Start-up mindset. This favors action over research, and testing over analysis. Establish a brisk cadence to encourage agility and accountability: daily team check-ins, weekly 30-minute CEO reviews, and twice-a-month 60-minute reviews.
Human at the core. Companies will need to rethink their operating model based on how their people work best.
Rapid revenue response isn’t just a way to survive the crisis. It’s the next normal for how companies will have to operate. Assuming company leaders are in good SHAPE, how do they go about choosing what to do? We see three steps.
Step 1
This may include launching targeted campaigns to win back loyal customers; developing customer experiences focused on increased health and safety; adjusting pricing and promotions based on new data; reallocating spending to proven growth sources; reskilling the sales force to support remote selling; creating flexible payment terms; digitizing sales channels; and automating processes to free up sales representatives to sell more.
Step 2
Act with urgency. During the current crisis, businesses have worked faster and better than they dreamed possible just a few months ago. Maintaining that sense of possibility will be an enduring source of competitive advantage.
Step 3
Develop an agile operating model. Driven by urgency, marketing and sales leaders are increasingly willing to embrace agile methods; they are getting used to jumping on quick videoconferences to solve problems and give remote teams more decision-making authority. It’s also important, of course, for cross-functional teams not to lose sight of the long term and to avoid panic reactions.
In this sense, “agile” means putting in place a new operating model built around the customer and supported by the right processes and governance. Agile sales organizations, for example, continuously prioritize accounts and deals, and decide quickly where to invest. But this is effective only if there is a clear growth plan that sets out how to win each type of customer. Similarly, fast decision making between local sales and global business units and the rapid reallocation of resources between them require a stable sales-pipeline-management process.