For growing into a sustainable company, Startups go through three distinct phases: Designing the product, selling the product and maintaining the business in the market. On this last phase we can take concrete actions like; evolving the product and service offerings, streamlining operations, modifying the sales organizations and others.
Here you have 7 tips for companies preparing the growing process.
1 .Establish a customer-success team
If it hasn’t been done already, establish a customer-success team with the goal of maintaining customers for a long time. Measure and incentivize this team by gross churn.
Significant attention needs to shift from securing new customers to retaining and selling to current customers
2 . Invest in product marketing
Consider vertical sales and marketing teams based on industry, use cases and/or products. Establish a product-marketing team in charge of writing marketing requirement documents for products; these are called MRDs for products, creating sales collateral , developing customer advisory boards, messaging, and pricing, and simplifying product packaging.
There will be a diminishing productivity rate, largely because the salesforce is no longer only comprised by the founder. Counteract this by making sales easier.
3. Take a channel strategy
While a channel strategy isn’t for everyone, most companies opt for a combined direct and channel approach . It is a must to be patient, but also very critical of progress.
Determine if the channel’s sales team has the required knowledge to sell the product. Make sure they are correctly motivated to sell the product through a sales performance incentive fund , but consider compensating them in other ways, too. Allocate enough pre- and post-sales support
4. Check product offerings
Challenge situations and consider new opportunities, including ones that would require more risks.
You can ask these questions: Can products be eliminated to double down on the successful ones? How profitable is each product line? How can the product’s market be increased? How can the average revenue per unit be grown? How can the product sales cycle be shortened to reduce the overall cost of sales? How can post-sales maintenance costs are reduced?
5. Make tighter controls
While the company grows, the risk of losing control of spending and approval processes rise. So allocate resources to regulations and document-required. Make tighter controls that ensure compliance.
6. Open new channels of communication
Companies in the growth phase are typically large enough to switch from having two levels of management; for example, directors and vice-presidents to three levels of management, and the staff also increasing.
You can establish a culture of transparency. Schedule periodic meetings for all groups with all company workers. Each senior executive should spend a significant portion of time to obtain an in-person assessment and encourage contact with all employees.
Challenge situations and consider new opportunities, including ones that would require more risks.
7. Establish goals and key performance indicators in place
On the beginning Initial start-ups decisions are often made by intuition, but as the company grows, they must be checked by data collected and monitored regularly across the whole company.
Key performance indicators attainment should be shared transparently across the organization, and compensation should be tied to them also.
Leaders at every level must define and track key yearly and quarterly goals.
BONUS TIP: Outsource the payroll
Choosing to outsource the payroll does not mean, we don’t have any blame for an unwanted situation it might occur. We can avoid investing in training and payroll software. These are reasons why choose an outsourced service is a right choice.
All we will have to do, is to provide a person with basic knowledge of the payroll function, who will be the connection with the outsource service . It is necessary a person in charge for making decisions. The outsource service like payroll in chile, has a detailed service level agreement, so we can contract the services we require from the outsource service, keeping in-house others.