Report: Investing in New Markets Despite Gaps in Confidence

For much of 2023, volatile markets and unforeseen challenges held CEOs back from executing aggressive value creation plans. But with Q1 2024 going by without much issue, it seems like the perfect opportunity for business leaders to accelerate growth and capitalize on new opportunities. Yet, even with a clear plan in mind, leaders are still hesitant about their ability to execute it successfully, ensuring that CEOs stay vigilant despite hopeful outlooks.

In the second analysis of our CEO Value Creation Pulse, we explore what growth levers CEOs are prioritizing and how you can get ahead of any confidence gaps in your value creation plan for 2024.

Accelerating Growth Through New Markets

From our survey of CEOs and other C-level executives, it’s evident that many growth leaders are intent on doing more than just maintaining EBITDA for 2024. We saw a remarkable 87% of respondents are looking to incorporate more aggressive growth measures into their value creation strategies. It’s also worth pointing out that compared to Q1 of last year, there has been a small but noticeable shift towards acquiring new customers, specifically in these growth levers:

Our findings reveal that CEOs are investing heavily in three key growth levers: customer retention, market penetration, and new product launches. With M&A activity also expected to ramp up, our research points toward CEOs seeking to expand their markets, acquiring access to new segments, and potentially gaining new customers through both new and existing product offerings.

For CEOs and GTM leadership teams on this growth trajectory, we have a crucial piece of advice for you: tighten your upstream deal qualification and structuring. In existing markets, we are seeing slowing deal cycles and increasingly hesitant buyers, whereas new markets may introduce a higher risk of misunderstanding customer signals. Maintaining a higher late-stage conversion rate will be critical to your commercial success in 2024.

Strong Opportunities, Stronger Criticality

CEOs are clear on the plan, but less so on their ability to execute successfully. In the same three growth levers, our follow-up survey highlighted some points of focus:

• Many CEOs are certain that the same three growth levers will be their key success drivers in 2024.
• However, the confidence gaps are also the widest in the three levers, up to a 27% difference.
• CEOs need to ensure that they are ready to capitalize on new opportunities without second guessing their plan.

SBI has two pieces of advice for CEOs and GTM leadership teams facing this reality. Firstly, tighten up your marketing messaging to capture attention in new markets. As organizations grow and offerings get more complex, marketing must ensure that the core messaging and product clarity stay consistent throughout the growth process. From that point, differentiate your messaging based on targeted marketing to amplify your reach and potential impact.

Secondly, establish dedicated GTM motions for new introductions to accelerate revenue capture. As product offerings expand in scope, your sales talent will need guidance on their metrics of success. Utilize benchmarks from past and competitor launches to set expectations: understand how the new offerings will differ from core products and services. Create a solid foundation for your team, and they will build your success on it.

Did you find these insights valuable for your value creation plan? Read the full CEO Value Creation Pulse and learn how you can get ahead of executive planning in 2024.