In this article I will demonstrate a top executive level design I made in 2016 for a WW digital gIn this article I will demonstrate a top level growth strategy design I made in 2016 for a SaaS and software services business.
This growth strategy is based on mainly six strategic directions (themes), this design lays the foundations for this digital sales organization, subsequent programs and plans should be designed on later stages….this strategic map called “Hex-Go” consisting of six directions (themes) below:
Hex-Go strategic directions
- Sales
- People
- Partners
- Marketing
- Customer Experience
- Interlock, Incubation & integration – I3
Each of these themes is identified by three metrics:
- Objectives
- Actions
- Measures
The difference between digital sales and direct sales is basically the market size and nature of the targeted customers.
Currently, direct sales organization makes most of the revenue through working directly with large customers, however, Digital sales organization deals with SMBs thus makes less revenue.
This strategic plan is focused on increasing the Inside (Digital) Sales market share through vertical upselling to existing customers and horizontal selling to new customers.
Going in further details, I demonstrate each of the six themes and its associated metrics.
Sales
–Objectives
- Increase number of bookings by XX %
- Achieve YoY increase by YY %
–Actions
- Incrementally build on the current sales methods
- Foster rapid, energetic and innovative sales plans
- Boost vertical and horizontal sales acts
–Measures
- Review sales numbers on quarterly/monthly/weekly basis
People
–Objectives
- Having a highly skilled and well trained sales force WW
–Actions
- Select, Build, empower and foster a strong organization culture
- Training and enablement
- Incentives and rewards
–Measures
- Business reviews and Employee reviews
- HR analysis/metrics
Partners
–Objectives
- Increase number of partner bookings/leads (where applicable WW) by XX%
- Partners as brand ambassadors and secondary/primary sales force (per region)
–Actions
- Build a partners ecosystem WW
- Integrate with local partners managers WW
- Review Partners business margins
- Leverage partners recognition and rewarding
–Measures
- Regular Review partners sales numbers
- Partner surveys
Marketing
–Objectives
- Marketing department to widen sales horizons
- Marketing department to be part of total customer experience
–Actions
- Manage the quality of customer data (scope + details)
- Apply appropriate segmentation methodologies (segmentation matrix)
- Usage of state of art marketing tools and adopt innovations
–Measures
- Communication and media KPIs
- Customer data quality review
- Events/activities impact on direct sales and user experience
Customer Experience
–Objectives
- Create a total customer experience that is simple, reliable and innovative
- Review customer experience journey among all entities
–Actions
- Work on more innovative customer online experience
- Appropriate customer management tools to be in place across all functions
- Review with customer success/advocacy organizations
–Measures
- Customer reviews
- Customer online traffic/interactions
- Analysis against competition
Interlock, Incubation & integration – I3
–Objectives
- Inside sales to be fully connect with other BUs internally
- Inside sales force to have clear access channels to other BUs
–Actions
- Kick off the communication with all BUs WW
- Implement internal support models/methodologies
- Recognition to other BUs
–Measures
- Review calls/activities with other BUs
- Monitor Metrics and KPIs
The inside sales (Digital Sales) organization must be aligned with other BUs, this can demonstrated in the figure below
