According to SBI CEO Mike Hoffman, “leaders understand that completely abandoning recession contingencies is the wrong call. Instead, they're adapting the plans to reflect the uncertain market.” Hoffman explains that “The timing of the economic turnaround, which coincided with reaching the year's halfway point, suggests CEOs realized it was time to make decisions, reinvest and move ahead. Yet there was something else at play. While the pandemic may have made CEOs a little gun shy because of how quickly a downturn can take hold, it also reminded them how incredibly adaptive and resilient their organizations are.”
Resilience from pandemic shifts created positive momentum for many organizations. If you're one of them and looking to leverage this momentum to maximize your business strategy and accelerate growth, here's some advice from Mike, as outlined in a recent Forbes article:
1. Revisit Your Recessionary Plans
Now is the time to create clarity, not confusion. If you've already created a plan for what to do in case of a recession, go ahead and follow through on the measures you identified. Whatever the future holds, your organization will be better prepared if you take the right steps now. Review your productivity numbers and processes across all functions to determine efficiency and resiliency. Also, consider building on any shared platforms that could use improvement.
2. Prioritize Operational Efficiencies
After you've addressed personnel productivity, turn your attention to the key operational areas where you want to put more investment. If you're in an industry that's been hard hit by the pandemic or the looming recession, you need to pivot to maintain your growth rate but with less cost.
The current climate of uncertainty is the perfect catalyst for cutting fat and maximizing operational efficiencies. Review and eliminate any wasteful practices, and make strategic investments in technologies leading to more efficient operations. If you take this opportunity to clean house now, you'll be in a better long-term position for whatever the economic climate brings next.
3. Refocus On Growth And Value
Figure out what role growth plays in value creation, and focus on the imperatives that fit into those categories. It doesn't have to cost any more money. It is just a matter of being more effective. For example, if you want to drive accelerated revenue but don't want to change your operating expense, you have some categorical choices you can make. Ask yourself:
- How do I leverage pricing? Confirm your price effectiveness by monitoring your average selling price (ASP) and win rates. ASP is the basis for analysis when growing your top line, and it's affected by market volatility, sales effectiveness, discounting structure and willingness to pay. You must monitor you ASP monthly, compare that information to your win rates and determine what levers—sales enablement, list price increases, price positioning, price setting and/or price optimization—to pull to improve it.
- How do I optimize my go-to-market model? Look at the productivity of your team and assess revenue per head. Explore ways to reduce ramp to productivity while increasing rep productivity yield with best-practice enablement and onboarding methods.
- How do I get better retention on my current customers? Assess and address any pain points in the end-to-end client experience. Conduct regular client interviews to better understand and deliver their needs.
The current state of market uncertainty won’t reveal any answers, so leaders need to continue the pandemic resilience and momentum while fine-tuning their growth strategy to meet any changes. Remember, the key to success is getting off your back foot and moving quickly. You’ve been here before. Trust your instincts, have faith in your strategy and keep moving forward with focus and discipline. To get on your front foot and ensure clarity in your value creation strategy in this uncertain market, click here to download a copy of SBI's latest CEO research.
