Everyone goes through this.
Hey, I am building a business what do I need? Service, Marketing, Sales, Operations, Team, and what else.
And then everyone puts the pieces together. After that, a business gets some early clients from referrals.
When referrals get exhausted then comes a test.
That's the first roadblock for a lot of businesses.
The product or service goes through the market test. The value proposition is tested in the market. And sales happen when the value exceeds the price. To achieve this a lot of experimentation is required. A business owner has to balance the value proposition, value delivery, and price.
Now, all that is done. A product/service market fit is found.
The next goal of the business is
How to turn strangers into customers at scale?
Building predictability ensures scaling. Predictability enables repeatability which in turn enables scaling.
How to build predictability in the business?
Let's start with, what to predict.
- Revenue, monthly/yearly.
- Sales
- Service Delivery Operations
- Team
All these components are interlinked. The north-star metric is yearly/monthly Revenue or Profit.
Predictable Revenue
Set of things to think about.
- What's the goal?
- What's the Gap?
- What's the fix?
- What's the churn rate?
Let's set a goal: Generate 15,000 USD per month in revenue this year.
What's the Gap?
Measure - Average order price per unit, Units sold per month.
Check the data from the past few months. Calculate the average.
Let's say.
- The average order price is 2,500 USD.
- Sales are 3 units per month.
This makes the current revenue 7,500 USD monthly. And this brings us to the next question
What's the fix?
Sell more. Double the sales. How to sell more? Check predictable sales.
What's the churn?
One client in two months. This means only doubling the sales is not enough. The business needs to have a healthy pipeline.
Predictable Sale
Sell more consistently to meet the revenue target. Consistency will grow the business.
- What's the current sales system?
- Can this sale system scale?
- How to scale operations while increasing sales?
- What are the client acquisition costs?
Current sales system
Prerequisite
There are prerequisites for sales to happen.
- A value proposition for solving a specific pain point of a specific buyer persona.
- Value or Perceived value exceeds the price.
- Buyer trusts the product or service.
- The buyer can afford the product or service.
Sales Stages
Sales happen in stages.
- Evaluating Fit
- Establishing a two-way communication
- Sales, not hard sales, but making the product or service a win-win
Awareness and trust building through content. Content may include blogs, guides, templates, and much more.
Sales Funnel Working
- 1,000 prospects list
- 800 of them accepted the connection. Share something of value. Get to know them. Make them aware.
- 8 of the connections asked about the product/service. 3 of them signed up immediately. The rest are taking their time.
Sales Team
It takes one Sales Rep to execute this funnel per month.
But we are 7,500 USD short of the goal. The churn happens in two months.
By adding one more sales rep, the goal can be met and exceeded.
Awesome. Now. Sales are scaling.
Updated Sales System
Now the sales look like this
- Two sales reps.
- Six clients per month. The average order is 2,500 USD.
- Monthly revenue is 15,000 USD
Also, improving the closing rate will increase the revenue even more.
The sales are scaling. Crushing the goals.
Predictable Service Delivery Operations
Scaling up to and past 15,000 USD requires scaling operations.
Service Delivery System
- One client service delivery executive for managing 3 clients.
Adding one more to handle six. To ensure consistent service quality,
standardize the process.
Make Standard Operating Procedures.
From previous client experience,
- List down the pain points.
- List down the steps to solve those pain points.
- Document the process.
Use the standard process to solve those pain points every time. This makes service quality consistently high.
Building Team
The sales and service delivery are scaled by the above methods. And all of that is built upon an effective team. Hiring people is a delicate balance.
A business must avoid over-hiring and under-hiring.
Hiring while scaling is a balance of profit and revenue. Over a short period of time, the balance stabilizes.
Tracking these things below comes in handy when it comes to scaling the team
- Map competency
- Create a matrix. A matrix of team members assigned tasks, and cost associated
- Calculate Revenue per team member
A happy team is productive and has a low attrition rate. That's the reason to focus on making team members grow and succeed.
Build a mentorship and growth program for the team. Help them learn more. So that they serve more. And when they are ready give them a team.
That's how to scale predictably according to me. Also, there are much more details anyone can go into. But I want to ensure that this article remains readable.