Big Innovations Sales Model Consultants Can Help You Dramatically Grow Your Revenue & Profit
- May 14, 2023
- The Big Innovations Team
- Washington, D.C.
OUR EXPERTS CAN SHOW YOU THE MONEY!
Saying you want to grow sales is easy. Upping the forecast above last year's tallies is also easy. Write down that new (higher) number. Then add a percentage on top of it and call the second number a stretch goal. Link sales & company bonuses to both of those numbers. All that is very easy to do.
The challenge then becomes HOW to actually make it happen. While there's often some opportunities for organic growth, the goals that we set (or are thrust upon us) are usually ABOVE those natural lifts.
You may be able to make it anyway, but the BETTER option is to diversify your risk. Engaging some extra expertise- particularly our kind of expertise- can maximize your chances of meeting, beating, even thrashing your numbers. Company bonuses, parties and promotions for a job well done follow.
WHAT GROWTH-MINDED LEADERS SEEK FROM OUR EXPERTS
The typical scenarios that motivate prospective clients to approach Big Innovations (BI) for sales consulting are:
- Sales are trending upwards and they want some help pushing the accelerator: new lead sources, new revenue streams, enhanced products, website development, marketing promotions and/or new tactics, telemarketing lift, sales support, fresh advertising, better business plan, subscription model evaluation, team skills development or just capable, professional horses to execute the overflow projects that can't fit onto anyone's plates.
- Sales are trending downwards, they've tried what they can think of to turn it around and are seeking fresh points of view and new, actionable solutions. "Can an outsider(s) see something that 'we' are missing?" The answer is more likely than not because outsiders can see everything through new eyes, think through it all with brains not biased to the status quo, etc. Try us.
- They've heard about some of the good things we've done for other clients and want expert, high-impact contributions to their business too.
In ANY scenario, we bring great value in our objectivity, yielding a capability to see your business opportunities and problems with a clarity that can't be matched from an insider perspective. We also bring:
- enthusiasm,
- experience,
- professionalism,
- best practices knowledge and
- proven solutions to help with whatever you are trying to accomplish.
Several of our founding partners had lengthy stints in progressive careers, setting all-time records as sales professionals, managers and directors in a diverse mix of companies... and in a variety of industries.
Many fundamental professional sales principles, tactics and model elements apply to ANY situation
On engagement, we step in, quickly evaluate the situation end-to-end, then recommend & implement solutions to fire up revenue growth. It sometimes takes only 1 new, out-of-the-box observation to lead to new sales growth. What if we bring 2? 5? or 10? Note our company name: we're not Little Innovations.
Because it is a bit taller than the maximum clearance, a truck is now thoroughly wedged under a highway bridge. While traffic behind it backs up further & further, a team of the most experienced minds available- engineers, firemen, police officers, etc- are trying their goto solutions to free the truck:
- leverage (crowbars, bigger crowbars),
- various forms of pull (tow trucks, more tow trucks), etc.
- all manner of brute force.
They have become fixated on the most probable resolution theme: more power, more force, need bigger equipment, etc.
This is sometimes called convergent thinking or even tunnel vision: when the team seemingly best equipped to solve a problem (or capitalize on a new opportunity) sees the path to the solution through a narrow lens. It is basically the opposite of "out-of-the-box" thinking because they have aligned on only ONE kind of solution: they are figuratively "IN the box." For this particular problem, this team has converged on applying some form of brute force to free the truck:
- "It is the ONLY way."
- "Our leaders see it as the ONLY option."
- "It must be THE way!"
The growing spectacle draws more and more attention from all around the area. Car horns are blaring. Tempers are rising. Along comes a boy on his bicycle to get a closer look at all of the excitement. 
Cars are backed up for seemingly miles now. Frustrations at not being able to solve this URGENT problem grow:
- Significantly damage the truck? The truck driver does not want that.
- Cut out part of the overpass to free the truck? That will take a long time and be very expensive.
Nothing else seems to be working.
The boy asks: "Why don't you just let the air out of the tires?" ... which they do... dropping the height of the truck enough to quickly resolve the problem.
The boy is no structural engineer or emergency responder. He knows little about bridge (de)construction, towing, principles of leverage and all related force-based approaches.
Of everyone there, he would seem LEAST likely to be able to offer ANY good idea because he lacks relevant expertise: how could this outsider resolve something confounding the best insider minds available... those who deal with many such problems every day?
Nevertheless, he delivers a simple, dirt-cheap and perfectly-effective solution. His key advantage is seeing the situation differently than the group around him. In this scenario, he is a divergent thinker by not "piling on" with the "more force" group-think.
What this classic lesson conveys is an OUTSIDER perspective can view a problem or opportunity in an entirely new way. This may sum up one of the most fundamental reasons why the consulting industry thrives... and why...
Leveraging consultants can lead to "out-of-the-box" solutions that drive new growth or solve "unsolvable" problems.
It's almost never that consultants know more about specific business nitty-gritty than those deeply ingrained in that business: most insiders know their business very well. Instead, the consultant sees the situation through fresh eyes and/or applies something different that has worked for some other client. Their diversity of experience with MANY companies lends itself to breakthrough applications at others.
There's no need to destroy your own truck or jackhammer your bridge. Let our divergent thinkers offer your business a different solution(s).
What if your next big thing is already in OUR heads right now, patiently waiting to be shared with you? All we need to do is ride our bike up to the bridge and see your truck stuck there to quickly solve your problem or maximize a new opportunity.
What if one of our other clients has already resolved something much like your current big problem? Your internal team works for you, so... unlike us... they couldn't be there to see what that client did. They are deeply "IN the box"- your company box- with you. What if you mix in at least one new mind to look at things with you and your team? That guarantees at least some FRESH perspective.
Mixing some divergent thinking with your convergent expertise is always a great idea for any growth-minded company. Fresh perspectives bring fresh ideas. Any one of those could be your 'next big thing.' We make it VERY EASY to try us...
You might be ONE new perspective away from getting your own truck unstuck... or innovating the breakthrough that leads to new sales records.
AN OBJECTIVE & COMPLETE VIEW IS KEY TO MAXIMIZING SALES
Our deep experience is in the growth disciplines...
We offer your company a unique advantage in engaging a team that can take a look at the whole picture for that 360° perspective. Often sales consultants are ONE dimensional, meaning they may indeed have good sales profession backgrounds but that's ALL they are able to draw upon.
Not all issues or opportunities related to revenue growth are centered solely in your sales department.
The ability to look at your ENTIRE sales model end-to-end adds special value to the BI proposition. We can see your opportunities inside the department as well as the external feeder influences that fuel- or limit- revenue growth. This complete view is a strategic advantage over our competitors... a one-stop-shop option for you to also get the extras that may contribute most to the ideal resolution(s).
In trying times for example, companies often jump to a wrong conclusion that salespeople just lose their ability to sell: "Our sales are down and it's their fault."
Skilled professionals never lose their skills overnight. A negative revenue trend is almost always something other than sales professionals suddenly losing their capabilities. BI has the seasoned experience to see beyond the blame game & politics, so that we can correctly frame the problem or opportunity... the crucial first step in divining correct solutions. Department blame games only DELAY getting to the ultimate solution(s).
If a company gives into blame game politics, they may fire salespeople, replace them with new ones and find that revenue trends don't respond. They may even get worse after experienced people were shown the door. This cycle can repeat several times until either:
- the real cause of the problem has the time to somewhat nullify itself,
- the company shifts the blame game to some other department or
- the sales turnover confirms it really was salespeople quitting their function (but not their jobs).
One of the most important things that objective outsiders can do
is draw good intelligence right out of the front lines: the salespeople themselves. We often find a treasure trove of great ways to grow company sales by simply listening to them... individually and as a group.
There is usually a number of minds within the sales team that hold several great ideas which- for one reason or another- have been kept to themselves or ignored. What are some of those reasons?
- Fear.
- Political forces.
- Concern about going against the company spin.
- Some manager once slapped them down (or stole credit for a prior idea) and they've since kept great follow-ups to themselves.
- Etc. There are sooooooo many!
As outsiders, we are no threat to these people or their careers. This seems to feed into their willingness to share their brilliance. Sometimes a whole, great idea comes from one or more of them and sometimes we stitch together a complete recommendation from pieces of a great concept contributed by several of them. The point is that we can apply our expertise to getting the obstacles and opportunities straight from those most in the know about such matters. BI can observe and hear things differently than company insiders.
COMPLETE AN OBJECTIVE EVALUATION WITH CUSTOMER & COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
An ALWAYS-GREAT move is to validate the #1 feeder by going directly to the source of revenue. We often recommend market research in both the customer and competitor dimensions:
- From customers, we can learn invaluable insights into their end of the transactional equation: value proposition, pricing, landscape influences, etc (there are many). This reveals why they are or are not buying, what else they want from your company, what they would pay for those other things, etc. All that can be learned from first-hand customer analysis could fill 20 web pages like this one!
- From competitor analysis, we can identify changes in the marketplace, tactical shifts your competitors are using to take share from you, uniform currents that your company is fighting against... rather than going with a new proven flow, and so on.
Have your competitors made some change to how they are are positioning themselves against your business? Do they have some new tactics that appear to be working well for them? Are they using product or service innovations you could replicate if you knew which ones mattered in buyer decisions? Etc. We can gather/divine all of that marketplace intelligence with/for you.
Among the many benefits a solid research model can provide is an ability to identify quality new lead streams and new revenue sources. We often use the metaphor of fishing in relation to our actionable recommendations for growing company sales. If the lake is largely fished out...
- firing & hiring new fishermen,
- changing the bait,
- increasing the number of lines that are cast,
- etc,
...will NOT result in more fish being caught. Sometimes sales growth requires shifting good fishermen to new ponds stocked with fresh fish. Often a company wanting to grow will indeed over-fish their established ponds, then find fault with their sales team for not continuing to catch new fish anyway. The metaphor is
a good one in that it can help companies think beyond how many lines they have in the same old ponds... so that they get aggressive about (also) finding some new ponds loaded with hungry fish. We can help you find those new ponds!
Big Innovations can bring sales solutions to your company in many ways. These can be fundamental (like increasing revenue-per-salesperson) or organizational (like bringing attention to how changes elsewhere in the overall sales model are affecting the efficiency of your sales process). Our objectivity... our ability to cut through the company spin... our divergent thinking... our diverse experience in all of the growth-side functions of business... etc... gives you the opportunity to capitalize on the stellar solutions you seek ASAP.
Contact us for a FREE CONSULTATION. We would love to help you grow your revenue to all-time records!
