Using Your Sales Force to Jump-Start Growth

There’s a reason it’s called a sales force. Here are four innovative ways companies can use their sales reps to drive growth.

- Maryanne Hancock,Homayoun Hatami& Sunil Rayan

THERE’S NO ESCAPING the impact of the sales force on your company’s growth trajectory. This is the frontline group best placed to gain an intimate understanding of existing customers, to observe the forces at work in an industry, and to identify potential new business. During the past year, we interviewed about 100 sales executives around the world, across a range of industries, to identify the critical elements that distinguish true sales leaders from also-rans. This article highlights four intriguing ideas the executives described for leveraging the sales force to jump-start growth. Together, these suggestions offer practical insights for sales groups, as well as a starting point for discussions among CEOs and other senior managers hoping to get more from sales and marketing investments.

LOOK OVER THE HORIZON

The sudden arrival of a truly disruptive technology — one that upends markets in ways few anticipate — presents obvious challenges to industry incumbents. Yet it’s also a huge growth opportunity. One supplier of parts to high-tech manufacturers has created a team of ‘speculative market analysts’ to better identify the emergence of disruptive technologies and to predict their business implications. The team helps the company to position itself as a supplier that’s ahead of the curve and to enjoy superior sales growth while competitors scramble to catch up.