I remember it like it was yesterday.
Together with the whole team, I put together the sales plan for the 2007 circulation department of Editora Globo and gave it to the general director, Juan Ocerin, beforehand.
It was a 100-page workbook that contained in detail what we would do for each production area: newsstands, door-to-door sales, telemarketing sales, renovation, corporate sales, internet and sales in partnership with newspapers.
For each channel there was a person responsible, an executive plan, budget, metrics and a challenge to grow and improve quality.
We took almost 40 days planning our coming year.
Juan received my document:
- All that, Stavros? Is everything ready?
- Yes, Juan. It's all there.
He opened, leafed through and came to the printed spreadsheet with the consolidated figures. My figure was R$180 million, rounded off. That was my revenue budget, with a promise of 17% growth over the current year.
Juan, took a pen, crossed out 180 and wrote 200.
- Here. Go back and bring me a plan to beat the R$200 million.
And that's how in a stroke of a pen in 5 seconds we were back to square one and we would have to think about how to get this rabbit out of the hat. A R$20 million doodle
I would have to stress channel productivity as much as possible, which would fatally bring us worse quality of uptake, worse renewal and increased retention activities.
Where I could improve volume, without a fixed cost, would be in the outsourced channels, which worked on commission.
One of these channels was active telemarketing. We had 7 companies selling subscriptions over the phone, with a small stipend and high commissions and performance bonuses.
I would have to triple that number to get increased sales, with no fixed costs.
Together with the person responsible for the sector, we mapped the main call centres in Brazil that could operate in the variable remuneration system and together with the financial department we approved a differentiated plan for the first 6 months of operation.
Our goal was to talk to 50 companies and close at least 10 in the next quarter. There was no structure to provide the training for this volume of people, but even so, we went ahead.
We entered 2007 with 33 companies contracted in telemarketing and we closed the year with 183 million in revenues.
The turnover was higher than the original budget I had coming forward but was well below the official budget of 200 million.
The quality of sales fell a little, which was expected due to the increase in takings.
What has gone down in the annals of history? "It didn't deliver the budget and still the quality dropped."
Moral of the story: Several.
1. I never again accepted a squiggle in my planning. So much so that in 2008, we embedded several triggers and hidden fats as prophylaxis against this kind of change.
2. Accepting antagonistic goals, such as increasing uptake and sales quality at the same time, is a recipe for failure. You will never deliver on both at the same time.
3. And the most important: Volume. Of all the improvement indicators it is the most important.
Volume of outsourced companies, volume of calls, of visits, of fairs, of business.
There is always room to grow. Even if your goals are "impossible", choose the one that measures volume increase.
If you want to grow up, squeeze in the volume, close your eyes and go. The rest you fix on the way. That was the message from my boss, one of the most intelligent executives I have ever met.
