www.mercuri.net

For more information contact: Richard Higham, Global Sector Head

Tel: +44 (0) 330 9000 800 richard-higham@mercuri.co.uk

HIGH GROWTH

BUSINESS

BUILDING

SCALEABLE, SUSTAINABLE SALES

DEVELOPMENT FOR HIGH GROWTH

COMPANIES

A Mercuri International White Paper Page 1 (3)

Meet the challenge of high growth

Our goal is to help you increase the value of your

businesses by creating demonstrable, sustainable sales

growth. Mercuri International has been helping

businesses win, grow and manage their clients for over

50 years and we work in more than 40 countries. We

can bring a clarity, a credibility and a convincing

business case to sales growth either at the point you

receive funding or in the lead-up to an exit.

We recognise the strengths of entrepreneurs who have

grown their business to the current point. Our focus is

on growing the top-line and margins to complement the

business initiatives you may have already taken.

Here are some of the issues we encounter in the high-

growth area.

Making success scalable

Often growth has been achieved through the experience

and commitment of one or two talented individuals. The

passion, knowledge and energy of the principal(s)

drives success. But to realise the real value of the

business at exit there needs to be a scalable sales

methodology. This might mean:

Developing an effective and repeatable induction for

new sellers

Mapping a sales process to optimise conversion

ratios at each step and providing effective selling

and coaching tools.

Validating and if needed upgrading the skills of

existing sellers.

Reinforcing professional sales management to

reduce the reliance on the principal(s) for day-to-

day sales management.

Potential purchasers or investors will be looking for

evidence that your past sales growth can be replicated

and that you will not hit a sales capacity ceiling.

Proving sales potential

In many of the businesses we have worked with there is

clarity about the results to be achieved and clarity about

the strategy for achieving them. But all too often the

gap between strategy and result is a bit of a mystery –

sometimes described as “the black box of sales” or “the

mysterious domain of talented individuals”.

While other aspects of the business usually have well

mapped plans and processes (e.g. financial,

operational) sales often appears to be a less predictable

Winning growing and managing clients in professional services firms Page 2 (3)

www.mercuri.net

For more information contact: Richard Higham

Tel+44 (0) 330 9000 800 or richard-higham@mercuri.co.uk

and manageable part of the business. If the process is

not clearly defined, potential investors are likely to

discount the value of the business. But if they can see

evidence of how past growth has been achieved and

see robust plans for future growth their confidence and

the valuation will increase.

Moving out of the bridgehead

In a rapidly growing business it is all too easy to win a

piece of business but then to fail to capitalise on it. The

exciting bit is winning the opportunity. But then another

enquiry comes in and we move onto the next exciting

opportunity. But the real profit often lies in developing

the existing opportunities – moving out of the hard-won

bridgehead. This requires different approaches such as

cross-selling and account management. One of the key

value creators for a business will be the repeat business

from established key customers (coupled of course with

evidence of an effective new business acquisition

process).

Avoiding feast and famine

Managing a high-growth sales strategy is not easy. All

too often a successful sales push leads to pressures on

capacity. Sales efforts are scaled back until it is

realised that business is slowing down again. At this

point sales efforts are re-energised. This stop-start

approach is understandable but is a very inefficient way

of working. What is needed instead is a “continuous

flow” approach which balances looking after existing

relationships, converting live opportunities and

identifying future opportunities.

A continuous stream of interactions

This is all the more important in longer and more

complex buying cycles. We need to be in the right place

at the right time but the times we want to sell are not

always the times the customer wants to buy! What is

needed is a light-touch “continuous stream of

interactions” that keeps us “front of mind” with the

prospect without irritating them or wasting valuable and

limited resources. Getting this right will result in our

keeping our place in what one CEO describes as key

contacts’ “relevant sets”.

Active sales management

One issue we see in high-growth companies is a gap in

structured sales management. The principals usually

start by doing the sales themselves. The sellers are

hired and if they are successful the principals withdraw

from much of the selling. They get involved in

challenging deals and big relationships, particularly

where there is a strong personal element to the

relationship. But this means that sales management

often swings between laissez-faire and tactical

intervention. Effective, appropriate sales management

reduces commercial and reputational risk, gives the

principals confidence and will highlight problems before

they impact the business.

The starting point

These challenges and opportunities are real, significant

and difficult to address; but the prizes from addressing

them successfully are great.

All this is only worth doing if it will build the value of the

business. When forming the business case consider

not only share of today’s wallet but opportunity to grow

overall spend. Focus on the “white space”. Measure

the risk of not improving. Ask yourself what proofs

future investors will want. What impact will this have on

the business and its investors this year and beyond?

What’s in it for all concerned? Make the case clearly

and convincingly.

Based on what we see high-growth companies work on

effectively and based on our strong but transferrable

approaches we highlight the following areas to

concentrate on:

if investors can see evidence of how past growth has been achieved and see robust plans for future growth, their confidence and the valuation will increase.

Winning growing and managing clients in professional services firms Page 3 (3)

www.mercuri.net

For more information contact: Richard Higham

Tel+44 (0) 330 9000 800 or richard-higham@mercuri.co.uk

Skills diagnosis

Use Mercuri International’s Online Competence

Benchmark to identify the current skills of your

customer-facing people and the gaps that need to be

filled to achieve your goals and execute your strategy.

Sales process design

Depending on the strategy there should be clear, well

mapped sales processes for one or more of:

New customer acquisition

Cross selling/ account development

Channel management

In practice this involves a small Mercuri team working

with a few key people from the business in a series of

steps

1. Map the “as is” and define the “should be”

situations. Create an initial process map.

2. Identify critical success factors at each point in the

sales process e.g. best and average conversion

ratios, tools needed at each point.

3. Review the first draft together. Validate findings,

identify barriers and gaps.

4. Refine the process.

5. Review changes, sign off

6. Launch.

This is typically a 4-6 week project.

Skills development

A range of workshops from selling skills through to key

account management. Available either for a group from

your business or for an individual attending Mercuri

International Sales Academy events.

Includes development for sales managers.

Deployment

A strong set of resources to support implementation

including video shorts, e-learning modules, podcasts.

Durability

Measure the impact on the business and integrate into

Business As Usual.

Conclusions

We trust that this paper will have stimulated your

thinking – confirming some points and challenging you

to rethink in others.

If this paper has resonated with you then Mercuri

International is well-positioned to work with you.

One example:

The situation:

Technology business selling into broadcasters

and film. At £50Mn T/O, EBIT was minimal. The

challenge was to lift top line by at least 10%.

With high fixed costs covered by current sales

most of new income should drop to bottom line.

Mercuri’s contribution

Customer analysis (MI-CLEAR) to gain a transparent view of what customers liked, disliked and viewed as important.

Online sales competence tool to analyse the sales organisation.

Practical development of sales people i. The challenge was to an intensive scenario based “sales accelerator”

Skills, toolkit and coaching support for sales managers

Some outcomes

Measured improvements

Selling skills improved by 38%

Confidence in selling by 35%

Comment from participants: “

We had been selling to … for over two years without success. We went in after the training and used the techniques we learned and won a $700,000 order. I have no doubt that this turnaround was because of the Mercuri project.

The following 9 months saw a 29% increase in gross profit

Three years later EBIT was at ~$15Mn