Escaping the quarter-end scramble
As the final week of the quarter approaches, commercial teams in many businesses will be shifting gears and deploying some familiar tactics.
Marketing teams are accelerating paid campaigns, sales reps are moving opportunities rapidly down the pipeline, and pricing managers are being asked to relax rate cards. CRM systems are flooded with activity that looks like momentum, and commercial leaders are spending A LOT of time preparing reports and commentaries.
This isn’t always a bad thing; quarter-end pressure can act as a real motivational boost to commercial teams, bringing sales and marketing colleagues together to achieve amazing results in short timeframes and delivering adrenaline boosting deal closures that are celebrated across the business.
But when the threat of missed numbers becomes the norm rather than an exception, that same pressure can create a quiet erosion of clarity and creativity, as well as creating fractures between sales and marketing relationships.
And the end of quarter scramble isn’t only detrimental to the commercial team; it’s usually a sign that something needs to change – leadership alignment, budget setting, long-term planning processes. Missing targets should not be the norm.
So how do we break the cycle? There are three critical elements:
Smart planning
It’s easy to say, “plan better” and harder to find the time to do it well, but building a strong commercial plan is the single most important action commercial leaders can deliver each year. The strongest commercial plans are always:
· Based on market and client insight
· Fully aligned with wider business strategy
· Measured by KPIs that prioritise quality over volume
· Owned by sales and marketing, with shared objectives
· Socialised with operational, finance and other functional leaders
Brave commercial leadership
When you’re a commercial leader in an ambitious business, it can be incredibly difficult to persuade your peers that dropping everything to make the numbers is the wrong thing to do, especially if the conversation is recuring every month or quarter. In order shift the month-end conversation, sales and marketing leaders shift the narrative a little every day, by:
· Collaborating with finance to build achievable budgets
· Speaking with a united sales and marketing voice
· Reinforcing the value of long-term relationships
· Leading their teams with focus, not fear
Cross-functional alignment
Whilst commercial leaders are responsible for representing the full strategic value of their teams, every functional leader has a role to play in creating a culture that motivates…using the right levers. Panic and pressure will turn dashboards green but too much of either will lead to burnout and disillusionment, symptoms that won’t stop at commercial colleagues. What will really drive long term value is:
· Cascading messages that help all colleagues buy into the plan
· Pausing to recognise success, even during challenging times
· Signing off budgets that are aligned with market opportunity
· Embedding a planning cycle that brings together all functions
The Bottom Line
At the heart of every commercial effort is a team of people who are by nature competitive and committed. They shouldn’t have to choose between delivering results and staying sane, nor should business leaders need to face the task of defending missed targets to their stakeholders each quarter.
If success is measured only in quarter-end numbers, commercial functions will game toward them. And eventually, the best of them will go elsewhere.
Taking the time to align planning cycles, conduct realistic budgeting (working in partnership with finance colleagues) and creating a single commercial strategy driven by customer insight, is the way to break the cycle.
If you’d like to talk more about implementing planning cycles, championing commercial strategy or aligning cross-functional teams (or indeed any related topic), I’m very happy to listen, and see how I can help.