How things have changed: The competitive marketplace has been disrupted with key trends over the last several years. The disruptions and new trends require companies to create repeatable and predictable revenue that scales:

• Digital products and services now offer unprecedented insight into buyers’ behavior.
• New sales processes and KPIs are needed with responsibilities that transcend traditional sales roles.
• Omni-channel sales and increasing role of mobile and self-service in both B2C and B2B business environments challenge the traditional sales processes.
• New models are needed to maximize revenue by making a serious commitment to engage customers and deliver a multi-touchpoint experience that is personalized and value-focused.

Who has their finger on the pulse of revenue growth (for both marketing and sales) across the entire revenue process – from prospects to leads to pipeline to revenue?

The person who can lead the way with a new kind of analysis and execution crucial to the business in today's business world is the Chief Revenue Officer, or CRO.

Chief Revenue Officers (CRO) and Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) share a common goal: to improve a company’s brand architecture and positioning, thereby driving leads, sales, and profits. For companies that already have a solid marketing platform - and even for those that do not - understanding how to provide strategic leadership to accomplish this goal can be difficult. The following considers how to leverage customer research in order to improve your position as a leader and enhance brand architecture:

Sales forecasting is not simply a necessary evil mandated by finance. The best sales leaders use revenue forecasting as a tool to manage the business, support strategic decisions, and allocate resources. Estimating sales accurately for the upcoming 12 months gives your organization foresight into where your income is really coming from and when. Sales forecasts drive decisions related to:

Last week I attended the “Getting the Deal Done Breakfast Conference” in Bellevue, WA. The topic was: “The Importance of Strategy and Culture in Middle Market Companies and Deal Making.”  The conference was outstanding with 100 attendees benefiting from the expert panel, keynote and networking.

Each day your business is evaluated by potential buyers, people using social media, publishers, critics, competitors, and employees. In the new world of media, much is revealed… for better or for worse.

There is an opportunity to be nominated for an award, but as people look at the opportunity, they are not able to think of any company or person who “deserves” the award. Or they might be thinking “Nominations take time and effort. No person or company I can think of is worth that much effort”.

Here are examples of awards you can be nominated for – or you can nominate another:

• PSBJ's Innovation Awards
  
• Leaders in Health Care Awards 2017
• SBA Small Business Award Nominations for Hawaii Open for 2017
• National Small Business Week Awards
• Small Business Person of the Year
• 100 Best Companies to Work For Awards 2017
• 2017 Washington Manufacturing Awards
• Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service

There are many associations and chambers of commerce that offer annual awards to recognize the outstanding achievements. Those people or businesses who receive awards are rewarded… with more business. People like doing business with those who have achieved success.

Some will not care about the award in and of itself as they serve not for fame but for purpose (and profit). They still recognize awards as a symbol of how their team is serving well.

Below are questions to ponder and answer. Use this opportunity to “raise the bar” with the mindset of “Good enough today is not good enough tomorrow.” The thoughts below will help you move your “good” to a new level.

 UPDATE:  11-22-2016   In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant III of the Eastern District of Texas barred the U.S. from implementing the new overtime rules, saying the new revision improperly created a salary test for determining which workers fall under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s so-called “white collar” exemption.  Read the court ruling here.  This puts the following information on a temporary hold. 

On 12/1/16 a new FLSA rule by the Department of Labor will require you to either pay an exempt (salaried) employee an hourly rate along with overtime pay or increase their pay to meet the new threshold limits of $47,476.

Under the proposed rules, the minimum salary threshold would increase from $23,660 per year ($455 per week) to $50,440 ($970 per week) in 2016. The current “highly compensated employee” exemption would increase from $100,000 to $122,148 per year. According to the DOL, as many as five million American workers who are currently exempt could become eligible for overtime protection.

To get a sales team to perform beyond expectations, we focus on these five essentials: 

• Characteristics of a High Performing Sales Team
• Hiring Best Practices – building the best team
• Data Mining – providing the right data
• CRM – the right tool for your organization
• Training - the ongoing need

In the new world of technology where distance is not a factor for production, there is a trend for staff to work remotely. The remote workers can be outsourced from around the world via a crowdworking website such as Amazon's mechanical turk, a low cost solution such as fiverr.com, or a pool of freelancers like Outsource.com.  

Remote Worker:

“ A remote worker is someone who works outside of a traditional office. An employee might work from home, from a coffee shop, or from anywhere that is not a regular office; although depending on the type of job they do, they might find themselves going into an office on occasion (if the company’s hub is geographically close to them)."