How to navigate downturns and adapt to market changes with Mark Cranney, Go-to-Market Advisor

Aug 21, 2023

Mark Cranney, Go-to-Market Advisor, discusses the importance of accurate sales forecasting and business planning. He emphasizes the need to make the pipeline visible for investment decisions, focusing on accurate forecasting, problems with untrustworthy data, the importance of a five-quarter view, navigating the current market climate, and book recommendations for revenue leaders.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

The Importance of Accurate Sales Forecasting

01:36 • 12min

The Problems with Interrogating Sales Reps and Untrustworthy Data

13:59 • 2min

The Importance of a Five-Quarter View in Business Operations

15:29 • 18min

Navigating the Current Market Climate and Achieving Success

33:37 • 2min

Navigating Downturns and Book Recommendations for Revenue Leaders

35:08 • 2min

It doesn’t matter where you are in the revenue organization, not knowing your forecast has dire consequences.

But the forecast isn’t just a number that you call in a meeting, or an outcome at the end of the quarter… It’s the fundamental business process.

Mark Cranney is a prominent figure in the venture seed investing landscape, specializing in assisting product-centric founders and startups in scaling their Go-To-Market operations. With his extensive experience and expertise, Cranney plays a vital role in advising and providing strategic guidance to these companies. In this episode of the Run Revenue Show, Mark talks about the importance of accurate sales forecasting and business planning, he provides insights on how to achieve predictability in sales, expand territories, and reallocate resources by understanding ROI, attributions for spend, and pipeline growth.

Here’s what’s inside:

Make your pipeline visible: Knowing the total pipeline and scrutinizing it is important for making investment decisions and enabling sales decisions. A healthy business requires understanding how the pipeline is growing in order to gauge when to put more headcount into play.
Focus on accurate forecasting: Forecasting accurately is the most important aspect of revenue leadership. A lot of work is needed from both a top-down and bottom-up approach to accurately predict business outcomes. By accurately forecasting revenue, businesses can optimize their operations, improve their financial performance, and stay ahead of the competition.
Competency in customer success and finance teams is necessary: This is what makes accurate forecasting. It doesn’t happen with just revenue leaders, but everyone involved in the go-to-market process should be held accountable. Data analysis is key in identifying trends and driving business decisions.

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