Building an Ambitious Sales Team: Moving from Incremental to Exponential Growth

Think Bigger, Achieve Bigger

Divorce ambition from quota. For a person in sales, that might sound counterintuitive. Working toward a quota is the best way to measure progress, right? Not if that quota keeps you thinking small. In reality, freeing yourself to get a little uncomfortable and explore all your options – even the big, bold ideas that may not fit into conventional metrics – can set you up for far greater success.

True, overcoming “regular growth thinking” is challenging. With daily competing priorities, it can be tough to keep the focus on growing existing clients and finding new business. Many organizations set quotas and create incentives for beating those numbers, but calculate them based on a 2-3x growth rate. By setting the bar too low and aiming for predetermined numbers, there’s a good chance you’re leave opportunities untapped. That’s where ambitious thinking – 10x thinking – comes into play.

Just imagine, what if you could:

• Drive growth beyond the standard 2x or even 10% growth each year?
• Grow your existing relationships with mutual goals and achievements?
• Identify and minimize non-revenue activities?
• Build a sustainable, measurable action plan that achieves goals and objectives with documented strategies and tactics that keep your team focused?

The way to get there is by thinking bigger, and then executing on those big thoughts with a solid plan – a GOST plan. Short for “Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Tactics,” a GOST provides a detailed roadmap for how to win, retain and grow your business. Done right, it’s practically foolproof.

Building Your GOST

Once you’ve determined your bold, pie-in-the-sky vision for next-level success, you’re ready to craft your GOST plan. Start by asking yourself important questions like:

Goals

1.) What are the finite list of Goals that, if accomplished, will define success?

2.) If you achieve all of these, do you win?

Objectives

1.) What are the specific, measurable milestones that must be achieved in order to realize the parent Goal?

2.) If all Objectives are met, do you reach the Goal?

Strategies

1.) How are you going to achieve the parent Objective? What is the plan of action that needs to occur to realize it?

2.) If all the Strategies are successfully executed, do you achieve the parent Objective?

Tactics

1.) What tasks/actions need to be completed in order to execute your Strategy?

2.) If all the tasks/actions are completed, have you successfully executed your Strategy?

Putting It into Action

If you’re wondering what all of this looks like in action, then your next “tactic” is to view our recent webinar, Building an Ambitious Sales Team: Moving from Incremental to Exponential Growth. Watch as Alegeus sales experts Dennis Sorenson, Senior Vice President of Sales; Keith Butler, Solution Sales Engineer; and Mandy Scott, Senior Account Manager, share insights on the power of ambitious thinking and assertive execution – offering new ways to work strategically and grow your business exponentially.