The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million

by Mark Roberge

The whole idea of innovation is that it gives you a competitive breathing space—a period when you have something unique and special that puts you ahead of competitors. In the good old days, a decent innovation could look forward to a year or two of advantage in the marketplace before the competition could catch up. Not so today: you're lucky if you have a couple of months at the most. As a result, many companies are questioning their reliance on innovation as a growth strategy. It's for this reason that an increasing number of leading companies have a new mantra—organic growth. As Jeffrey Immelt of GE describes it, organic growth is “using our sales and marketing assets to take the best business from competitors.” There's little doubt that organic growth is a sound strategy. The trick is how to pull it off. The prerequisite is having an excellent sales force that is capable of outselling the competition. Few companies have any understanding of how to create, train, manage, and grow such a sales force.