HIGH GROWTH BUSINESS BUILDING SCALEABLE, SUSTAINABLE SALES DEVELOPMENT FOR HIGH GROWTH COMPANIES

1. www.mercuri.net
For more information contact: Richard Higham, Global Sector Head
Tel: +44 (0) 330 9000 800 richard-higham@mercuri.co.uk
HIGH GROWTH
BUSINESS
BUILDING
SCALEABLE, SUSTAINABLE SALES
DEVELOPMENT FOR HIGH GROWTH
COMPANIES
A Mercuri International White Paper Page 1 (3)
Meet the challenge of high growth
Our goal is to help you increase the value of your
businesses by creating demonstrable, sustainable sales
growth. Mercuri International has been helping
businesses win, grow and manage their clients for over
50 years and we work in more than 40 countries. We
can bring a clarity, a credibility and a convincing
business case to sales growth either at the point you
receive funding or in the lead-up to an exit.
We recognise the strengths of entrepreneurs who have
grown their business to the current point. Our focus is
on growing the top-line and margins to complement the
business initiatives you may have already taken.
Here are some of the issues we encounter in the high-
growth area.
Making success scalable
Often growth has been achieved through the experience
and commitment of one or two talented individuals. The
passion, knowledge and energy of the principal(s)
drives success. But to realise the real value of the
business at exit there needs to be a scalable sales
methodology. This might mean:
 Developing an effective and repeatable induction for
new sellers
 Mapping a sales process to optimise conversion
ratios at each step and providing effective selling
and coaching tools.
 Validating and if needed upgrading the skills of
existing sellers.
 Reinforcing professional sales management to
reduce the reliance on the principal(s) for day-to-
day sales management.
Potential purchasers or investors will be looking for
evidence that your past sales growth can be replicated
and that you will not hit a sales capacity ceiling.
Proving sales potential
In many of the businesses we have worked with there is
clarity about the results to be achieved and clarity about
the strategy for achieving them. But all too often the
gap between strategy and result is a bit of a mystery –
sometimes described as “the black box of sales” or “the
mysterious domain of talented individuals”.
While other aspects of the business usually have well
mapped plans and processes (e.g. financial,
operational) sales often appears to be a less predictable

2. Winning growing and managing clients in professional services firms Page 2 (3)
www.mercuri.net
For more information contact: Richard Higham
Tel+44 (0) 330 9000 800 or richard-higham@mercuri.co.uk
and manageable part of the business. If the process is
not clearly defined, potential investors are likely to
discount the value of the business. But if they can see
evidence of how past growth has been achieved and
see robust plans for future growth their confidence and
the valuation will increase.
Moving out of the bridgehead
In a rapidly growing business it is all too easy to win a
piece of business but then to fail to capitalise on it. The
exciting bit is winning the opportunity. But then another
enquiry comes in and we move onto the next exciting
opportunity. But the real profit often lies in developing
the existing opportunities – moving out of the hard-won
bridgehead. This requires different approaches such as
cross-selling and account management. One of the key
value creators for a business will be the repeat business
from established key customers (coupled of course with
evidence of an effective new business acquisition
process).
Avoiding feast and famine
Managing a high-growth sales strategy is not easy. All
too often a successful sales push leads to pressures on
capacity. Sales efforts are scaled back until it is
realised that business is slowing down again. At this
point sales efforts are re-energised. This stop-start
approach is understandable but is a very inefficient way
of working. What is needed instead is a “continuous
flow” approach which balances looking after existing
relationships, converting live opportunities and
identifying future opportunities.
A continuous stream of interactions
This is all the more important in longer and more
complex buying cycles. We need to be in the right place
at the right time but the times we want to sell are not
always the times the customer wants to buy! What is
needed is a light-touch “continuous stream of
interactions” that keeps us “front of mind” with the
prospect without irritating them or wasting valuable and
limited resources. Getting this right will result in our
keeping our place in what one CEO describes as key
contacts’ “relevant sets”.
Active sales management
One issue we see in high-growth companies is a gap in
structured sales management. The principals usually
start by doing the sales themselves. The sellers are
hired and if they are successful the principals withdraw
from much of the selling. They get involved in
challenging deals and big relationships, particularly
where there is a strong personal element to the
relationship. But this means that sales management
often swings between laissez-faire and tactical
intervention. Effective, appropriate sales management
reduces commercial and reputational risk, gives the
principals confidence and will highlight problems before
they impact the business.
The starting point
These challenges and opportunities are real, significant
and difficult to address; but the prizes from addressing
them successfully are great.
All this is only worth doing if it will build the value of the
business. When forming the business case consider
not only share of today’s wallet but opportunity to grow
overall spend. Focus on the “white space”. Measure
the risk of not improving. Ask yourself what proofs
future investors will want. What impact will this have on
the business and its investors this year and beyond?
What’s in it for all concerned? Make the case clearly
and convincingly.
Based on what we see high-growth companies work on
effectively and based on our strong but transferrable
approaches we highlight the following areas to
concentrate on:
if investors can see evidence of
how past growth has been
achieved and see robust plans for
future growth, their confidence
and the valuation will increase.

3. Winning growing and managing clients in professional services firms Page 3 (3)
www.mercuri.net
For more information contact: Richard Higham
Tel+44 (0) 330 9000 800 or richard-higham@mercuri.co.uk
Skills diagnosis
Use Mercuri International’s Online Competence
Benchmark to identify the current skills of your
customer-facing people and the gaps that need to be
filled to achieve your goals and execute your strategy.
Sales process design
Depending on the strategy there should be clear, well
mapped sales processes for one or more of:
 New customer acquisition
 Cross selling/ account development
 Channel management
In practice this involves a small Mercuri team working
with a few key people from the business in a series of
steps
1. Map the “as is” and define the “should be”
situations. Create an initial process map.
2. Identify critical success factors at each point in the
sales process e.g. best and average conversion
ratios, tools needed at each point.
3. Review the first draft together. Validate findings,
identify barriers and gaps.
4. Refine the process.
5. Review changes, sign off
6. Launch.
This is typically a 4-6 week project.
Skills development
A range of workshops from selling skills through to key
account management. Available either for a group from
your business or for an individual attending Mercuri
International Sales Academy events.
Includes development for sales managers.
Deployment
A strong set of resources to support implementation
including video shorts, e-learning modules, podcasts.
Durability
Measure the impact on the business and integrate into
Business As Usual.
Conclusions
We trust that this paper will have stimulated your
thinking – confirming some points and challenging you
to rethink in others.
If this paper has resonated with you then Mercuri
International is well-positioned to work with you.
One example:
The situation:
Technology business selling into broadcasters
and film. At £50Mn T/O, EBIT was minimal. The
challenge was to lift top line by at least 10%.
With high fixed costs covered by current sales
most of new income should drop to bottom line.
Mercuri’s contribution
 Customer analysis (MI-CLEAR) to gain a
transparent view of what customers liked,
disliked and viewed as important.
 Online sales competence tool to analyse
the sales organisation.
 Practical development of sales people i.
The challenge was to an intensive scenario
based “sales accelerator”
 Skills, toolkit and coaching support for
sales managers
Some outcomes
Measured improvements
 Selling skills improved by 38%
 Confidence in selling by 35%
Comment from participants: “
 We had been selling to … for over two
years without success. We went in after
the training and used the techniques we
learned and won a $700,000 order. I have
no doubt that this turnaround was because
of the Mercuri project.
The following 9 months saw a 29% increase in
gross profit
Three years later EBIT was at ~$15Mn