Article
Improving customer experience
Delivery
As demand for your product grows it gets harder to deliver the consistent quality necessary for customers to remain loyal. As your business scales there will be more strain and therefore greater need to proactively improve. This includes customer feedback loops, product development, departmental structures, reporting lines and responsibilities, support functions and both customer and team retention.
Key expert
“Scale-ups need to prioritise the customer experience through product development, operations and service.”
Andrew Betteley, Operating PartnerView Profile
Empowering revenue generation
Customer Acquisition
New business is crucial for all growing companies, whether B2B or B2C, and is a key step to exceeding the Rule of 40 benchmark. The fundamentals are knowing the customer, understanding sales channels and monitoring and responding to influencers and competitor strategies. As you scale, the importance of high-quality recruitment, performance management and team empowerment are core skills to ensure your business still delivers to the same quality. Account management plans, sales management structure, remuneration, incentives and performance management will become increasingly important parts of the process.
Key expert
“Winning new customers and retaining them to forecast is the key to scaling any profitable business.”
James Bagan, Operating PartnerView Profile
Establishing the mission
Strategy
Frogs’ definition of strategy: “A competitive game-plan to achieve an important goal”. Particularly during the scale-up phase, where a degree of product-market fit has already been established, strategy is not about selling a vague market opportunity but rather combining a clear view of addressable market with a robust plan of action as to how this can be exploited. More importantly, recognising the unique resources, attributes and purpose your company has (and will need) to thrive in that environment.
Key expert
“As you scale a business it grows beyond senior management’s line of sight, so purpose and strategy are crucial from a communications perspective.”
David Williams, Operating PartnerView Profile
Realising value
Value
Building significant value through the scale-up phase is one important measure of your team and investors’ success in executing your purpose and vision. Understanding how and why different prospective stakeholders value companies like yours is critical to ensure you are focusing on the right strategic goals well ahead of time. Keeping your exit options broad de-risks your future. Careful and consistent management of your brand and reputation amongst this audience is time consuming but vital. Having an excellent Board and shareholder group will provide constructive support and alignment.
Key expert
“Value creation is an outcome of building a successful business, not an objective to be set in its own right.”
David Williams, Operating PartnerView Profile
