Are You Capable of Growth
Is your company capable of organic growth? According to an IBM Business Consulting Survey, 80% of the CEO's surveyed identified growth as their number one priority, however 90% of those CEO's believe their companies are not capable of growth because they are neither responsive to the changing conditions nor nimble enough to pursue new markets.
When our US manufacturers were threatened by a low cost global workforce, we reengineered our operations and became more efficient or more capable to compete. If we want to increase our growth capability perhaps we need to reengineer how we sell and market!
As an example, let's look at a company who is leading the new age marketing - Google. Can you remember where you first heard about Google? Did you get a direct mail from Google? Did a telemarketer call you at dinner time to tell you about the advantages of Google? How about a national ad campaign during the Super Bowl? No, it grew very quickly through the internet's version of word of mouth, called viral marketing. I heard about Google at a seminar from the speaker, who suggested that we try this new search engine because it was intuitive to your questions and very fast. Let me rephrase - it saves time and thinks like the customer!
That's Google - So what is a small to mid-sized company to do? Rethink the way that you go to market. If you are using the same methods (direct mail, ads, cold calls, etc) you are not being innovative enough to stand out from the crowd like Google! In other words, you are not capable of growth.
The old school sales and marketing would come in and ask: What differentiates your product or service from the competition? Who are the decision makers (usually the one signing your quote - not the users)? What do they need to know about our product or service (Feature and Benefits)? These are all great questions and need to be reviewed during the sales process. However, the problem with all these questions is that they are all reactive to a sale not proactive toward growth.
With all the money spent on sales management, sales training firms and sales books; our salesforce is well prepared to competitively close deals. Where we fail is when we take that same salesforce with the same sales process to market to new customers!
Sales and marketing are one in the same! BIG MISTAKE! They are two different disciplines that need to be tightly integrated but not always by the same person or skillset. Until you realize this you will not have the capability of growth. Marketing needs it's own process to collect and analyze intellectual data in order to create a reputation in the market that generates leads for the salesforce. This allows you to keep your salesforce selling - focused on top prospects but armed with market material and data that reflect the needs of the customer not product gibberish.
IMF Predicts Slow Growth For Africa - Voice of America
BBC News IMF Predicts Slow Growth For Africa Voice of America - Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to slow from 6.5 percent in 2007 to six percent in 2008 and 2009, according to Antoinette Sayeh, ... Visit-Montenegro.com : Growth of the GDP will Slow Down IMF worsens inflation, but improves 2008 GDP growth forecast for ... IMF predicts seven per cent growth for India in 2009 -UN says credit crisis could enable "green growth" - Reuters UK
New York Times UN says credit crisis could enable "green growth " Reuters UK, UK - "The credit crisis can be used to make progress in a new direction, an opportunity for global green economic growth ," de Boer, who heads the Bonn-based UN ... World urged to use financial crisis to shift toward green future