Every company wants to hit its revenue goals. It’s the primary measure of success along with profit.
When top-line sales numbers are going up every month, most business issues are easily solved. But when that number is flat or declining, there are often bigger issues that can be traced back to a lack of a systematic approach.
While most companies have systems for hiring, purchasing, operations, and delivery, they rarely have a system for revenue growth. And, ultimately, that is the secret to scalable growth: a revenue generation system that integrates marketing, sales, and technology.
Marketing
Your business needs a consistent flow of leads. The more quality leads you generate, the faster your company can grow. However, many businesses rely on referrals and organic lead flows. While those are good sources, there’s no process for producing them. It’s not predictable, reliable, or scalable.
Marketing must be fueled by strategy. The basis for that strategy is the answers to core business questions: Who are you targeting? What are you communicating to them? What are you saying that your competitors can’t say? How do you get them excited about your company?
As you explore the answers, go deeper into next-level questions to develop a holistic marketing strategy that:
- Defines how many leads you need and the investment required to deliver them – these have to be aligned
- Establishes the right tactics to deploy
- Maps campaigns to run across multiple channels
- Leverages the right people with the expertise and skills to pull it all together
But no matter how strong your strategy is, marketing alone won’t generate revenue.
Sales
Once leads start coming in, your sales team must continue the conversation, advising and guiding them through the back half of the buyer journey.
For historically reactive sales teams accustomed to engaging with ready-to-close leads, becoming proactive with leads still exploring options can be a challenge. They need to quickly identify if a prospect is a good fit and qualified to continue in the sales process.
For qualified leads, your reps will need to diagnose what they need, want, and care about. It requires asking the right questions to uncover their pain and help you design recommendations that align with that pain.
It’s a methodology that takes practice and skill, and it should be baked into a documented sales process that everyone is trained on and follows.
Technology
The complexity of today’s revenue efforts can’t be done manually. It requires a technology platform that spans marketing, sales, and customer service.
This platform should:
- Automate key aspects of marketing and sales
- Provide data-driven insights into performance
- Give sales a place to document all activities with prospects
- Help identify sales-ready opportunities
- Reinforce the sales process, reminding reps of upcoming tasks
- Give managers insight into all interactions with active leads
- Free reps to spend more time talking to leads and less time in the CRM
Tools like HubSpot are designed for companies trying to grow smarter and faster. It unifies the core areas of a revenue generation system, and it’s missing in most businesses struggling to grow.
Get With the System
Many companies fail to hit their revenue goals because they lack process. The Revenue Generation System™ aligns and orchestrates all aspects of your go-to-market – from marketing strategy and lead generation to sales and technology – to streamline revenue growth and hit your numbers.
Learn how to grow revenue faster and more consistently with an integrated revenue generation machine. Download our free workbook to learn how to apply it to your business.
