When you talk about revenue, you are often put in the position of making money grow on trees!
Which isn’t actually true because in fact, most of changing and growing the revenue machinery of your organization is a process, just like any other process.
Like any good process, there is just a series of patterns that you can return to over and over again. Allowing you to recreate, refocus, and renew your business.
Here are a few of the areas that I focus on over and over again.
And, a few asides on what they can mean to your business.
1. Focus on value: Seems obvious, but if you have looked at any marketing materials lately, you will notice that too many organizations spend too much time talking about the fuzzy, buzzy stuff or about the features that they have invested so much time in creating. With not nearly enough time put on how their service or product changes things for their clients.
2. Be conscious of causation: A lot of time we hear the term “lightning in a bottle” thrown around. That’s too bad because it takes the emphasis off of the important things that are really causing change, that promote growth. Like a better value proposition. Like a focus on a specific market. Like whatever that might be.
3. Marketing matters: I know that we live in an age where marketing is more and more just a lot of noise. And, it is true, it is a lot of noise that is likely to only get worse with the recent passing of a Senate bill that would allow internet service providers to sell all of your browsing data without your knowledge, but that’s spam. Marketing on the other hand is still important because marketing is everything you do with your product or service. So make your product and service exceptional and focus it outward.
4. The brand is everything: I took a trip to Europe a few weeks back and I was amazed at how I didn’t see one US based sports team’s apparel anywhere. In past trips to Europe, I’d always seen Yankees’ hats, Lakers’ shirts, and other US brands represented. Not this time. What that tells me is that the strength of US sports brands is down, and down tremendously. Which reminded me that if your brand isn’t strong, it is like you don’t even exist. Your brand is everything.
5. Sales isn’t a dirty word: Sales is how things happen. Sales has gotten a bad rap lately because there seems to be so little good sales quality in many places, but sales is really important because if you don’t make a sale, nothing happens.
6. Innovation can and should be a constant: Pat Riley said, “change is the only thing in life that is certain.” I’d agree. Innovation has become a buzz word in our society, but in reality innovation can and should be a constant part of your organization. It doesn’t have to be this huge, thunderclap event. It can be a consistent altering of small directions. What is certain, if you aren’t always looking at things and adapting and moving forward, someone else is.
7. Growth shouldn’t be an accident: I’m a big proponent of the idea that there is usually a lot more growth to be squeezed out of an operation than is ever really recognized. Which really means that growth should not be an accident. You should always been managing your organization in a manner where you can uncover inefficiencies and focus on growth.
8. Expansion can help, but be cautious: Hubris is usually something that helps fuel the jets of expansion. I’ve been there. Where you get a little too swelled on the success you have had to the point that you start taking on challenges that aren’t the wisest decisions. Expansion can seem like a really great salve, but you need to be cautious because it can sink your operation pretty quickly.
9. Opportunity is something that should be nurtured consistently: Like growth, opportunities should be nurtured consistently. As Pat Riley said about change, it is consistent. This means that to maximize your revenue opportunities, you can’t sit on your heels when it comes to opportunity.
10. Strategy! Strategy! Strategy! I know that strategy gets a bad rap sometimes because all too often it is a pie in the sky planning exercise that never comes to fruition. But the thing is that strategy is essential to making sure you are focusing your attention and your resources on the right things at the right time. The thing about strategy is that it doesn’t need to be some big, show stopping venture, but the consistent focus on 3 simple questions:
- What is the value we want to create?
- Who will buy this?
- How do we reach them?
If you focus on this stuff, you will find that revenue is much more often something you are in control of.