Internal presentations are full of results from the past year, but plans for the coming year remain vague. There’s a celebration: a get-together, a post on LinkedIn. Then everyone goes back to their daily routine. Competitors respond to this success with their own initiatives, while the organization itself does little to capitalize on its new position. Sales has a strong narrative about the past year, but no new narrative for what comes next. Even with existing customers, the focus often remains on looking back, even though that’s precisely where opportunities lie to take the conversation further.
We look at what the successful period has yielded and what aspects of it can be applied to the next phase. These might include results that deserve more attention, customer stories that haven’t been told yet, or new opportunities that have become within reach thanks to our stronger position. Based on that, we craft the narrative for the next step and ensure that sales and marketing can build on it.
Momentum is temporary. After a strong period, there is energy within the organization and attention from customers and the market. New results give the sales team something to talk about and make it easier to explain the next step. If nothing is done with that momentum, the success gradually becomes the new normal, and some of that advantage is lost.
At the same time, after such a period, the organization has something it didn’t have before. There are experiences and customer stories that show what works. Perhaps new customers have been acquired, or a new market has been tapped. That makes it easier to make the next step credible. So the question isn’t just how to sustain that success, but above all, what to do with it.
