Have you validated your growth strategy?

Have you validated your growth strategy?  Growth strategy is not a mystery and does not have to be as experimental as you may think.  Conventionally, CEO’s have generalized about investing in new and existing markets based on high level trending and assumptions about their culture and core competency.  Although this approach often produces marginal results, the fine tuning process can be quite expensive and time consuming.  The keys to efficient sustainable growth are out in the field, in the answers provided by the people that pay the bills, your customers.

One secret to creating a predictable strategy is gathering field data from a market segment in such a manner that you gain valuable insight.  You might hire a 3^rd party to objectively ask your clients and prospects what they want to buy instead of what you think you want to sell. Your clients will tell explain in their words (by vertical) for their reasons with their data about their problems.  Clients actually love this process because they realize that you are trying to give them exactly what they want.  In essence, we can capture what they want to buy from whom at what price. They will even provide clues to help package, price, and deliver your offering.  The interviewer must have a neutral intention and be compassionate and capable of root cause analysis.  These valuable pearls can help create the roadmap for a sustainable growth model.  Objectivity and empathy is paramount.

For Example:  I was recently hired to evaluate an industry specific selling strategy to determine if the brand, culture, services and sales strategy were aligned effectively against the segment. With comprehensive primary research and behind the scenes analytics we were quickly able to determine the feasibility for investing in new and existing verticals. This exercise resulted in reallocating a 7 figure investment from a lagging vertical to a high growth vertical where the returns are much higher.  The information will allow you to hedge your bets for growth especially where there is a limited window of opportunity.  Lesson learned: ability to see from the buyers lens what is most important and learn more about effective packaging and pricing to provide the products and services they want to buy; helpful to align your people and process around a winning strategy.

Tips: Questions to ask yourself:

Do I understand the buying behavior of my clients and prospects?

Have I validated how to package, price, and deliver my offering for my clients?

Does my analytics by market segment affect my growth strategy?

Can I validate that each market wants to buy what we want to sell?

Explaining the steps is easy, HOW you objectively question and get to root cause is a skill.

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