We live in a world always looking for a quick fix and how we've been operating in B2B revenue is no exception.
The high we get from dopamine has caused us to over-rotate GTM attention and resources to sales. It’s why our demand programs are made up of blasting thousands of spam emails, throwing money at clicks from ads, and requiring kids out of college to make 100 calls/day.
Instant gratification is why customer success is often seen as a cost center instead of the core revenue-generating part of our business.
The thing about instant gratification is that you wouldn't want a house, plane, automobile, or anything that requires longevity and quality to be built around a quick fix. So why do we develop our revenue organization focused predominantly on closing deals and generating pipeline?
Nine critical elements make up a solid revenue organization, and they all impact revenue growth. You have a well-built revenue organization when these nine areas operate effectively, predictably, and efficiently.
1. Addressable Market - can you tightly define and identify customers that fit your solution?
2. Demand Creation - are you influencing that addressable market?
3. Demand Capture - are you capturing your market when they intend to buy?
4. Buyer Readiness - are you diagnosing relevant impact for potential buyers?
5. Selection - are you addressing your potential buyers’ needs so they decide to purchase?
6. First Impact - have your customers experienced the core value of the solution they purchased?
7. Recurring Impact - are your customers continuously experiencing the core value of the solution they purchased
8. Retention - are your customers extending time with your solution?
9. Growth - are your customers taking full advantage of all your solution offerings?
You need to know the answers to these questions to address long-term sustainable revenue growth. And notice, there isn’t a question about how many customers you sold, because that is looking backwards. These questions address how well the engine will move you forward.
Remember, each milestone impacts revenue, and each of the customer-facing functions in your GTM (Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, Post-Sales, and Product) impacts these milestones.
More AEs is no longer the formula for revenue growth because revenue does not come solely from your sales function. Revenue comes from your entire go-to-market.
So, while the instant gratification of hitting your revenue target this quarter is something to celebrate, don't let that dopamine hit prevent you from standing on a strong revenue foundation. Because the real gratification hit comes from knowing you can grow revenue well into the future.
FAQ
1. How does RevAmp help overcome the challenge of instant gratification in sales, and shift focus towards sustainable revenue growth?
RevAmp tackles this challenge by providing an end-to-end observability platform that monitors, identifies, and intervenes across your GTM operations. Unlike traditional methods that focus on short-term sales targets, RevAmp's always-on precision testing and monitoring allows you to identify deeper revenue opportunities and optimization of efforts across the GTM bowtie. The goal is to help you improve both immediate and long-term revenue growth.
2. How does RevAmp bring alignment and efficiency across the nine GTM stages discussed in the blog?
RevAmp's platform creates a central framework that aligns all GTM functions around a common goal, focusing on the customer impact, and setting KPIs for each functional area.
This helps CROs to streamline strategy, processes, and technology -- and to coordinate across GTM teams. And it helps RevOps leverage data from CRM, MAS, CX, and Product Analytics to inform strategic decision-making. In this way RevAmp helps GTM leadership coordinate the execution of all GTM functions and break siloed team activity.
3. How can we shift our focus from short-term sales achievements to sustainable revenue growth within our GTM strategy?
This can be hard. And opinions on this will vary. We believe a first step is to develop a solid revenue organization that addresses the entire customer relationship arc. From addressable market identification, demand creation and capture, and buyer readiness, to customer retention and eventually expansion growth. Focusing on these elements rather than just sales acquisition metrics drives a more holistic approach to revenue growth. Emphasizing customer success as a core revenue-generating part of the business is also key, ensuring every part of the GTM strategy contributes to long-term success.
4. What can CROs and RevOps pros to do enhance alignment and efficiency across different areas of a revenue organization?
Our experience has been that two things are necessary:
With these in place so CROs can unite all GTM teams around shared goals and customer impacts, then alignment and efficiency across a revenue organization becomes possible (and at every scale of business).
Setting clear KPIs for each functional area and coordinating execution across teams are essential steps. This approach requires a shift from viewing customer success as a cost center to recognizing it as a vital component of revenue generation. Additionally, when RevOps can leverage comprehensive and harmonized data across CRM, MAS, CX, and Product Analytics, then they can bring greater insights and understanding across the Data Model bowtie to drive alignment and efficiency.
