GROW - Expanding reach and building momentum

GROW - Expanding reach and building momentum

Goal: Increase the volume of PoCs, refine your process, and broaden organizational awareness.

Mindset: Grow reach before you tighten efficiency.

Timeline: 12-24 months

Budget: 200-500k

Key actions & success factors:

• Target 5–10 PoCs in the first full year: after your initial 6-month START phase, ramp up to a higher volume.
• Prioritize higher-impact problems: focus on challenges with strong business value, while still allowing smaller wins that build trust.
• Formalize your process with core functions: align with procurement, IT, legal, and compliance early to streamline PoCs and reduce friction.
• Refine the operational workflow: keep improving sourcing, briefings, demos, decision-making, and PoC execution.
• Strengthen stakeholder relationships: build on early trust to expand your network of supportive business units.
• Tell success stories loudly: celebrate your first PoC business units as heroes and use their wins to inspire others.
• Develop stronger business cases: collect richer data from each PoC to clearly demonstrate ROI.
• Train internal ambassadors: equip more colleagues to spot pain points and channel them into the venture clienting process.
• Don’t get too selective yet: this stage is about broad exposure. If a problem has clear business impact, take it on to create momentum and new champions.

Lead generation at scale:

• Go beyond the existing network: test multiple lead generation channels (internal roadshows, intranet campaigns, challenge competitions, direct outreach, etc.).
• Build a constant flow of leads: avoid “batch mode” (lots of leads at once, then long gaps). Instead, aim for steady inflow throughout the year.
• Plan for conversion rates:
  • 10 PoCs/year usually requires at least 40–50 needs assessments
  • That means 70-80+ POC leads to start with (some leads won’t qualify or will drop out).
• Account for delays: there’s always a lag from lead → needs assessment → PoC start (often 8–12 weeks). This means early lead generation fuels your success later in the year.

Watch out for:

• Underestimating the lead volume needed to hit your PoC target.
• Pausing lead generation once you feel “full” - this risks creating a dry pipeline for the next year.
• Over-optimizing processes too soon - focus on growth first, efficiency later (that’s the SCALE phase).