Because the whole point of an acquisition is the accretive growth, the ability of the target company to not just maintain, but grow, will be a critical factor in the final go/no-go decision.
The Sales Team Productivity Planner helps prospective acquirers envision growth strategies prior to the acquisition, to arrive at a reasonable offer.
…run your numbers here:
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One of the simplest and most effective tools that leaders can deploy is a sales gap analysis. In essence, it asks 2 questions: 1. Where are we likely to end-up? 2. Where do we want to end-up? …the difference is the gap. The management challenge is in figuring out how to close the gap – that’s why sales leaders make the big bucks. Run your numbers here, and use the dozen or so tools below to determine your strategic options: If you find yourself shy of where you need to be…we should talk. |
Prior to the go/no-go decision, its prudent to acknowledge that the target company will require some ‘turning around’. – define that as you will.
Of course, the unique particulars of the target business will govern the approach – but in general, the activity needs to be disciplined: number focused, and people-flavoured. The turned-around business either stands on its own, or it doesn’t (keeping personalities out it at this early stage can be most helpful).
Tactically, the approach will follow the 4 step process in the worksheet below – use this tool for scenario planning now, to avoid making a decision you’ll regret later.
The process involves:
Does the target business have a high performance marketing plan?
Is it capable of delivering the strategic objectives – particularly your sales goals – that the acquisition will require?
Get a sense of the effectiveness of the business’ current Marketing Plan to power market-growth goals, and start putting the pieces together for a post-acquisition marketing plan that fills these gaps:
It’s a tough, but generally useful exercise for every business to look inward every now and then, and challenge the current pricing model:
Use this worksheet to test various pricing strategies, and identify the break even number of units you’ll need to achieve your target:
When you’re considering an acquisition, the quality, motivation, skill, ability, and adaptability of the team at the target company will be a critical dimension of the go-forward decision.
A motivated team is a high-performing team.
A motivated team generally scores high on measures related to Desire, Ability, and Belief in the company.
This Team Motivation Diagnostic will give you an Overall Motivation Score for the team – helpful to identify improvements that might be necessary in the near future.
The positive elements are substantial: a forced reflection on each of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats is clearly valuable.
…the challenge arises in what to do with the information. For example:
The answer of course, is ‘all of the above’, and ideally, only after management is satisfied that a detailed reflection of each element of the SWOT analysis has been completed.
Because our focus is on selling (more) – we are biased toward the exploitation of opportunities. This tool helps you record your top-5 Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and presents you with a prioritized list of your market leverage (your strengths + opportunities), to focus your communications, and market development activities, so that you can sell, more:
While market share can be a tough thing to discover, it’s a really useful tool in strategic market planning. Knowing, or at least estimating market share will provoke meaningful discussions around:
Get started by estimating your market share by using this tool, and tracking changes over time:
