Needs: Generating Profitable Revenue Growth

How solution providers should frame the market to deliver value to Chief Revenue Officers

Having spent decades in the Customer Relationship Management industry I’ve thought a lot about exactly what value meant to my customers. Did they want a distributed database platform, or a cloud platform, or an appliance that printed cash? Did they want to send blast emails, or did they want to help potential customers to solve a problem they were uniquely qualified to handle?

The why is very important when we decide to create new value for customers because if we don’t understand how to get to the root of the true underlying problem, we’ll more likely create additional cost and complexity at a current level of problem abstraction. Disruptive innovations generally get problems solved at a higher level of abstraction, much of the prior effort becomes invisible due to new automated infrastructure, and the final solution is simpler (with few features).

Much of the work I did wasn’t directly about innovation although I occasionally put existing things together in new ways to get something new done. But, as I spent more time in the industry and watched the rise of the cloud platforms I wondered what was next? As of today, platforms like Salesforce are becoming more complex and expensive. They are overserving the vast majority of the market. Their market is companies who can afford an expensive platform, or are at least willing to try to afford it.

Zoho is far less expensive and confusing, but it still basically does the same things - in the Execution phase of the underlying job

In my view, the market is companies who are trying to generate profitable revenue growth. As Clay Christen said…

As for the CRM market (an incorrect definition) what he is not talking about is cheap CRM platforms that basically do the same things without all of the complexity - they are not disruptive because they don’t introduce new value, they’re just cheaper. The disruptor will undoubtedly look different because it’ll get more of the real job done and do it far better.

Not jobs-to-be-done

The following are a few examples of capabilities that are closely tied to existing solutions

• Email marketing

• Pipeline Management

• Sentiment Analysis

• Etc.

Are jobs-to-be-done

The following are examples of jobs that have nothing to do with a solution

• Develop a qualified lead

• Convert a lead to revenue

• Acquire new customers

• Achieve profitable growth

Current solutions are entirely focused on executing fused pieces-parts of the true underlying job. However, they’re missing almost everything that takes place before and after execution. That does not mean they have execution right, however! Shiny new objects are valued by their shininess, and little else.

Just think of all the people, 3rd parties and technologies needed to create revenue for any particular offering. Enterprises have become experts at juggling these tools and resources…but they drop them regularly. What’s the difference between the way we listened to music in 1980 and how we listen to it today? I describe the change as the elimination of the struggle stack. You can read more about that below 👇

A New Science for Customer Experience

Our present (the future) is vastly different…

• We no longer have to purchase multiple pieces of hardware

• We no longer have to purchase different hardware for different contexts

• We no longer have to connect the hardware together

• We no longer have to visit record stores

• We no longer have to limit the volume in public

• We can now share our music with others

• We don’t store music physically (in milk crates)

• We don’t have to clean interfaces between the hardware and the media (or the media)

The future of “CRM”?

I spent some time a few years ago jotting down some thoughts in a series of blog posts. If you’re interested in this market, you may find something that inspires you. Anyone in vendor land that has any input into the future direction of their platform, or their acquisitions should check this out!

Index of Jobs-to-be-Done Revenue Development Modeling Posts for Martech/CRM Vendors

Now we’re at a place where it’s time to fund some research to bring precision to the future of this market. So, I’m sharing a qualitative research catalog focused on Chief Revenue Officers who are Generating Profitable Revenue Growth. It is the foundation for understanding the needs of the CRO and where there are value gaps in the market (from their perspective).

Do you see the difference? Every single business out there wants to generate profitable revenue growth, but they can’t all afford platforms like Salesforce. They choose lower cost options that basically do things the same way - the long-tail of the martech landscape.

I don’t know what a disruptive solution will be or who will bring it to market. But someone will, and it mostly likely won’t be an incumbent - they’ve had their disruptive moment. I do, however, know that it will get more of the job done, get it done better, and have fewer features. The model I’m sharing below is a roadmap to understanding that.

There are a lot of steps (some which can be consolidated) but this demonstrates what the CRO, or any business is actually trying to accomplish. They don’t want CRM software, they want to generate profitable revenue growth!

Did I mention this was comprehensive? And these are just the steps in the core job

The above requires some scoping at both the step and customer success metric level. But it’s far better to reduce the scope than hope your consultant’s bias didn’t miss a whole bunch of stuff 👈

If you think there is an opportunity in the world of revenue development - and artificial intelligence may have cracked the the new capability door open a small bit - my associates and I would be happy to help you develop the insights you need for a strategic roadmap no one else will have. And we can do it faster and much, much less expensively than those that are now overserving the market of innovation research.

No, this isn’t about adding features to your marketing software. That’s a direct path to obscurity

Here’s the raw model (below) with everything you see in the image above - each being a comprehensive container of its own. If you’re charged with innovation, eliminate the theater and accelerate the quant!👇

Or chat about it in my community