1. What percentage of time and emotional energy does management team routinely devote to revenue growth?

2. Are there just exhortations and talk about growth or is there actually follow through?

3. Do managers talk about growth only in terms of home runs? Do they understand importance of singles and doubles for long-term, sustained organic growth?

4. How much of each management team member’s time is devoted to making effective visits with customers? Do they do more than listen and probe for information and then try to “connect dots”?

5. Does management team come into contact with final user of your product?

6. Are people in business clear about what specific future sources of revenue growth will be? Do they know who is accountable?

7. Would you characterize your company or business unit’s culture as cost cutting or growth oriented? If answer is one or another you need to start doing both. Do people in leadership positions have skill, orientation, and determination to grow revenues?

8. Does company practice revenue productivity? Does it think through whether there are ways to more effectively use current resources to generate higher revenues?

9. How well does your sales force extract intelligence from customers and other players in marketplace? How well is this information communicated and acted on by other parts of your organization, such as product development?

10. How good are upstream marketing skills- that is, ability to segment markets and identify consumer attributes- in your business?

About Author:

Ram Charan is coauthor of landmark Fortune article "Why CEOs Fail" and an adviser on corporate governance, CEO succession, and strategy implementation. He was named as Best Teacher by Northwestern's Kellogg School and as a top-rated executive educator by Business Week. He is author of Boards at Work, coauthor of Every Business Is a Growth Business, and a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review. (6/2000)

By: Regine P. Azurin

Regine Azurin is President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.

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Habit #3: They Ask QUESTIONS. Sizzling salespeople understand and utilize art of asking right questions. They list RIGHT questions to ask when sizzle selling.

Habit #4: They SHARPEN Their Skills. Sizzling salespeople understand importance of sharpening their saws. They invest in resources needed to assure ongoing training.

Habit #5: They Understand Power of NUMBERS. They understand that to increase their sales, they must increase their prospects, customer base and sales volume.

Habit #6: They Know How to Stay in CONTROL. Sizzling salespeople stay in control of themselves to stay on track. They use this control to keep a personal balance in their lives.

Habit #7: They Have a Strong BELIEF SYSTEM. Sizzling salespeople believe they are worthy of highest earnings, commissions or salary, and that their time is extremely valuable.