Everyone Wants To Grow But No One Wants To Change
How Industrial and Manufacturing Companies Create Predictable Revenue Growth To create predictable revenue growth, manufacturing companies need to first change their thinking about how they markets, prospects, and customers. The traditional growth formula of hiring a salesperson, going to the same trade shows, knocking on prospects doors, and cold calling no longer works to build a predictable revenue stream. Buyers, and the way they find information, evaluate options, consider vendor choices, and make decisions are rapidly changing. But yet most industrial executives still think about about buyers the same old way. We have seen little evidence that manufacturing companies have changed to meet buyers where they are today. The companies that survive and thrive in today’s incredibly competitive environment will be the ones that become inbound organizations – ones that are built for and solve for the customer, where everyone is aligned around the goals of the customer, and everyone is committed to the success of the customer. “Many companies recognize the need to change marketing tactics, to use content, develop a digital marketing presence, and adapt to the ability of buyers to control the process. Few see it as fundamental to the operation, structure, and strategy of the entire organization.” * Creating a Culture of Customer First “The first and most important step is to shift the organization’s mindset to focus on solving for the customer. Make decisions based on what’s in their interest—because what’s in the customer’s interest is in the organization’s interest too.” Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot*. Many manufacturing companies say they put the customer first. It says so in the mission statement on the wall in the front office (the one no one in your company actually reads). Maybe you sales team does, or is the quota you assigned for this quarter the most important thing? Is the sales manager’s latest idea the thing everyone focuses on? Is it the compensation plan? Or the need to hit certain calls targets? Maybe your product team does, but do they survey customers regularly to understand what features they want or are they just guessing? But does your back office, or are they concerned about getting the transaction completed in their time frame, with no human connection to the customer, hiding behind policies, office hours, and terms and conditions? Does your service team, or do they just react when the phone rings and try to make the customer go away and stop complaining at the least possible cost to the company? Do your customer facing teams insure your customers are successful with your product or do they set it up, get them going, and then forget about them until they have a problem? Do you even really know if your customers are successful achieving the goals they had when they bought from you in the first place? Building a predictable revenue engine requires creating a company mission centered on the goals of customers and building a culture of helping customers achieve those goals first. And then getting everyone in the organization aligned around that mission and then acting every day in ways that help fulfill it. If your business develops a clear mission, then your culture is the environment that either drives everyone towards the mission or stands in the way. Culture is the sum of the values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of leadership applied through an operating system. Your operating system is the set of tools and processes your business develops to guide your team towards the mission. The operating system includes communication systems and tools, employee feedback mechanisms, your documented culture, and connections for each employee to the company strategies and plans and how they contribute to the overall business objectives. Your culture drives alignment to the mission. Your operating system enables your people to deliver value to the customer and to contribute feedback to the team and leadership. A customer focused culture aligns everyone with the goals of the customer. And if everyone is aligned with the goals of the customer then your business will grow. “An inbound organization is guided by a philosophy, a set of core beliefs, and best practices that impact every person in every department to provide value and build trust with customers, partners, and anyone they touch.” * Key inbound culture characteristics include internal and external transparency, valuing people first, adopting small, nimble teams, moving decision-making closer to the customer, building trust and accountability without heavy policy proscriptions, documenting your culture and beliefs, and a system for finding people that fit within and add to the culture. Why does a customer focused mission and culture drive revenue? “As Peter Drucker once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” A culture of customer focus, solving for the customer, with everyone aligned around the needs of the customer, and making sure customers are successful is the way to grow your business in this age of buyer control. Hear more from Todd at FABTECH during session F67: Actionable Marketing Strategies For Competitive Advantage on Wednesday, November 07, from 1:30 – 3:30 PM.*Inbound Organization, Wiley 2018
