Your SME and SMB CEO has an important role to play in the sustainability of your organization. It’s not just about leading the organization, either.
Small and medium enterprises and businesses – SME and SMB – constantly struggle up and down the slippery slope of maintaining a consistent level of revenue generation. There are solid quarters and not-so-solid quarters. Having two months of operating capital to pay expenses and make payroll can be overwhelming.
There’s no job security in that scenario.
That’s why a SME and SMB CEO who leads the sales initiative is critical. That decision can move your small business into the next stage: becoming a midsize one. That strategy means your CEO takes an active role in selling.
That strategy means that your CEO leverages their CEO-ness.
Here are 4 ways your SME and SMB CEO can jumpstart your company’s sales. Is it time to put a few of these into play?
1. SME and SMB CEO:Stop telling the sales team to “sell more.” They already know that. That’s delegating your company’s future to the sales team without any true parameters or oversight. The real issues are how and why your sales team is selling the way they do to the types of customers they target. Can your CEO provide better targets for your sales team?
2. SME and SMB CEO: Lead the sales initiative by CEO leadership example. It’s valuable when the CEO is able to clearly articulate the value that your company’s products, services and platforms bring to various marketplaces. Is your CEO capable of this type of discourse with Buyers? Is your CEO able to communicate and direct the sales team in their sales strategy?
3. Roll up your SME and SMB CEO sleeves and work cross-functionally. It’s powerful if the CEO is able to work side by side with the sales reps on more complex sales involving larger and more lucrative contracts. Otherwise you run the risk of inconsistent sales team productivity. Your reps will “sell more” low-price work to make their numbers. Will their numbers sustain your organization?
4. Leverage your SME and SMB influence at the industry organization level. Your CEO is a member of various professional organizations in targeted industry verticals, right? If not, it’s high time to become involved. The relationships forged with other peer SME and SMB CEOs at industry events allow for identifying strengths, weaknesses, competitive differentiation and potential partnerships. How can you tell your sales team to “sell more” when you don’t have a clear understanding of what’s actually going on in today’s globally competitive marketplace?
If you could sit down with your CEO today, what else would you add to this list?
Babette N. Ten Haken, President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers®, LLC, is a management consultant and business coach. She helps startups and small-to-medium manufacturing and service companies who have difficulty with unpredictable revenue streams. Top Sales World named Babette one of the Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers and Bloggers in 2013 and again in 2014.
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