1300 363 128
Proactive managers want to grow their business, division, organisation or enterprise. There are certain simple rules that can help managers attain growth. To successfully staff for growth, managers need to define what growth looks like. Is it greater revenue, increased output, further penetration with existing accounts, new products or service streams, increasing industry segments or gaining new customers?
There are many ways in which growth can be measured. To staff for growth there are three key points that should be considered before moving forward:
1. Define Growth
Most organisations have budgeting meetings that set out the budgets for the next period and help define resource needs and resource planning. You may start with statements, pictures, graphs and timelines related to growth.
As an example, by 2020 a company may seek to attain 50 new accounts and strengthen relationships or increased revenue from 20 existing accounts. You can be even more specific by putting dollar values on these relationships. From here you would look at the existing pool of sale and account managers who will be required to attain and service 20 account and extrapolate what you require to gain and service the 50 accounts. Planning cash flow may result in you wishing to stagger the employment of these staff members to conservatively manage overall growth.2.
2. Understand which positions achieve growth
When managers think about growth, especially top lying growth, they immediately consider sales roles as the best means of achieving this. Most of the time to help achieve extra sales, an organisation needs to start with sales at the pointy end of the process. However to maintain sales strong operational or administrative support comes into play. A sale will usually require a product to be manufactured, distributed or delivered in the first place, so don’t think purely sales staff. Undoubtedly sales staff get the ball rolling, but it is important to be mindful of the numerous other roles which are required to effectively deliver what you produce.
3. Understanding the role you play
Managers and particularly switched on business owners are the ones that often achieve the strongest growth for their organisation. They know their product or service and the vision which excites customers. Many managers, mostly those of small enterprises, can sell their vision but tend to forget about it or they get bogged down with the doing and the delivery. It is important you determine the key role you play in the organisation whether it is in sales or delivery, make sure to stick to your strengths and hire around you. If you want to be operationally focused that’s fine too. Just ensure you have a gun sales person who will get the business for you. I have seen too many micro business owners not achieve their full potential because they continue to be both chief cook and bottle washer in their organisation. In fact, many managers require assistance from Recruitment and HR Firms to help them effectively navigate the resource planning process.
Managers seeking growth need to start by defining it, they also need to have a solid grasp on the positions which will support such growth and to make note of their strengths. Once managers have done this it is time to grow an effective team to achieve the growth that you truly want in your business.
Article written by Maree Herath, Subject Matter Expert in Recruitment and Resource Planning
