Strategy eats tools for breakfast

When a CEO finds time to scroll in their social media feed, whilst sipping on the seventh cup of coffee, they might get blindsided by fancy words and promises. Or they get ambushed by their colleagues: The growth marketer has been nagging about getting a bot on the site. The sales people want a fancy CRM where they can tick off their activities. The marketing communications people want to invest in tons of content so they can drive traffic to the website.

• “Grow your sales with xyz” 
• “Double digits when you implement abc” 
• “Start using 123 on your website and you’ll convert double the amount” 

The problem with jumping at these offers / products, is that on their own they will be merely a tool in your toolbox and not a relevant part of your strategy. 

If you buy a blender in the hopes of losing weight, you set yourself up for a failure. 

If you do not look at this from a strategic point of view, if you don't have a plan, you will end up wasting your companies money, misdirecting a lot of resources, and in the worst case scenario: you will end up upsetting a lot of your customers!

Why am I saying that it is the CEO's responsibility? It is a change in the complete strategic thinking of the company's GoToMarket.

Your current GoToMarket strategy is most likely something like this:

1. We have a product/service
2. Marketing tell about our product/service
3. Marketing has identified Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP)
4. Sales takes this ICPs and do research
5. Sales tries frantically to contact the decision makers
6. Marketing creates communication
7. Sales still tries to drive prospects through sales funnels...

and so on... for a veeeeery looooong tiiiime...

What the CEO should be doing is gain understanding, that transforming into a modern revenue generating machine, they need to undertake a complete change in how the company looks at sales, marketing, customer service/success, development and management. 

How can a company make this change then? 

By understanding a few fundaments of their business: 

• What value do we provide our customers 
• Where do our customers seek information 
• How do we provide this information 
• How do we measure the effects
• What happens after any interaction
• How smooth is this process 

You need to get an understanding of what all of these mean for YOUR business. Because you know your business, and understand your customers. By understanding the main pillars of your existence, you can start to transform your business. No one can do it for you. Because when you have a clear understanding of how all is tied together you will also know how you go from your current processes to the new, improved way.  

A strategy is like a map, but in order for you to be able to draw the map and to use it, you need to understand where you are starting from, what is the terrain and other exterior circumstances and how do others act on that same area. 

The Revenue Generation Framework™ is this map.

Revenue Generation Framework: Step 1