Many organizations have never considered how they use the word “sales”. It can have different connotations depending on who you talk with and the context in which it’s used. To a CFO, sales is a financial term and a noun, to a CRO it might be a verb describing a process, and to a buyer, it could mean temporary price discounts. To sidestep the ambiguity of the word “sales” during advising engagements, using the terms “revenue” and “revenue generation” is becoming more common.

In the context of revenue generation advising, the scope includes the primary activities, people, processes, and technology associated with revenue accrued from the selling of your goods or services (often called a sales function, sales engine, or simply “Sales”), and other functions to the degree they support, interact with, or influence such revenue production. For example, where the Product group is concerned, the communications and feedback processes between Sales and Product would be in-scope, while the product design itself would likely be out-of-scope. And, since revenue generation requires both a seller and a buyer, activities that impact your customers are also in scope.

There are significant changes underway that are shifting revenue generation activities away from the traditional Account Executive role towards other customer-facing functions. Specifically, Marketing and Customer Services are becoming revenue sources for many companies. To better understand these shifts, schedule a complimentary call with me today.