Whale Hunting Practice #2: Create a Culture for Fast Growth

When a company makes a deliberate move to accelerate its growth, the need is to move very fast on that path.  When you go after bigger customers and bigger deals, you attract new competition that has not bothered with you before.  You are at risk if you are not making rapid progress. Suddenly, you are in a bigger ocean with bigger predators.

One way to manage that risk is to be certain that your entire organization is prepared to move fast–not just the sales team or the whale hunting boat, but all of the leadership, operations, and customer support as well.  The goal is not just to sell to the whale but to service the account at a high level of excellence and according to the time frame that you promised.

Fulfilling those promises can be extremely challenging if your team have not worked with a whale-sized company before. Higher expectations for detail, reporting, processes and documentation are among the challenges. You may not get invoices paid for 120 days but still you must meet deadlines promised in the scope of work. Your people will be challenged to exceed the promises, with new demands being introduced.

This is often the way of the big company world, and you need to be ready to stand your ground but also to leave no room for them to worry about your capabilities along the way,

A fast-growth culture has some key requirements:

• everyone believes that they are responsible for business development
• work habits reinforce speed of decision-making and action
  • at every level people are empowered to make good decisions
  • there are good tools for fast collaboration without busy work
  • leaders set the example of fast-growth habits
• reward and recognition foster efficient, effective collaborative behaviors
• resources are allocated fairly to support the new work required by new sales

To achieve a fast growth culture is not easy, Once roles become differentiated in your company, as they must, there is a likelihood of silos, where the people inside are busy with their own piece of work and not mindful of the whole. It does not affect them.

Changing the silo culture takes tough leadership from the top. Your senior leader–CEO, President General Manager–takes the lead supported by all the senior executives and the next level of leaders who report to them. It requires transparency about the company. Everyone should know how you make money, what is their role in it, how do they integrate with other pieces of the overall work. You may have to reconsider compensation in many parts of the company if different roles are given more work and responsibility when a whale comes on board.

Embracing The Whale Hunters Process has made it possible for many companies to build the fast growth company that they wanted. Its focus on collaboration among sales, marketing and operations helps the leaders in each area to work cooperatively with one another during a whale sale and the delivery of products and services, including the customer experience.

I would love to hear what you think about a fast growth culture and any experiences you’ve in being part of one or leading a team into a fast growth mode. Please comment below.

Are you ready for a period of accelerated growth? Call us at +1 (317)-370-3828) or join The Whale Hunters Institute Online at https://thewhalehunters.com/the-institute. A free trial is available.