Rich Laster’s Methodology for Revenue Operations Growth
Since starting my career in 1998, and launching my consultancy on May 7th of 2001, I have had one vision burning inside of me: to empower great business leaders to grow their companies without abandoning the authenticity of the value they deliver to the marketplace. Our E.D.G.E.™ Framework, business model, and every offering exists to meet the client where they are, fully understand where they seek to go (the goal/ their definition of success), and move them towards that goal in such a way that their revenue growth is positive, repeatable, and scalable. The following is our proprietary methodology for achieving those results.
Evaluate
We are unable to service your specific business without having a clear understanding of:
Your Offering
Every good business began by seeing a unique need or want in the marketplace, and building a product or service to fulfill it. However, great businesses listen & engage with the understanding that the offering represents a value to the marketplace which they cannot afford to research or guess but must ask the buyer to ensure Product-Market Fit, willingness to pay, an understanding of offering use cases, and the buyer’s true pain points.
Your Client
This is done wrong 9 times out of 10 by our competitors. Ideal Client Profile (ICP) Demographic and Psychographic market research is for startups who haven’t done this work while developing their Minimally Viable Product (MVP) but, for established businesses, the most reliable data on your client is first found in your CRM. Who have you served, both successfully and unsuccessfully, is a very simple question IF your offering was built with them in mind. Once we know who your client is, we go deeper to understand what they value & why they buy.
Your Messaging
Once the first two elements of this stage are complete, you are armed with a clear, concise, and compelling Unique Value Proposition (UVP). It is important that we not glaze over the word ‘Unique’ as it hinges on the differentiator of your offering, AS YOUR BUYER’S KNOW IT. Your ego may want to tell the world how great you are, and all that you can do for them -this is folly. We will work together to engineer your UVP-Centered messaging to speak solely of the value you represent to your client (ICP), and the exact pain point(s) that your offering is the solution to.
Drive
Armed with the results of the Evaluate stage, your Sales and Marketing teams are prepared to work in unison to effectively Target, Engage, and Convert opportunities to deliver the value of your offering to the marketplace.
Target
Knowing who your best client is empowers us to execute our market research methods to enable the production of high conversion MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) by your inbound and outbound marketing efforts. Our “special sauce” here is the way in which we teach your marketing team to target the ICP at each stage of THEIR Buyer Journey in order to nurture them from the Marketing Funnel into the Sales Pipeline.
Engage
Prepared with MQLs that are likely to convert to SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads), your Sales (transactional client encounters) or Business Development (relational client encounters) team will work closely with us to integrate your UVP into every pitch, email, and call script. This ensures that every member of your team is communicating the value that your Ideal Client is in the market for.
Convert
The 26-years of Sales and Business Development success of our Founder, combined with all that we learn with the client to this point, enables a bespoke approach that is infused into the mindset of their sales team -Always Be Helping! A complete understanding of the value of the primary offering, the cross-sell & up-sell offering(s), and the curiosity to learn exactly what need/ want/ pain point the value of what they are selling can address for the lead is why those clients who put our tactics into action enjoy scalable revenue growth.
Grow
The term “grow/ growth” is used so often in business circles that it borders on being cliché. Our clients experience revenue growth as a result of this framework, customized for their specific company, installed throughout their Revenue Operations. Our fractional engagement begins to come to a close when their sales team achieves the predictable revenue generation required for the company to expand/ scale up. We measure success at this stage by the client’s success at Up-Selling, Cross-Selling, and Deploying.
Up-Sell
Our client’s sales team will learn to identify, based on the customer’s User Experience (U/X) when to sell the value of a higher priced offering that will increase, or enhance their U/X or speed to goal.
Cross-Sell
Every add-on is not going to be at a higher price point but, the tactic remains unchanged. The successful sales or business development professional, having maintained some cadence of contact with the customer, is going to know best which additional product or service with bolster the customers ability to reach & exceed their goal/ objective.
Deploy
Our client’s sales team, trained to remain top-of-mind with every customer sold, has a mandate to solicit a testimonial AND three (3) referrals at the end of every customer’s first 90 days. These customers are still in the happy/ honeymoon phase of their relationship with our client if our framework is ingrained in the business. It is during this time that client’s find it easiest to leverage customers for warm introductions to new opportunities.
Expand
The lifespan of a fractional executive’s relationship with a client comes to an end at two moments; either the client has worked along side the fractional to leverage their expertise to the point of no longer requiring fractional support or, the client decided to stop paying for advice that they didn’t adhere to. The former is where we work to install the Processes, Key Hires, and New Market Targeting to ensure client success without us.
Processes
A client, at this stage is prepared to scale their business. To aid in their success, we begin this stage of the engagement to install this framework throughout their Revenue Operations by Sales Manual, Marketing SOP, a revisit to CRM Optimization before passing the keys to our replacement.
Hires
Lean is the way; thus we do not advise the hiring for any role that is not tied directly to top line revenue. We advise each client, based on their business goals & vision, on exactly what Key Hires are ideal for the continued progression of the company -especially where their revenue engine that we have engineered is concerned. We will support the CEO/ Founder through the interview and onboarding processes.
Opportunities
The inability to capitalize on a new opportunity is avoided by this framework. We have established your ability to repeatedly convert your ICP into Customers of your business, and it is now our responsibility to research other Service Obtainable Markets (SOMs) where you are likely to claim market share. This data frequently influences our Key Hire suggestions.
The E.D.G.E.™ Framework, methodology, and diagnostic tools are the proprietary intellectual property of RBL Consulting, Inc. and GrowExpand.com, and may not be reproduced or distributed without the written consent of Rich Laster. ©2024