Current Articles | RSS Feed
“I didn’t even know what to call it,” said the new GM of this fast growing, game changing new technology division. “I just sorted the buyers geographically, in groups of end-products by usage, then sized each total market, showing what revenue and share I thought we could get out of each. Then, we estimated how these potential opportunities would change by improving various attributes of our product…” The GM went on to tell me that this presentation to his Board, largely made up of investors who’d already shelled out $10’s of Millions, was unlike any other. Rather than the Board being restless about progress, wanting to see a return on their millions in, they were practically reaching into their wallets, eager to make an additional investment.
Read More
At Chief Outsiders, we bill ourselves as providers of C-level marketing leadership to small-to-medium sized businesses. Sometimes we are called in to help organizations that are a bit smaller or larger than our sweet spot.
But $17 trillion (yes, with a “t”)?
National Security Forum of Northern Nevada recently asked me to be on a panel to discuss and debate the US fiscal policy and whether US should follow the path of greater austerity or larger stimulus to grow our $17 trillion economy. This debate was titled: “Keynes vs Hayek”, in honor of the two economics stalwarts of the 20th century that had, on previous occasions, been involved in similar discussions.
This blog elaborates on Richard Browne’s article in CSP Magazine entitled, 'Future-Proofing Your New Site.'
The mobile wallet revolution is poised to happen over the next 12 months. Besides the majorbranded entrants like Square, Google, PayPal and ISIS, there are now over a hundred other mobile wallets announced or in service. The mobile wallet has the potential to reshape your business; here are six benefits that create opportunities for you to improve your customers’ experience.
Today's blog is Part II of Hire Slow and Fire Fast by guest blogger Kevin Dincher.
Making good decisions about who is on the payroll is critical to your company’s success—and to your own success—and the most important thing that a manager does is decide who is and who is not on the payroll. Because the pressure to fill vacant positions is enormous, the tendency is to rush to hire. But the wrong help is worse than no help. Achieving your ultimate hiring goal—a high performing employee who meets your needs and is a good fit for your company and team—takes time. Unfortunately, no matter how hard you try you never really know if you hired the right people until after you’ve hired them.
Today's blog is by guest blogger Kevin Dincher.
25 years ago as a new manager, I had to fire an employee for the first time. When I inherited her, she was a long-time employee with a lengthy history of poor quality work, low productivity, negativity and troublesome relationships. Firing her was drawn-out and excruciating—but I learned early on the importance of hiring the right people—and not hanging on to the wrong ones.
What is "Quid Pro Quo? Wikipedia defines it as an exchange of goods or services, where onetransfer is contingent upon the other. Phrases with similar meaning include: "give and take", "tit for tat", and "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." Recently, I have been involved in several discussions with CEOs on charging for their goods and services. The discussions weren’t concerning the actual price for the services, but the ultimate cost between the buyer and the seller. Let’s share some examples. (with the names changed to protect the innocent or, in some of these cases, guilty parties)
One CEO—I will call him Joe—runs an executive consulting firm. He had a problem with a leak in his house. He needed immediate help and called one of his clients Sam, who is the owner of a construction company. Sam immediately sent someone out to fix the leak but didn’t send Joe a bill. When Joe asked him about it, Sam responded, “No problem. You’re a friend. Don’t worry about it.”
Todays blog is by guest blogger, Patrick Campbell, co-founder and CEO of Price Intelligently.
Creating a great pricing strategy is not only one of the important parts of creating asuccessful business, it’s quite possibly the most important. Pricing strategy has the clearest direct impact on revenue and your bottom line, and it’s the ultimate reflection of the value your company offers through its products and customer service.
You’ve put all your time, creativity and energy into developing a great product and a beautiful website, but nothing communicates those efforts to your potential customers quite as succinctly as your prices.
The following blog accompanies Barbara Fowler's ebook, Hiring the Right CMO. The blog was originally published on HR.com as Marketing Maverick Meets Team-Oriented Techie: How to Hire the Right Type of CMO.
Marketing used to be an art; has it been reduced to just a science? Not entirely, but science has become more and more important as technology gives us additional information on the buying process. And marketing and sales have changed profoundly. Digital has given consumers the power to turn traditional business models upside down, and marketing has become increasingly data-driven. A deep understanding of how this new model of digital communication fits in with the numbers is paramount. It’s a tough bill to fill for a chief marketing officer (CMO), despite the fact that there are plenty of people out there who claim they can “do digital.”
Over the last two years, there has been a growing awareness in the business press that B2B selling has evolved from general concepts of solution selling to the ‘buyers journey’ a customer journey driven by the large amount of information available online. A new sales and marketing reality is rapidly emerging as the internet plays an increasing role in buyer research. Too many B2B CEOs are ignoring this new reality as just a social media phenomenon about Facebook and that is has nothing to do with their businesses. But I’ve seen the impact of this in my own sales and marketing work, and I and the industry at large, now strongly believe we are experiencing important changes to the conventional marketing and sales wisdom of the past. CEOs and their businesses can no longer ignore this reality.
Today's blog is written by guest blogger Ed Marino. Focusing on the customer has to be a C-Level Priority in any company. Customer Focus is about knowing, listening and responding to the customer and the trends shaping the market. While sometimes unconsciously companies can drift into a more internal focus over time… The good news is that Customer Focus can be learned or relearned within an organization that has the right C-Level leadership.
