The main areas of improvement to focus on:
- customer segmentation [employ matching]
- salesforce effectiveness [view sales as an “opportunity cost“]
- pricing
- go-to-market approach [direct v. channel partners]
- cross-selling [it is usually the lowest-cost alternative]
- customer retention [insure said via policies, activities, etc.]
(repco)
And, for margin improvement:
How to drive significant top-line revenue growth from the current customer base. Ask and answer these important questions:
- Is there an effective pricing strategy in place today?
- Have we properly segmented our customer base to differentiate pricing based on buying behaviors [STP, or Segment, Target & Position]?
- Are customers that destroy margin effectively managed?
- Is the sales team allocating resources to the highest value customers?
- Does our sales team have the right process and structure in place to capture pricing opportunities?
- Are pricing controls in place to monitor pricing and provide the appropriate oversight?
- Are the right metrics tracked aggressively to objectively determine performance in the market against competitors and resulting margins?