Let’s be honest. You feel you’re pulling out all the stops to grow your business… but are you truly making good progress?

Is your business leaving the competition standing? Are your business results worth all the effort?

Are your team(s) pulling together and aligned – the way an unstoppable army would be? Are you sure they really understand exactly what you want them to achieve?

Lack of clarity wastes massive opportunities

Over the past two decades, I have worked with numerous companies across the UK and Europe. When I start a project, I’m often surprised how unclear my client’s objectives are.

Do they realise how much effort they are wasting?

“Increase innovation”, “Increase profit”, “Make a step improvement in sales” and “Buy a company” are extreme examples of the woolly objectives I have come across, but I am sure you get the idea.

Vagueness kills business momentum.

Good objectives work like a charm, aligning staff like nothing else. Without them you will simply waste a massive amount of effort. Worse still, no one will even be sure if you have achieved your aim – which demotivates them like nothing else.

Whatever the business result is that you wish to transform, laser clarity is essential if you wish to improve them effectively at minimum cost.

With good objectives your people will feel they can literally step into the picture.

For example:

• Increase sales by £x million with a margin of y% or
• Align sales & marketing to deliver 60 leads from our target market, each of over £z million, within 1 year – with 30% converted within 6 months
• Hone our ability to innovate until the analysts and our top 30 target customers state we are the most innovative company in the industry

Fast growing companies set laser clear objectives

I track companies growing at 15% or more, profitably, year after year. Less than 2% of companies achieve that so these firms are truly impressive.

Examples of outstanding companies:

Apogee set very precise objectives. Then they smash each one. The result, they are growing at well over 20% every single year. Their market, document management, is very competitive but they grew much larger than the rest years ago.

Apple and Kellogg Brown and Root and are two well-known companies that demonstrate beautifully how laser clarity multiplies sales growth.

Apple: Under Steve Jobs, Apple blew all our minds. The laser clarity and focus Steve brought to Apple aligned the staff like nothing else. What other company can you think of that grew from £16bn to £158bn in seven years?

Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR): During the recession, the construction industry in the UK was on its knees. Many companies went out of business. The rest held on by the skin of their teeth. Except KBR! KBR grew at 26% on average over the worst 3 years of the recession. Why? They were so laser clear about where they were headed that they worked out exactly what it would take.

Laser Clear Objectives make it easy

You see, once you have laser clear objectives, the next steps fall out easily.

• You will see how your business, product, solution etc. compares to the defined outcome. The gaps become obvious.
• Simply select the best two or three strategies to achieve your goal, choosing the focus that will deliver the best impact.
• Set a clear objective for each selected strategy.

For example, if we go back to KBR –

Strategy 1: Niche target focus: They focused on the few markets where there was still demand e.g. energy, financial services.

Strategy 2: Remove risk: Having spent time understanding their customers, they realised that, to convince them to pay for building work when the economy was so bad they would have to remove a lot of the risk. So, they helped them to work out where and what would give them the greatest return and then ensured the quality of everything they built removed all the hassle.

The benefits of laser clarity

I understand that setting laser clear objectives can be difficult. It is tough. Yet, if you decide to master this essential skill, you will never regret it.

Your team(s) will align like never before. They will enjoy all pulling in the same direction so much that they will start to co-create ways to overcome the problems they face.

They will start to see such good progress that they will easily plough their way through any barriers.

Your confidence and theirs’ will build …as will the momentum within the business. Together you will power ahead, multiplying sales and profit faster than you ever thought possible.

What is more, once you have cracked one objective, you’ll all be itching to start on the next one. You will become unstoppable – and your competitors will look on with envy.

You can do this. When will you start?

If you’d like help increasing sales growth more quickly we’d be honoured to work with you. Simply call us on 0333 123 2002 or contact me on jane@quivermanagement.com