Business Development for High Growth Start Ups

Defining a High Growth companyAs a Venture Capital backed technology organisation bringing a disruptive new proposition to market, there is tremendous pressure to deliver strong year-on-year revenue growth and to demonstrate a stable go-to-market model in order to satisfy investors who are eager to achieve the highest valuation at the point of exit.

The organisations which most successfully cross the chasm into mainstream adoption and make it big are those that are best able to commercialise their offering and create a high performing sales execution engine which capitalises on the window of opportunity available.

Achieving a dominant market leadership position early is crucialThat said, a strong, consistent growth strategy is immediately hampered by virtue of the fact that the service or technology is new and the market has a limited (or no) understanding of the offering and the value it truly brings. Disruptive new ways of working are inherently a riskier option than maintaining the status quo so it is essential to gain Senior Executive support early in the sales cycle. Although some early adopters might just ‘get it’, for the more pragmatic majority, selling feature/function isn’t enough.

It is essential to build a go-to-market model which focuses not only on pitching technology, but more importantly articulates the business value of the offering.

Repeatability and exponential growth will come from consistently demonstrating to prospects how the value of the business outcomes outweigh the potential for risk and disruption. Traditional demand generation models struggle to support this style of selling; leaving field sales teams engaged too low and without the insight they need to demonstrate value. High volume ‘project hunting’ approaches to identify BANT qualified explicit opportunities usually fail in an early stage market where traditional qualification indicators such as budget and timeframe do not exist until they are created as part of the sales process.

A more commercially focused Business Development capability is needed to better support the growth strategyThis capability needs to be able to open engagements with senior stakeholders and tailor positioning to make the proposition as relevant as possible to different verticals and buyer personas. It should possess the sales skills to articulate the offering in the context of the business outcomes it can deliver as well as thoroughly explore each prospect’s business issues and goals. This will accurately gauge the level of time/effort/investment that the prospect/business is willing to put into the process, what the alternatives are and the appetite to do something differently.

Clarify’s best-in-class business development capability reduces the ramp up time of new sales heads, keeping the team lean and healthy as it creates a qualified and well developed pipeline to increase sales productivity. Senior stakeholder engagement means average order values increase and integration with marketing programmes allows all leads to be managed efficiently, nurtured and properly qualified before the hand-over to sales. As a result improving returns on marketing investment.

To find out more about how Clarify has helped other high growth start-ups to scale their business rapidly, please contact +44 (0) 1189 126800 or e-mail info@clarify-uk.com

We can help you to scale the sales organisation with less risk. We can build pipeline in advance of new hires joining meaning you cut ramp-up times and reduce the peaks and troughs in sales performance that are otherwise commonplace and severely disrupt growth and linearity.

As the business grows, it will start to acquire new customers, but more importantly these will be the ‘right type’ of customers which has a direct, positive impact on the value of the business when looking for investment, IPO or acquisition.

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