Hitting Revenue Targets in 2023

2023 is here, with most companies starting fiscal years at the turn of the calendar year or February 1st. Perfect timing to get deep into how sales teams can approach hitting revenue numbers in 2023, with teams looking to consolidate technology and save cash. Eddie Hanson, Josh Gregg, and Erik Dunnigan broke down how they’re leading their organizations into the current climate with a mindset of hitting the revenue number. They shared how they’re structuring their teams, how their reps are being positioned to grow their largest accounts and the strategy they’re using to win more enterprise deals. You can check out the replay here.

Identifying The Right Accounts

Account planning isn’t new, teams have done it for decades. For most, it is a plan in a slide deck that you share with your boss and leadership at SKO, or a QBR that doesn’t get looked at until the week before the next sync-up. 2023 is forcing all of us to do more with less, and a large part of that is getting closer to customers than ever before and identifying the proper accounts to drive growth. But how do you do that? What is the benefit of going through the exercise and consistently working with customers?

• Use CRM data to find the best accounts to grow. Which accounts end up purchasing with you multiple times?
• Find customers in industries not getting hit as hard economically
• Which industries or company types rarely churn
• Customers with different teams that could use your product or service but aren’t

As Josh Gregg, Vice President of Strategic Accounts, Qt.io said:

“Think about your boss, they come to you with a fully thought out plan of where you’re currently at, what your goals and objectives are for the next year and a sense of how they’re going to help you accelerate your career growth. Customers are no different, they appreciate when we come to them with a strong POV and comprehensive plan for helping them achieve the results they want”. 

Multi-Threading

The number of people involved in decisions to make substantive purchases in B2B businesses continues to evolve. You’re seeing more CFOs directly involved, and other senior leaders that typically delegate purchasing decisions to their subordinates. As this trend becomes more permanent, building trust, credibility, and winning deals starts with one thing: RELATIONSHIPS.

Erik Dunnigan and Eddie Hanson continued to reiterate the importance of coming up with a strong POV to multiple stakeholders, whether a customer or an important opportunity. Turnover and transition of accounts is constant, and far too often deals or customers are lost over knowledge transfer and a lack of a relationship. 

Map out all of the people you sell to, and then begin looking for who you don’t know. Josh Gregg made terrific points about the gaps in account management due to not thinking about who isn’t on your map, or the radar of engagement. Some other ideas for multi-threading, start with who you know. Are there any pre-existing relationships? 

As you uncover more information, share it with the client! Get their input on who else needs to be involved, are there any concerns or threats your team needs to be aware of and address? The power of multi-threading comes down to leveraging the relationships to proactively identify issues that can derail your success. 

Other ways they suggest identifying the right people:

• Typical contacts engaged on deals you win
• Who are the people that were missing in the deals you lost?
• Stakeholders that have derailed conversations previously
• Leveraging leadership for peer-to-peer engagement

A key theme in business is people buy from people. All three of these leaders stressed the importance of documenting, sharing, and acting on the account and relationship knowledge you gather over time.

Mutual Action Plans

Lastly, turning all of this effort into action is an absolute must. The team broke down the ways their teams do that. Their best practices and advice are laid out below. This includes:

• A clear understanding of the company’s goals and objectives
• More granular to the business unit
• Personal KPIs, challenges in their day-to-day, what keeps them up
• Roles and responsibilities are laid out with visibility, accountability, and collaboration throughout the process of retaining and growing the account
• Monitoring key tasks, objectives, and customer sentiment 
• Quantify the impact on sales cycles, win rates, retention rates
• Needs to be an active, living breathing plan within the walls of your CRM

Hitting revenue targets in 2023 are going to be a challenge. The first half of the year appears poised to present substantive challenges to winning new business with more people involved, more data and business cases needed, and more buy-in from a collective team to make investments. Find your best customers, strategize on ways to help them find value, and you’re on the right track to driving steady growth from that group.