Three Questions to Increase Revenue

In my past role as SVP of Sales for a 150 store retail chain, my #1 KPI was to hit sales numbers. One year when sales were extremely difficult, we sat in a specially called board meeting to do some soul searching to fix the sales issue. I remained quiet as the Chief Merchant and Chief Marketer made gave their suggestions to raise sales. When they finished, I shared that I would like to ask the group three questions. I ask you these same three questions regardless if sales are great or soft:

First question: If you added 10% more inventory would it get you a 10% increase? Most people answer “no, I’m already over inventoried.”

Second question: If you added 10% to your marketing budget would it get you a 10% increase? The answer is “Maybe. But how do I measure it.”

Third question: If you invested 10% in replacing underperformers and identifying/hiring top performers, would that get you a 10% increase? The answer is absolutely.

When business got tough in the early days of IBM, Thomas Watson Sr., the consummate salesman didn’t pull back on payroll. He actually hired, motivated and compensated more salespeople than he needed. He knew that the sales team was his competitive advantage, the power behind the organization.

Get back to basics. Most retailers are looking for the next shiny object to offer to clients. Instead, they need to be constantly looking for the next great salesperson. Constantly!

This doesn’t mean to break the payroll budget. It means stop guessing and start using behavioral assessments to improve hiring accuracy.