It's been said that money hides mistakes. Corporate earnings are down, the market drops and gains triple digits on multiple days, housing prices continue to fall and foreclosure rates are skyrocketing. It's no question that we are in an un-stable economic environment. Are we in a recession right now, if not today will we slip into one next week, or perhaps next month? With economic uncertainty looming, many of our clients are asking: How should I position my firm in the months to come?

We are fast approaching the end of the first quarter. Today, we cover a topic that just might contain the insight you need to uncover any hidden mistakes and help you surpass your 2008 goals.

The "Balanced Scorecard" is a strategic management approach developed in the early 1990s by Dr Robert Kaplan of Harvard Business School, and Dr David Norton.

Much like the "Balanced Scorecard" of the 1990s, that focused on linking business performance to department metrics, The CxO Group uses a "Sales Balanced Scorecard" (http://www.sales-scorecard.com) with a similar approach, but designed for today's economy.

Today's scorecard creates interaction and links between five sales management pillars as a packaged team to help drive performance.

-- Sales

-- Marketing

-- Strategy

-- Operations/Development

-- Partners/Alliances

First, we create identifiable tactical measures or Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for each of your sales team members and contributing departments. Then, we develop and help you implement the scorecard into a living, breathing business tool to proactively manage and link strategy, marketing and sales.

This tool becomes a leading business driver that when used correctly, increases corporate cash flow, accelerates operational success, and allows companies to manage their business model by proactive metrics, not reactively by emotion.

With this linkage, the sales and marketing scorecard provides clarity in strategic and tactical goals that can be readily monitored to understand where performance is coming from and where remedial attention is needed. As I mentioned, we are regularly asked about the best improvement initiatives to be made in this uncertain economy. We always suggest companies look towards sales metrics as the way to grow their business and uncover those "hidden" mistakes.

Start with the foundation. If your sales and marketing organization doesn’t have clear objectives and metrics for accountability then you probably have a few mistakes hiding in your process that are costing you money. Clear sales objectives that are aligned with company strategy is one way you can be assured of hitting your goals in uncertain economic times.

At The CxO Group, we believe the entire company, not just the sales department, is responsible for revenue capture! Visit us online at http://www.thecxogroup.com, give us a call today at (972)727-6880, or email info@thecxogroup.com to chat about how we can help you create a sales & marketing metrics scorecard that is custom fit so your firm's business assets are centralized on revenue development and all departments are linked to the performance.

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by Rick Erling, President and Senior Thought Leader at The CxO Group, LLC
www.thecxogroup.com
info@thecxogroup.com
(972) 727-6880

Recommendations provided are to be used at your discretion and are provided solely as an independent opinion.