“Plans are only good intentions, unless they immediately degenerate into hard work”

Peter Ducker

If you know your strategy, have chosen your beachhead market(s) and defined your target group, we help you to reach them!

But as we don’t have several months for contemplating over strategy or market research, execution also has to be very effective. Out of the 3 factors that potential partners/customers take into account when making a business or purchasing decision (PRICE, QUALITY, SPEED) speed has become the decisive factor against competition, as quality is a must in an international environment and price usually plays a role when the value propositions are comparable in every other respect. We also experience the shortening of innovation and product lifecycles, startups reach a unicorn status faster than ever before. This all means go-to-market strategies have to be quickly executed.

IT companies have been using lean and agile methodologies already for a long time to develop software. But this attitude can be applied in sales and marketing, too:

• after developing their strategies, lean companies immediately start testing their products, USPs, value proposition on real companies and based on the feedback modify and fine-tune pricing, UX, business model, etc.
• in case of certain new technologies, innovative solutions – no matter how well you prepare your strategy and market research – there are simply no answers to many dilemmas for instance which sales channels will be the most effective for you; however, with the use of innovative technologies or simply conducting a couple of days research, it is possible to find benchmarks and some data that gives you a good basis and orientation
• many startups (like Avatao for instance) have more business models to be tested, 3-4 niche target segments at sight – in this case it is crucial to talk to as many potential clients as possible, gather feedback, draw conclusions and apply it to the strategy; it is only effective if there are small, quick iterations
• the ultimate goal of sales and marketing is success measured by revenue and profit: if we don’t lose sight, then we can reach this goal by being effective, agile and flexible

And this is exactly Absolvo’s approach: to go out to the market and execute the strategy, be flexible, learn the lessons, fine-tune, go on and succeed! In order to be really successful and get an insight into your potential clients’ way of thinking, sales and marketing teams have to combine this attitude with the following toolset:

• a database of the potential targets, contact details of decision-makers and all stakeholders
• a CRM system where you can collect feedbacks, check the status of your prospects, etc. (you can also start with an excel sheet, just make sure it is easy-to-use and contains all important information)
• a collection of the most common objections (or FAQs) and how to respond to them
• marketing and sales processes tailored to your product/industry
• a weekly action plan with measurable goals and KPIs, quarterly milestones
• a strategic approach that gives valuable feedback to marketing concerning refining your marketing and sales messages, whether the target group should be more precisely defined, concerning the competition’s strategy, etc.
• a positive attitude, as sales people receive more rejection than positive feedback

In case you are a startup, most probably you do not have the tools tailored to your product and your company, there is not yet a proven sales structure. However, we have seen many SMEs and scale-ups that lacked structured tools and methodologies, too and it would take a long time for them to build them from scratch. Absolvo’s experts are there to save you time and speed up your scaling.

Don’t forget: strategy is about execution.

Sales and marketing are no rocket science, but need to have a strategic structure and have to be based upon benchmarks, numbers, ROI (if you hear the opposite, you are being mislead!!!). Successful sales and marketing experts know these basics and have done it several times, working with them significantly reduces the learning curve of your organisation.

Absolvo’s offering to your venture concerning strategy execution is:

• setting up the (international) marketing and sales processes and structures
• finding you the leaks in your sales organisation and structure (many companies are not meeting the growth targets, but they don’t know why)
• realistic, feasible action plan based on the strategy
• senior support in the implementation
• sales task force that can help you in the execution