Creating a continually growing business is a challenge for most entrepreneurs and managers. This presentation discusses at a high level some strategies that I developed over 20+ years building software and services focused companies. Insights that are covered in this presentation, include: 1. Create a Plan for Driven Growth 2. Focus on Your Differentiation 3. Define Your Unique Business Offering 4. Develop a Driven Growth Sales Culture 5. Use Content and Thought Leadership to Generate Leads 6. Build Simple Yet Effective Management Systems

1. THE FALLACY OF THE
(SALES) FUNNEL
Copyright Driven Growth 2016 Confidential and Proprietary Information 1
And other strategies learned from the
trenches that will take your business to the
next level.

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•YOU NEED A PLAN FOR DRIVEN GROWTH

3. BIG OPPORTUNITY ON THE HORIZON
• You have built a successful
business and want to take it to a
higher level of success.
• You face some increasingly larger
business challenges
• High growth is more difficult due to
higher existing revenues
• Your sales and marketing playbook is
insufficient to hit your new goals.
• Your customers want to extract
higher value by reducing costs
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4. THE PLAN FOR DRIVEN GROWTH IS SIMPLE
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Service
Differentiation
Customer
Segmentation
Market
Analysis
Marketing
Programs
Sales
Customer
Service
Unique Vision and Value Proposition
Your business needs a FOCUSED plan based on your UNIQUE
business capabilities to reach your new pinnacle.

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•FOCUS IS YOUR ONLY WAY TO DRIVEN GROWTH

6. YOUR BUSINESS IS NOT A COMMODITY
• Commodity markets compete
nearly 100% on Cost
• Their products are highly
undifferentiated
• Large operations have a huge
scale advantage in commodities
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7. YOUR BUSINESS IS DEAD IN THE MIDDLE
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Differentiation Scale
Success
HIGH
SCALE
HIGH
UNIQUE
$
THE DEAD ZONE
Small or startup
companies must be
unique.
• Define a unique service
and value proposition
• Focus on your unique
value and avoid the “Hey
Squirrel Affect”
Service business scale
is driven primarily by
time.
• You can’t jump from low to
high sale
LOW UNIQUE
& LOW SCALE

8. YOU CAN’T BE GOOD AT EVERYTHING
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A “Blind Dog Will Find A
Bone” every once in awhile
• Too many times one-off
customers OR one-off projects
become prioritized business.
• Look for areas where you have
unique VALUE that you can
uniquely SCALE.
VERTICAL SEGMENTS
HORIZONTALCAPABILITIES
Unique
Value

9. MANY OPTIONS HURTS SALES CONVERSIONS
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Do Nothing
No
YesDoing nothing is the most likely
outcome when too many options
are presented to customers.
Developing your own Unique
Selling Proposition (USP) is critical
for converting quicker and scaling
faster.
Credit: The 1-Page Marketing Plan – Allen Dib

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•DEFINING YOUR UNIQUE BUSINESS OFFERING

11. WHAT IS A COMMODITY, WHY IS UNIQUE
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WHAT WHY
WHAT
HOW
HOW
Change the
focus of your
message from
WHAT you do,
to WHY you.
Credit: Simon Sinek Ted Talk 2008

12. YOUR UNIQUE VALUE = WHY + HOW
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WHAT
HOW
WHY
The combination of your VISION and HOW
you deliver your services is your unique value.
• Do you have a unique process
that has a higher success rate?
• Do you have unique technical
expertise?
• Do you have unique suppliers or
partners?
• Do you have unique people?
• Can you make a unique
promise?
“What” is what
everyone else does

13. IS YOUR UNIQUENESS BIG ENOUGH?
Without research, can you answer the
following 4 questions?
• Is your unique value a momentary niche?
• Is the market you are targeting growing?
• Can you think of enough customers to reach
200% of your 1-Year goals?
• Can you think of enough customers to reach
500% of your 3-year goals?
If you can’t answer the questions, keep
working on your unique value proposition
in your market.
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14. EXPAND WITHOUT LOSING FOCUS
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Horizontal Business Expansion
• Look for product or services that
compliment your capabilities or process
• Example: UX expanding to application
development
Vertical Business Expansion
• Look for vertical segments that have
similar supplier structures or business
cycles
• Example: Sales Closing Cycles
VERTICAL SEGMENTS
HORIZONTALCAPABILITIES
Unique
Value

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•DRIVEN GROWTH REQUIRES A SALES FOCUS

16. THE FALLACY OF THE (SALES) FUNNEL
So what are problems with the traditional
sales funnel approach?
• Work best for commodity businesses.
• You are not in that business
• Risks forecasting which in new or growing
businesses is very difficult.
• By the time you see the problem, it is too late.
• Hope of many may result in few or NONE.
• A mile wide but an inch deep with customers is a
poor approach.
• May miss the biggest opportunities
• Not all deals are of equal value.
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Trello Board Template: Targeted Sales Management

17. WHY IS HIRING SENIOR SALES SO DIFFICULT?
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They Can Sell Themselves
Better Than Your Business
We Interview Sales Process
Knowledge, Not Results
Its Difficult To Evaluate The
Quality Of Their Rolodex

18. ONE SALES INTERVIEW QUESTION TO ASK
Why It Works
• Sets your expectation on urgency
• Eliminates process responses
• Checks their understanding of
your business
• Tests their rolodex
• Communicates performance
expectations.
• 5-deals eliminates “one trick pony”
potential
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What are the 5
accounts that you
will 100% close
by (when*)?
*When is determined by your
service’s highest sales performers.
I lied, there is one additional question to ask as follow-up.
How can you be 100% certain?

19. MAKE 100 SALES CALLS IN 3 DAYS
Tradeshow & Event Marketing
• Target your customers in one location
• Lower overall costs per sales call
• Cost-effectively demo products
• Big marketing lead generation potential
• Get your unique message out
• Events are promotable
• Establish relationships with media and
analysts
• Establish your thought leadership
• Speaking establishes credibility
• Supporting the industry makes you a
leader
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•BUILD A MARKETING FUNNEL THAT CONVERTS

21. MARKETING FUNNELS PRINT MONEY
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ATTRACT
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EXPAND
CONVERT
CAPTURE
NURTURE
ATTRACT
Marketing lists are your number
one business asset
Learning how to convert that list
is like printing money for your
business
• Very measurable results
• Reduced marketing campaign costs
• Built in fans for new product launches
• Increasing value per lead

22. USE IDEAS TO FUEL GROWTH
Powerful content marketing is the
way to position your company as
the industry thought leader.
To be a thought leader you must:
• Have unique and valuable ideas.
• Be willing to openly share your
ideas.
• Build a system for sharing the
ideas with your industry.
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Email
Newsletter
Blog &
SEO
Social
Media
Public
Relations
Content
Syndication
Press Release
Case Studies
White Papers
Videos
Infographics
Industry
Panels
Trello Board Template: Content Marketing Planning

23. YOUR IDEAS DRIVE INBOUND MARKETING
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Attract
Even if sales primarily drives your
revenue growth, inbound and
outbound marketing will provide a
powerful business accelerator.
• Great content attracts new leads that can
be nurtured
• Great offers convert leads to sales
• Great service creates lifetime fans

24. EMAIL MARKETING DRIVES CONVERSIONS
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LIST: Opt In
Email
Marketing List
EMAIL: Unique
Offer for
Targeted List
OFFER: Web
Landing Page
ACCEPTANCE:
Page to Finalize
Engagement
No: Make Offer In A New Way
Yes

25. ADVERTISING SHOULD DRIVE LIST BUILDING
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• Spending money on advertising without a
clear conversion metric is nothing but a
waste of your time and resources.
• A Driven Growth business DOES NOT use
advertising to build their brand.
• A Driven Growth business DOES use
advertising to develop its email list that will
be used to develop leads that convert to
sales.
• When you have a clear unique value
proposition use high ROI advertising to drive
new leads.

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•BUILD SYSTEMS AND MEASURE WHAT IS IMPORTANT

27. MEASURE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED
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Universal Truths
• 80/20 Rule
• Measure the 20% of the data that drives
80% of your business growth and value
• Measure Data For Making Decision
• Easily understood and actionable
• Motivates your people to improve
• Directly tied to companies goals.
This topic is much too large to cover in a single slide. Your unique data needs
are a function of your company’s services and current size.

28. DRIVEN GROWTH
WWW.DRIVENGROWTH.COM
PHONE: 1.800.216.6103
EMAIL: HELLO@DRIVENGROWTH.COM
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