Month 12
- Aligned Strategy
Year End. Not bad. The team did well.
More important, now you can see WHY - and can plot a course for what could be better. R&D used the Pipeline to 'hear' customers. Customer ideas are starting to show up in the products. HR is seeing lower sales team turnover Of course, now they worry there’s going to be a spike in competitors trying to hire your team. Purchasing is saving a ton of money through forecasts that actually help them to plan.
It’s time to set goals for next year.
This time its different. Has there always been a vagueness to the strategies when they were announced? They may have been reality-based, but they were short on detail. The How behind the CXO's numbers were never provided. Those days are over. The Pipeline is an execution ecosystem. Do much more than just set your 'hairy audacious goals' - drive the tactics behind the strategy and watch them work - or fix them long before year-end.
Strategy Whiteboard
Spend some time looking for the easiest openings in the market. Review the stories behind the Sell Pipeline.
Review your Renew Pipeline to find the customers most likely to need your latest offerings. Can you see potential for bigger contracts?
Dissect your best territories to set goals. Break the goals down to each rep - and then fine tune the processes by product and territory.
Milestones
Plans are exciting. Tactics make the plans real and achievable. Just one more thing to consider: Reality.
As Field Marshall von Moltke reminds us: "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy." Use the Pipeline or CRM reports to establish checkpoints. Where should your plan be by Q2? Q3? Can you design a data canary for your selling coal mine? Are you ready with Plan B? With the Pipeline, you are.
What's Next?
Now - look back at the year. Consider the transformation, the impact on the team, the great meetings with the board.
Sales contracts are up for negotiation soon. Now HR is really getting nervous.
Do they know how many friendly
calls the team is getting
from the competition?
What's the plan?
Look at the research. Most people leave jobs when they feel like they aren't learning. With the Pipeline, learning never stops. Reps and managers know that top management values excellence and they
are willing to invest in their team in a
way that works.
Every day. A little better. A little more predictable. A little more coordinated and consistent. And even a little better place to work. Quite a year.
And just wait till next year!
