How To Leverage Collaboration To Enhance Enterprise Growth

October 17, 2013

Accelerating profitable revenue requires creativity on the part of both managers and their sales teams. Few organizations will ever be able to make it out of periods of slow revenue growth if they aren’t constantly analyzing what’s going wrong and thinking of innovative ways to improve long-term performance.

This strategy requires a substantial amount of collaboration among internal members of a business. Employees must depend on each other to monitor performance and encourage hard work. Managers also rely heavily on the ability to use sales coaching to maximize enterprise growth as quickly as possible. However, teamwork isn’t the only effective strategy available to small and medium-sized enterprises. According to Business 2 Community, enlisting customers into the larger sales acceleration process is more important than ever before.

How exactly can businesses leverage the participation of their own target clients to improve overall performance?

Cast a wide net
The ability to work closely with customers allows organizations of any size to fill the gaps that exist in the perceptions people have at both ends of the spectrum. Business 2 Community said buyers aren’t necessarily aware of the full capabilities of the company selling them products or services. Similarly, firms often struggle to understand the unique preferences of their individual clients. The source suggested bringing customers and sales employees together in more collaborative ways can have positive impacts on overall business success. In fact, Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, wrote in Harvard Business Review about the importance of keeping as many constituents as possible involved in company process.

“The new CEO needs to signal from inception that the organization will be a big tent that welcomes diversity, not a monoculture with only people who resemble the CEO,” Martin wrote.

This concept holds true not only for internal culture, but for overall external sales strategies, as well. 

Collaborate, but take the lead
As much as meaningful interaction with customers is essential to long-term business success, companies should be sure to initiate this relationship. Business 2 Community said buyers, whether in the business-to-business or business-to-consumer landscapes, typically prefer to work with organizations that have a visible sense of confidence. In fact, while the process may be collaborative at the start, customers may soon step away and let the business take over once they feel they have developed a substantial amount of trust.

Be more social
Mark Boncheck, chief catalyst at the business strategy firm Orbit and Co. wrote in a separate article in Harvard Business Review that social media can have an overall positive impact on the ability to sell directly to consumers. According to him, involving clients in discussions about how to improve products and services depends on the availability of a robust network of engaged individuals with common interests. 

“Each individual product and each user benefits from being part of a community of fellow products and users,” Boncheck said. 

Sales consulting services can help businesses of any size think of creative ways to generate revenue and maximize results from existing customers.