How to increase revenue?

I never followed, learned or tried to understand baseball but I recently read about Yogi Berra. He quoted - “You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game. If that isn't enough, in the second half, you have to give what's left.” Have you been in that situation where you give everything to the customer 5 to 6 times (meaning 100 percent plus), and they still do not act? 

Then, how about these regarding increasing revenue? 

• The customer says - wow, this is so nice. But, madam - it is not secure yet. Yes, I know. Can I buy it now? Sure, you can. 

• The customer says - I like what you are selling. You can see that they like it in their eyes. However, can you explain how those 3 things work? Nothing else … 👍 

• I did not buy because I was not clear; but as a customer I will never agree that I was not clear. I was not clear because no one explained it to me well. 

• If you push me to buy (ex. used cars), it gets irritating and I am thinking, I have to go to the bathroom and then I should leave this country. I mean, right now … 😡 

Motion tablets, pain killers or antibiotics?

Increasing revenue is a journey; hope you are ready.

Let's get back. Assuming an explosion of Ai in the next 5 years, the fundamentals of increasing revenue will not change. No one talks to kids about their health; same here (point/ disclaimer noted); this means pre-revenue, pre PMF. 

So let’s consider the health analogy and start with the current state; similar as that of blood report, heart rate and a fitness test. 

• What is your revenue goal? How much % increase are we targeting YoY?

• How was revenue growth in the last 2 years?

• What were obstacles to revenue growth? If there is a magic wand - what would that be?

Good. Now let's look at the diet … 🍎 

• What are the key use cases? How frequently users are using it?

• Can you explain how the prospect will get value post sale? 

• Any pricing stories - is there price pressure from customers?

Madam, thank you for your patience. Tell me about your lifestyle - 

• How much is spent on sales, marketing, tools, fixed, variable, etc? 

• How have CAC and spending correlated to revenue in the past 2-3 years?

• Any seasonality from consumer, customer, partner, vendor side?

Ok Sir - let's do a quick fitness test with metrics … 🤸 

• Are customers buying more frequently? 

• How many days from the user giving their email to start using the product? 

• What are customers and users saying after using the product for a year? 

Hope you get the analogy. Diet, lifestyle, fitness, mental health (you can add more), are variables in increasing revenue as an equation. Variables, equation may get a bit exhaustive, but get habitual with it.

So here’s how to increase revenue … 🚀 

• Funnel - If this does not exist then we need to build it. There are traditional as well as non-traditional ways to reach here. This is fitness coupled with discipline, rigorous filtering and obviously Ai. You already know the good and not so good funnel. 

• Focus - once the top of the funnel is established, focus is of utmost importance. Lack of focus can kill time, energy, motivation and resources. And time is directly proportional to scale, market share and so on. This is diet and lifestyle. 

• Flywheel - most of the customers do not say it but they are more worried about the post sale experience than about the sale. So end to end customer journey, feedback loops, reviews, and referrals are keys to a self sustaining flywheel. A widely used term called conversion should never be an afterthought. Self sustaining flywheel means higher conversion. This is mental health … 🧘 

There you go.

My 3Fs to increase revenue.  

One more quote from Yogi Berra - “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical”. Sales is 90% price and the other half is also price - I am saying this. You can disagree. But why am I saying this? 

See, India’s richest guy is selling cola purely based on price. You may ask why it may work now. If the US puts tariffs on Indian products, India can put tariffs on American cola. Now, in this case Indian cola cheaper and is the only patriotic alternative for consumers; no need to sell this hard. Till then, with initial low price distribution be taken care. 

Brilliant Sirji - I agree. As a country we should be ready; consumers need cola. Time, tariffs, etc. will tell … 💯 

Short story shorter … 

Friend: Bro, bro, bro - I got tickets. You are unbeaten. Go to the bowl game. 

Me: How do you have tickets?

Friend: Forget about that. Let me send you tickets. 

Me: There is a hurricane warning. Recently there was also a hurricane. 

Friend: What cane? Are you born in Canada? You are a desi; never forget where you came from. Hurricane means just water falling man; your hometown floods every alternate year anyways. 

Hmm - I call this HEB by a brother (hometown emotional blackmail). 

So I was sold; I bought the tickets. 

New Orleans was impacted heavily by hurricane Katrina. Most of the storefronts were damaged. Traffic signals were not in good shape. Street signs which were supposed to show South were showing North. I prayed for all those impacted. 

On the Game Day - 

Attendant: Hello, hello, hello - you can not enter here. Your gate is on the opposite side. 

Me: this is the Auburn entry. 

Attendant: Yes this is. However, your ticket is on the opposite side of the dome. That is VA Tech entrance. And please please do not try to change the section in half time. We are at full capacity. 

Me: But Madam? 

Thank you my VA Tech friend for tickets. 2 decades back, I ended the unbeaten season with a LIVE bowl game win. War Eagle. See good things happen when you trust and buy something from someone; hence the picture. Nokia sponsored that event; wow - consumers really change fast …

PS - let's go to the NCAA and then to the President of the Country and discuss unbeaten season and rules for entry to the national championship; shall we? 

Many of my friends ate my brain and blood on this topic; I hope things are better after 2 decades. 

Written for the love of the Game by a forever student of the Game … 🙌

Swagat Irsale is a Growth Advocate. He works with start ups and scale ups and helps them grow revenue and build enterprise products which users use.

Connect with him to work, partner.

https://www.groadv.com/post/grow-revenue-the-journey-zero-to-one-billion-swagat-irsale