Use Business Intelligence to Manage a Rapidly Scaling Workforce

Every business has expansion as a central component of their goals, but with business intelligence forging the path of business expansion, the possibilities of experiencing scale as compared to mere growth increases dramatically. Particularly in today's economic model and framework, the ability to manage and direct a rapidly scaling workforce can make the difference between bumping along at a survival rate as compared to zipping forward to the head of the competition and then leaving them behind in the dust wondering what just whizzed past them.

Contrasting Growth with Scale

Expansion often comes in the form of growth. Any sort of maturation of an enterprise is always valued, but to optimize the bottom line possibilities of any business, scale becomes the critical ingredient which can catapult the performance and overall returns on operations, 

So how do growth and scale differ? An apt analogy might be the management of an agricultural plot. As more crops are growing, more workers are typically required to handle the increase in produce; this is a simplistic yet accurate example of a business experiencing classic growth - adding more resources to handle the increasing inventory and demand.

However, with the application of business intelligence, this process can convert from a classic growth situation to a perfect illustration of a rapidly scaling workforce. Once again, more crops have been planted, creating the opportunity for a greater harvest at the end of the season. However, instead of hiring more workers to handle the extra produce, systems and equipment are brought on board to facilitate the workflow of the existing workforce. 

In this second instance, more crops have been produced (equating to more revenue), but no additional staff was taken on to accommodate the expanded inventory. This is a simple picture of scale in action, as it results in a boost in assets, sales, or customers without a corresponding jump in expenses by hiring additional staff. Instead, intelligence picks up the slack, determining how best to work with an existing workforce by managing a rapidly increasing flow of revenue with only a modest increase in resources.

Strategies for a Rapidly Scaling Workforce  

There are already systems in place that can help you boost your business with a rapidly scaling workforce, resulting in skyrocketing revenues and shattered goals. In other words, often tweaks to existing elements of your enterprise can trigger the scaling effect you seek.

Focus on Renewals

Everyone knows how challenging it can be to drive new business into the doors as compared to nurturing and preserving an existing customer base. This is what makes the focus on boosting renewal rates one of the more successful strategies for jumping those sales numbers while working with the existing workforce. For one thing, when customers continue their subscription, it also creates the opportunity to renew and deepen the relationship; the action of renewal by a client is an affirmation of their positive perspective of your operations, which deserves a reciprocal action demonstrating your acknowledgment of their value to the company. 

These renewing customers are deserving of more discounts and being privy to the latest rollouts; let's face it, discounts typically recover the amount given away plus more through repeated sales and added on services, while introducing the latest and greatest evolutions of your product and service communicates to the client their special and unique relationship with the firm. Everyone loves being on the inside track, and none are more deserving of that envied position than your loyal and renewing clients.

Ingrained Product Mindsets

Just like gamers know their video games and film buffs know their movies, your staff should be equally enthusiastic about the products and services your business offers. Clients and prospects know in their gut when someone is just hyping a product or service to nail down that sale or if the person is a true believer who geeks out on the modest details of the product or service on offer. Geeky or not, the person who focuses on the needs of the prospect and demonstrates how their product or service can satisfy that need makes the sale; ironically, such a salesperson typically celebrates the meeting of minds between client and company more than another commission check hitting their account. Their real rewards accrue in customer satisfaction, which in turn builds increasing income streams for the product-minded salesperson.

When your workforce lives and breathes the product or service which gives your company life and purpose, they are constantly, and often subconsciously, considering how their job can be improved to attain new goals and drive in new customers. By their fascination and commitment to the product or service, they cannot help but become more customer-centric, imagining new ways to solve old problems and clear difficult hurdles. Let's face it, your customers are seeking solutions, not relationships, but when your concern for the customer's needs rises above your desire for another commission, all of a sudden they appreciate the relationship as much as the product or service which makes their life easier and more gratifying.

Including Value-Added Services

One of the better ways to scale revenues without incurring new resource costs is by offering value-added packaging to existing products and services.  We live in a world of specialization and personalization, so the idea that one package meets every individual need is so 20th-century thinking. By offering core services or products which can operate on their own, and then dangling additional and potentially important additional services before your committed customer, you not only create new sales opportunities, but you also demonstrate the respect you have towards the intelligence and capability of your clients by not needlessly encumbering them with extras they will never use.

However, most of those value-added offers can significantly improve performance and deliver better results for clients, meaning they seriously consider those add-ons and often readily add them to their overall purchase.  Three components which generally prompt your customer into a purchasing action are:

• Implementation - rolling out a new product often involves a learning curve and additional initial effort, plus many clients discover valuable features and benefits which a value-added implementation package can demonstrate and put into action 
• Ongoing Optimization - too many companies believe optimization is a one-off activity which can be set and left alone; shifting dynamics often call into play new optimization strategies to remain at the cutting edge of the competition, making ongoing optimization essential   
• Reporting - too often, reporting falls within a narrow scope with too many resources used in delivering requested reports to staff and clients; by packaging power reporting as a value-added service, reporting can be automated to free up valuable time of account managers

Marketing Expansion Methodologies

Finally, stand back and take stock of your current marketing methods. Just as you want to scale revenues through cleverer marketing and an attuned workforce, so too must your marketing methods begin their own scaling techniques. Consider these scaling opportunities in marketing:

• Multiple Channels - tap into every marketing channel available to you, meaning you connect directly, online, and with value-added resellers
• Multiple Market Segments - do not limit your efforts to one market, but reach all segments, from small, to mid-market, and even enterprise
• Multiple Verticals - expand efforts to reach out to all significant industries, including financial services, retail, and travel

These scaling opportunities get your marketing engine revved up for maximum performance and results, and is a powerful method of internally scaling sales efforts to new heights.

Avoiding Burnout with a Rapidly Scaling Workforce

If there is concern that a rapidly scaling workforce may be subjected to greater possibilities of burnout, such worries can be set aside by developing and employing practices which offset that concern. 

Use these strategies to ensure that, instead of burnout, your workforce is increasing its enthusiasm and effectiveness while thriving with the new challenges and opportunities laying in wait for them:

• Variety: the Spice of Work - by varying the tasks and challenges for specific team members, boredom and disinterest is avoided
• A Mapped Future - offering assurances of a secure future within a rapidly scaling workforce can do wonders to ease unsettled worries
• Accept Errors - use mistakes as springboards for learning and growing, acknowledging our human frailties while encouraging peak performances 
• One-on-One Meetings - with fewer people getting the job done, regular one-on-one meetings with key staffers are more valuable and productive

By using business intelligence to oversee a rapidly scaling workforce, the potential for blasting beyond traditional goals and establishing new milestones becomes a reality with an improved bottom line to prove it. 

To learn more about Power BI Reports Scheduler and how you can begin to automate the delivery of Power BI reports to a rapidly scaling team, check out ChristianSteven Software, Power BI Reports. You can begin a 30-day free trial. And if you have questions, feel free to reach out to one of our product specialists.

Get Features PDFStart Free Trial