Encourage staff participation
Geier authors an annual budget and a business plan that establishes revenue goals for each type of product and service the company sells. Because of wide variances in the margins for each product and service, this type of detailed revenue planning maintains
the firm’s profitability by achieving a blended margin that avoids
the industry’s extremes. In addition, his plan projects a reasonable
revenue growth percentage for the company each year.
Geier says that he favors measured growth as a way of keeping
debt under control and reducing risk.
“I start with the VP of sales and I define the desired mix of business for the year, which gives us a blended margin for the total
business portfolio,” Geier says. “From there, we transfer the
desired mix of business down through the sales organization,
which includes the branch managers, and then finally, we roll revenue targets down to each sales rep. This ensures that each person
on the team has personal responsibility for achieving the corporate
goal, and it makes it very clear what services we need to sell to be
profitable.”
As reinforcement, Geier offers bonuses to managers and additional perks to the sales staff for hitting the targeted revenue goals
that are specified in the business plan. For example, sales reps
earn the opportunity to stay in a suite at the company’s annual
president’s club achievement trip to Hawaii as an incentive for selling the right mix of business.
As a final step in reinforcing his revenue goals, Geier holds meetings each year for the firm’s sales, engineering and branch management groups, using the venue to roll out the company’s annual
initiatives around business mix. The employee events actually
serve dual purposes. Geier expresses his appreciation for the
efforts of his team while connecting with the staff in person, and
he also uses the time to get everyone behind the company business
plan and the revenue goals for the year.
“As the leader, you have to achieve buy-in for your plan, and the
key is that everyone has to understand their part and why you’ve
made your decisions,” Geier says. “Our people can articulate our
value proposition very clearly to customers, and we achieve our
business plan because the staff understands it. They know that
their performance is vital because they get a chance to hear the
plan in person and ask questions. In addition, they are highly
motivated by the incentives, which provide just one more step in
assuring the results.”