales

Despite 8+ years of solid economic growth, both in the US and abroad, most businesses are not consistently growing topline revenues and sales, much less growing profitably.

Every business needs to grow, and every C-suite executive makes the same fateful mistake: Assuming a new growth officer, sales team or business development strategy will single-handedly kick-start the company’s revenue growth trajectory.

The key to growth isn’t more sales. Period.

The key to growth is actually to CREATE DEMAND for your product.

Let’s be real: Even average sales professionals can be successful when they sell a product or service that’s in demand. Conversely, the BEST sales leaders won’t achieve their goals if there is no demand for what they are selling. And what’s worse is when talented sales executives eventually end up separating from companies because there isn’t reliable demand for the brand, product or service.

Business growth is the byproduct of three things:

1.) Having a superior product or service;

2.) Understanding how to differentiate the company’s brand in a crowded marketplace;

3.) Implementing a consistent demand generation engine.

Developing a great product or service and differentiating a brand in a crowded marketplace takes time, patience and persistence. These tasks are not easily accomplished. However, implementing a consistent demand generation engine can accelerate growth, even when a product is still evolving from good to great or the company hasn’t successfully differentiated its brand in the marketplace.

The good news: Building a consistent demand generation engine is easy to implement.

So, if it is so easy, why isn’t every company doing it? It’s because executives can be impatient and overlook two simple words: Consistent and Engine.

• Consistent: We’re not talking about a tradeshow spree, an advertising campaign, a market blitz or even a standard lead generation program. Generating demand requires the consistency achieved through implementing a program that never stops – ultimately producing ongoing demand.
• Engine: Demand generation is not a program. It’s an engine. A demand generation engine POWERS growth. It fuels the top line.

The best sales executives know that their success has as much to do with the demand for their product as well as their own abilities. That’s why they choose to join brands who offer the products or services that buyers want.

At the same time, an average sales professional can become successful when demand is high because selling is easier. Nothing ignites sales performance faster than an abundance of qualified leads consistently flowing in.

Another benefit to building a consistent demand generation engine is that it’s a lot easier to identify top sales performers, as they will be the ones to quickly convert leads into sales, rather than complaining about lead quality.

No accomplished salesperson wants to be asked why they haven’t converted leads when other members of the sales team have. Tracking lead conversion, by sales person is just as important as tracking overall lead quality.

Build a demand generation engine requires 3 steps.

So, how do you create a consistent demand generation engine? We recommend three steps:

1. Grow awareness by dramatically increasing website traffic. Statistically, only about 2 percent of the prospects that visit your website are likely to purchase. No one will buy from you if they don’t know you exist. So, if you want to increase sales by 10 percent, you need to increase web traffic by 200 percent.
2. Generate interest by authentically promoting your value rather than trying to sell your product’s features. Focus on relaying how the product solves the prospect’s problems and, therefore, adds value, rather than trying to sell something.
3. Drive conversion by cultivating a relationship with prospective customers. Studies show that it takes greater than 12 interactions with a brand before a prospect makes a purchase. You can increase the number of interactions by cultivating these relationships. Some effective techniques include:

• • Giving away something of value
  • Preparing useful content that highlights your values
  • Willingly share this information with prospects through insightful DRIP campaigns 

Stop selling. Start generating demand.

Is your company experiencing stagnant growth? Do prospects recognize your brand and the value it provides compared to the competition? Do they know how your products and services solve their problems? If the answer to any of these questions is no, it’s time to reevaluate the efficacy of your demand generation strategy and we can help.

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