Channel markets

20 Business Performance Goals That Go Deeper Than “Growing Revenue”

Author: Allison Snow, senior analyst, Forrester Research
Author: Allison Snow, senior analyst, Forrester Research

Dear Marketers: I know how important it is to you to grow revenue. I also know how that focus will help expand your remit — to align with your organization’s strategic priorities and rally around an explicit path to revenue.

Any of these 20 examples (and countless more) are more substantial, manageable, and productive than an umbrella goal of “growing revenue.”

Let me know what you think of these, and suggest more — I’m listening.

1. Shift the revenue mix from low-margin to higher-margin products.

2. Shift the mix from many small deals to fewer larger deals (or the reverse).

3. Penetrate new industries, geographies, or segments with an existing product or service.

4. Increase net new customer acquisition from a specific industry, geography, or segment.

5. Build out market presence for a specific segment of the product portfolio.

6. Improve customer service proficiency for upsell and renewal revenue in a specific business line.

7. Design optimal territories and coverage models.

8. Increase average customer lifetime value.

9. Support a struggling geography.

10. Optimize a high-performing geography.

11. Increase products per customer.

12. Decrease attrition rate.

13. Increase average deal size by xx%.

14. Improve customer experience as measured by customer satisfaction scores or NPS*.

15. Increase revenue per customer.

16. Decrease elapsed time between sales stages (i.e., increase deal velocity).

17. Reach goal conversion rates between sales stages.

18. Generate brand awareness as measured by consideration rates or RFP invitations.

19. Engage new contacts at target accounts.

20. Develop a plan to acquire and share actionable intelligence for xx target accounts.

Note: Net Promoter and NPS are registered service marks, and Net Promoter Score is a service mark, of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.

Allison Snow is a senior analyst at Forrester Research. Read more Forrester blogs here.