From Sales Bottleneck to Growth Engine:
How as a Business Founder you can step back without your sales falling apart. A lot of founder-led businesses grow quickly at the start, then they hit a wall. It’s rarely because there’s no demand. It’s more often because the Founder has become their own sales bottleneck.
In the early growing days of your business it makes sense as a Founder for you to lead your sales process.
- You know the product better than anyone.
- You know the customer.
- You know how to close.
The problem is, this works brilliantly at the start, and then stops working as the business grows.
The sales bottleneck starts to fill when suddenly every big business deal needs your approval. All the pricing conversations bounce back to you. The team you’ve built now waits for you to make the call before they can move forward.
Now your sales can only move as fast as you and your business.
As the business moves in to growth your focus as a founder is on expanding product market opportunities. There’s no time for every sale to be overseen by you. As your bottleneck grows, the sales process slows down too. This leads to the potential to create more issues from delivery timing and service level agreements.
The sales bottleneck is not your fault. Not because the team weren’t capable, This is also not a team issue. Instead the bottleneck is a result that you hadn’t built the structure that allowed your team to move big opportunities forward without you.
As a Founder your sale approach is instinctive. You’ve been doing it and you know the product inside out. BUT instinct isn’t a handover plan for your team.
The Solution
Finding a solution to your sales bottleneck does require you to take what you know out of your head. Developing a clear, repeatable process the team can be trained in and follow.
Your team will be able to progress deals confidently, without you being pulled in every time to help with pricing, checking and signing off each deal.
Once your sales process is in place you’ll find as the founder you are no longer being squeezed for time. This will give the business the space to grow without everything bottlenecking on your desk.
Stepping back doesn’t mean stepping away
Creating a sales process for your business to relieve the sales bottleneck does not mean you’re stepping away from the business. It means creating a sales function that works at a high standard with or without you in the middle of it.
That usually looks like:
- A defined sales process everyone follows
- Clear targets and pricing the team can work from
- Leadership in place to coach and keep things moving
- A live pipeline you can see without constant updates
To move from a sales bottleneck to a growth engine in your business you need to step back and create a sales process. Releasing you from not being stuck in the role of “hero closer” every day. Instead you will get the headspace to work on the business strategy, open new markets, and scale the business beyond the sales team’s daily activity. Plus the bonus is, you get a sales function that runs without you, adding serious value to the business.
If you’re wondering whether you might be the bottleneck, we’ve created a free tool that helps you find out. It’s called: Are You The Bottleneck? The free tool will show you where you might be slowing down your sales and where to focus first to free things up.
