Driving Sales Acceleration

Growth is fundamental to the development of a sustainable business. While one could debate whether sales growth is desirable at the cost of profits, business value is most often determined by a combination of sales growth, profits, RoCE and cash flow – hence there is no denying the primacy of sales growth as a metric of business health.

However, it is not easy to sustain sales growth over an extended period. Companies which have achieved rapid growth in the past based on specific competitive levers e.g. differentiated products or superior marketing or supply chain etc. often get blind-sided by other emerging factors which they have not acknowledged or managed well. These could include disruptive technologies, new competitors or poor internal processes and systems which are inadequate to deal with the changing market landscape. Often such crises are highlighted when the external environment turns unfavourable, such as in an economic slowdown. “A rising tide lifts all boats” but once the environment turns unfavourable the winners are separated from the also-rans.