5 Oct 22
Organizational focus – particularly across the commercial team – is a critical factor in maintaining growth through a recession or similar economic event.
For the last few weeks, SBI has shared a framework for focused annual revenue planning, with near and long-term value creation planning being top-of-mind for CEOs. A focused growth strategy benefits the commercial ecosystem tremendously. Broad agreement on prioritized markets, products, customer segments, and targeted deployment of those resources create the conditions for growth in challenging economic environments.
We took a deep dive into each of the 5 steps in the Annual Planning Process for unforgettable growth over the last few weeks and have arrived at the time for execution and rollout.
For optimum execution and rollout, CEOs need to establish a detailed execution cadence to align the go-to-market teams in achieving desired results. The executive team sets the annual priorities, which commercial leaders will then break initiatives into quarterly and weekly priorities filtering throughout their organizations. Growth levers and targets cascade throughout the organization, with the CEO driving culture and leading the growth charge.
How Commercial Leaders Break Down Initiatives into Quarterly/Weekly Priorities:
- Map out the details of each strategic objective ranging from a long-term to short-term view.
- Break down the objective into quarterly and weekly milestones so the team has clarity on executing the strategic goal in the mid and short-term.
- Enable agility and allow for reassessment to pivot if needed to achieve the goal. It is not a requirement to adhere to a multiyear project plan.
Like all successful plans, sequencing for annual revenue planning requires attention. Sequencing helps the executive team prioritize adjustments on any growth levers needed to execute the bets you placed. Market-leading growth executives use a programmatic approach to plan for an Acceleration Summit (SKO) to communicate the annual revenue plan.
Seven work streams to complete in advance of an Acceleration Summit (SKO):
4-months prior
Account Segmentation:
Understand which customers and prospects are most likely to generate the most 2020 revenue.
3-months prior
Routes to Market:
Use the output of Account Segmentation to ensure your routes to market are the most effective to reach the highest value customers and the most efficient for reaching lower value customers.
Coverage Plan:
Use the output of Account Segmentation to determine the number of people you will need for each type of role in the coming year.
2-months prior
Org Structure & Design:
Given the understanding of where next year’s revenue will be generated, validate that you still have the right org design model. Refresh your headcount and productivity model to ensure you have the right number of people.
Talent Assessment:
Determine if you have the next wave of leaders internally or if you need to source them externally. Identify the A-player reps you need to retain and build a plan to transition C-player reps’ accounts to A-players.
1-month prior
Territories, Quotas, and Compensation Plans:
Market leaders ensure that at the beginning of the Acceleration Summit, every rep has their territory, quota, and comp plan.
Accelerate the Employee Lifecycle:
Develop an Employee Life Cycle Management Plan which Improves Bookings per Sales Rep through crucial inflection points in rep tenure.
SBI’s research highlights that top-third growth companies (accounting for industry and company size) have several common attributes compared to bottom-third growth companies, most of which center on commercial discipline. The focused growth strategy of top growers enables clarity in cross-functional decision-making, particularly as it relates to budget and resourcing tradeoffs across departments. These organizations see far greater consistency in their sales motion and commercial processes across the business allowing for rapid change management, driven at scale through adapting the go-to-market playbook.
Lack of focus leads to failed plans. Evaluating your potential growth levers across commercial functions will give CEOs a clear landscape of tightly defined growth bets to place, ultimately driving focused execution and discipline for value creation.
Annual Revenue Planning resources are available to you and your teams. Click here to access.
