Companies who embark on innovating their business model typically want to make more money – both top and bottom line. Your team can come up with a plethora of ideas to grow your revenue in a fun, one hour session. Start with a small team that knows your business well and ask them each to guess the answers to these five questions:

1. How big is the size of the market we are able to serve with our current solution (number of potential accounts)?

2. For this market, what percent of purchasers are aware we exist as a solution to their needs?

3. Of those purchasers who are aware of us, what percent actually consider buying from us?

4. Of those purchasers who consider us, what % of accounts do we win?

5. What is the typical revenue we earn each year from a single customer?

Once the team has offered their individual answers, drive to a consensus value that is fairly accurate. You can use the marketing tool at the link below to see an example and to capture your team’s responses and calculate revenue:

http://www.icanpilotblog.com/revenue/index.html

Your revenue equation is
Revenue = Market Size x %Awareness x %Consideration x %Win Rate x Average (median) Annual Order Size

If you usually fog over when you see a mathematical equation, no worries. You determined the numbers for each of the variables to the right of = in your team exercise above. If multiplying your responses comes up with a number that is wildly off from your actual revenue, then go find some better guessers :).

Now is where the fun begins. The key to your growth is in how you consider each of these variables.

Market Size: how satisfied are you with this number? If you think it should be bigger, can you change your solution to appeal to a broader market than you currently serve? Can you identify a new market that needs what you offer? If so, put together a plan for how you will reach and serve them.

Awareness Rate: if this number is below 50%, you have some marketing to do. What can you do to let more people in your current market know you exist as an option?

Consideration Rate: this is where brand building can really pay off. Of purchasers that know your business, how can you get more trusting you enough to consider doing business with you? Word of mouth from existing customers can help tremendously with awareness and consideration rate because of their built in endorsement.

Win Rate: who wins the competitive wrestling match most often? A won-lost debrief after each bid or proposal is a great way to identify ways to improve this. I recommend outsourcing or using a survey to get at real reasons for losing if possible. Your win rate is affected by the skills of your sales person, quality of your product, reputation of your service, flexibility to one up your competitors, to name a few. A tip for those smart enough to follow up on lost bids – I have had customers say they were so impressed with my follow up after losing that they put me back on their consideration list for next time, and I learned how I can do better, all at the same time.

Annual Order Size: how can you raise this number? Focus on more lucrative accounts? Drive faster repeat business?

If you have gotten into your brainstorming, you now have flipcharts full of ideas to consider. Pick the most promising and make it happen in 2011.

iCanPilot’s mission is to help you Work Smarter.
http://www.icanpilot.com

Author Bio: http://www.icanpilot.com iCanPilot helps your team perform like an expert with out additional preparation and classroom learning. Our software navigates your team through critical marketing work to achieve the best business results. Get free marketing tools at http://www.icanpilot.com

Category: Marketing
Keywords: marketing tools, marketing solutions, marketing strategies, value proposition, work smarter