At SalesPartners we work with a clearly defined and measurable goal: to grow our customers' sales and profits. As a result-creator and execution partner of more than 20 years experience we've heard plenty of ambitious growth strategies and theories. Many of those strategies are never implemented, and unfortunately those that are often end up costing large amounts of money and delivering very little. There are plenty of strategies for achieving sales growth – but only a few that actually work. The truth is that there are no simple solutions. There are three strategies for growing at a greater rate than the market average:   Product/service differenciation Takeovers/fusions Organic growth Product Differentiation The ability to differentiate your product or service from the others in the marketplace is obviously a key factor in sales growth. However, it is often very expensive and far too many companies ”forget” that the whole point of product development is to produce a product/service that can be capitalised via the company's sales team. History is full of tales of companies who, despite having the best product in the market, failed to succeed because they had the wrong attitude to sales or simply forgot to factor in the sales process. Product development is central but should always take place in close cooperation with the sales department and with respect and understanding for market demand. Takeovers/Fusions A quick and tempting path to growth is to achieve increased market share by acquiring other companies or merging with them. Given the current financial crisis there should also be plenty of attractive options for takeover-hungry companies. Given that the goal of any company is to optimise value, the directors/owners of all companies should always consider selling if the price is right, meaning that, in principle at least, all companies are available for purchase. The danger with this strategy lies in basing your growth strategy purely on fusions and takeovers. Takeovers are, more often than not, both expensive and time consuming, and the problems that arise from trying to merge two different business cultures, CRM systems, customer portfolios etc. are not to be taken lightly. Organic Growth At SalesPartners our focus is firmly on the quickest and most cost-effective growth strategy: organic sales growth. As described above, all companies need to be aware of the opportunities that product differentiation and fusions can provide, however, it is our opinion that these strategies can only be effective if they are based on sound and agile internal organisational processes that can capitalise new products and markets and takeovers and fusions as effectively as possible. The key element in an organic growth strategy is sales process optimisation based on the current product pallet and market potential. Sales process optimisation covers 4 main areas:   Sales management The sales process Business intelligence/data Sales team organisation For more information about optimising the total sales process, see the following menus...