How CEOs Should Improve the Buying Process to Scale Revenue

Jan 27, 2022

Author: collin stewart

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Mary Grothe is a former #1 MidMarket B2B Sales Rep and CEO of House of Revenue, a Denver-based firm of fractional Revenue Leaders. Her team currently leads the marketing, sales, customer success, and RevOps departments for 15 companies nationwide.\n

Mary joined the Predictable Revenue podcast to discuss how CEOs can remove friction from the outbound sales process and scale their company\u2019s revenue holistically.\u00a0\u00a0\n

The two stages of scaling\n

Mary defines two separate stages of a CEO\u2019s scaling journey: the start-up scale and a scaling-up phase, which begins once they hit the second stage of growth. During the start-up phase, the company is focused more on product-message fit than product-market fit, and the emphasis is on acquiring customers rather than profitability.\u00a0\n

\u201cFrom there,\u201d Mary says, \u201cOnce you get to one, two, sometimes three million in revenue, you\u2019ll start to notice that what got you to that point won\u2019t necessarily get you to the next level.\u201d That second stage of growth is what House of Revenue helps their clients navigate.\u00a0\n

At this point in the journey, you may find the infrastructure from your start-up phase no longer works. Mary offers advice on how to set yourself up for success and reach that next level as quickly as possible.\u00a0\n

Narrowing down your target market\n

\u201cWhen you start a company, you\u2019re doing it off an assumption or hypothesis,\u201d Mary says. \u201cYou\u2019ve identified a problem in the market and you\u2019ve come up with a solution.\u201d This initial phase is all about testing the hypothesis, fine-tuning your product or service, and gathering data.\n

The first step of testing your hypothesis is to narrow down your ideal customer. \u201cIf you could pick one to build your entire customer base, who would it be?\u201d Mary asks.\n

During the start-up phase, it\u2019s common to cast a wide net of outbound sales prospects. But to scale to that next level, Mary recommends having no more than one or two ideal customer profiles (ICPs), and to direct all of your sales development and marketing efforts toward that one ICP.\n

\"How\n

Using data to scale your outbound sales development\n

Mary recommends CEOs collect data in three primary areas: company, customers, and competition.\u00a0\n

Gathering internal data\n

First, Mary recommends CEOs look at their go-to-market strategy to evaluate how the brand is performing and how it\u2019s perceived by the market. She also emphasizes the importance of getting re-centered on who your customer is. A common mistake she sees companies make is ramping up outbound sales, only to get \u201cmore of what they don’t want\u201d.\u00a0\n

For example, you may be able to sell your product to a variety of different market segments and decide the best way to grow your revenue is to focus on each market equally. But if you reviewed your internal reports, not all those markets are producing equal revenue.\u00a0\n

Mary also recommends talking to your customer success and support teams to see what\u2019s working. You need to understand which initiatives are most and least effective, so you can replicate what works and replace what doesn\u2019t.\n

Customer data in sales development\n

According to Mary, voice of customer surveys are one of the most powerful tools for scaling revenue\u2013but only if used correctly. \u201cWe like to ask questions that are both subjective and objective,\u201d Mary says, to understand both the customer experience and more data-driven details.\n

Here are a few sample questions to ask your customers:\n

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