An article in the March-April 2023 edition of the Harvard Business Review titled Beware a Culture of Busyness had a very strong message to share with readers: “Organizations must stop conflating activity with achievement.” It explains why busyness has become so valued in organizations these days as well as the significant damage that results from prioritizing and rewarding busyness. If you get a chance to read/listen to the article and want to share your thoughts with us, feel free to do so.

We would like to add our own thoughts based on what we have seen from helping B2B companies achieve strategic revenue growth for almost two decades. In our efforts to help move organizations away from a busyness culture we’re discussing the dangers of being busy, who is to blame for today’s busyness culture, and how to evolve to increase profitable revenue.

This is a question that business professionals ask a lot! There is hesitancy around the cost of joining, the time commitment involved, and whether the benefits gained in exchange will be worth it. But the answer to the question, “Should I join an association?” is yes! (Now, do not confuse that with the question, “Should I join every association?” because the answer to that question is a categorical no!) Don’t seize the opportunity to join every association that you come across but do be open to joining one that you can commit to wholly.

There is an old adage in business: “If your business isn’t moving forward it’s standing still, and your competition is gaining on you.”

This time of year I have a lot of conversations with business leaders about how they can get their business moving in the right direction. The CEOs I talk to tend to fall into one of two camps – either their organizations are in decline (their sales have fallen off and they need help bringing them back), or they have plateaued (their growth has gone stagnant, and they need help jumpstarting it).

In either scenario if business leaders choose not to do anything, they will just continue in the circumstances they are in. They will either continue declining until they fail, or they will remain plateaued until their competitors overtake their market share and then they will fail. The outcome is the same, although the time horizons will differ. If, however, these business leaders decide to take the steps needed to reinvent their organizations, they can achieve the outcomes they desire now and continue to evolve in the future.

If there was one word to describe the state of work right now it would be this: complex.

Work got really complicated in 2021 and 2022 and it’s likely going to be even more complex in 2023.

Questions are flying at business leaders faster than they can answer them.

• How will we work this year and what will that work look like?
• How will we manage in world of new employee expectations?
• How will the best organizations do more, faster, better this year?
• What has changed since last year? What are we already seeing and what should we expect to see next?

There are many new factors to consider when it comes to hiring, managing, and retaining employees. And that’s just to find people to do the work that needs to get done for the business to operate. Then, there’s the whole aspect of the work itself! Strategizing around the kind of work companies do and how they do it will determine which organizations succeed this year.

While new B2B sales trends have emerged over the past two years, it’s safe to say that we have now moved past “pivots” and temporary adaptations to what can only be described as a B2B sales revolution. An entirely new era of B2B sales has taken shape and is continuing to evolve, transforming everything from go-to-market strategies to strategic revenue planning at B2B organizations across the globe.

Buyers’ priorities and preferences have changed requiring that sales strategies adapt to keep pace. Understanding this, well-informed B2B companies are rethinking who they sell to, how they sell, and where they sell. The sales planning changes that have resulted both internally and externally are a clear indication that there is a new face to B2B sales these days. How will that fact shape what you do next?

“Thought leadership” has officially found its place in the content marketing buzz word hall of fame. With more brands trying to become thought leaders, there are now countless resources on how to become a thought leader (some better than others!). But what many of these resources fail to address is why thought leadership is so important these days and how to rise above the noise.

“Americans’ economic ratings have declined steeply since the beginning of the year: Just 13% now describe economic conditions as excellent (1%) or good (12%), down from 28% in January. About four-in-ten (38%) describe economic conditions today as only fair, while 49% describe them as poor, roughly double the share who described the economy as poor six months ago (24%).” – Pew Research Center

Resources on the most effective sales compensation plans typically focus on maximizing revenue. The goal of these efforts is to incentivize salespeople to sell more to drive revenue growth. And while revenue generation is a goal inherently shared by all for-profit companies, a new goal is emerging these days. Today’s tight labor market has companies reconsidering their goals, causing them to prioritize employee retention.

Why is retaining employees emerging as a top business priority? The simple answer is that employee turnover is a growth killer. Churn is expensive and disruptive. High employee turnover costs money and time when new employees must be recruited, hired, and trained. It distracts management, pulling their focus away from other revenue-generating activities. It takes a toll on the loyal employees that choose to stay, making them more likely to burnout. It damages a company’s reputation, making it more difficult for them to attract top talent. For all these reasons, churn stalls growth initiatives.

In that light retaining employees is an intrinsic component of building and sustaining revenue. And yet, structuring your sales compensation plans to combat turnover requires a different approach than a revenue-maximizing approach.