Unlocking the potential in your business

Are your commercial teams and executive teams aligned on what's possible?

Have you ever been in a situation like this? You're a business owner who's struggling to manage unusual costs increasing in the business and your commercial organizations tell you that more isn't possible. You're a commercial leader who brings in big deals, your executive team only complains? I once was a sales person and I went to a large customer with my sales manager. We together identified an opportunity that was optimistically worth $25,000/ year and would take >1 year to succeed in winning. Technical sales are sometimes long and complicated managing many stakeholders. This was one of those. I got a quota that day for $500,000 in the following year for that piece of business. Impossible under the best of conditions both in revenue and timeline. I spent every quarterly business review after that trying to make that opportunity quota reasonable, and also trying to close it. I eventually did. It was bigger than I thought... $40,000. It took >2 years to close. Once won, the business stayed with us for more than 10 years and was treated as a reason for my success and my subsequent promotions. What I learned from this was that sales and commercial leaders are paid better when they manage their boss' expectations of what is possible carefully. I once was a business executive who's sales team told me we could not raise prices on a large customer despite unprecidented well-understood cost increases. They said the customer would "de-source us from everything". We raised prices thoughtfully and grew the customer after that in both opportunities and revenue. We increased profits beyond what I had expected possible. What I learned from this was that the "manage your boss" approach to commercial price management left money on the table, and sometimes the sales team was capable of a lot more than they think if given proper support and the right tools and training. Sometimes the difference is confidence that the internal need is greater than the customer complaints. Sometimes the difference is confidence that the customer will stick with you even though the price you're asking feels "high". Sometimes the difference is confidence that the price you're charging in fact is a deal.... because if you look at the value, the value is much greater than the price you're asking. And sometimes more is possible if the business leaders and commercial teams can come together and understand what's possible. Risks of raising prices or not lowering prices are very apparent to sales teams.

Risks of failing to raise prices are very apparent to business leaders. When we can bring those risks together and understand both potentials, that's when we can unlock the potential of the business. And when we do that, everyone benefits.