Business Growth Strategies For CEOs: Top CMOs On Marketing Strategy Implementations

Bob Sherlock

Bob Sherlock often works with companies serving business markets that face one of two challenges: · An innovative offering that isn’t ramping up sales fast enough · Getting squeezed on price Bob solves those problems by helping clients find their Hidden Value, message it so that prospects perceive that value, and pricing to get paid for it. As a result, his clients can grow sales and margins at the same time. Bob’s experience includes consulting at Marketwerks and The ProAction Group, and founding and running a venture-funded logistics service provider operating a network of automated, unmanned delivery drop points. Earlier, Sherlock was CMO for Wickes Inc., a distributor and retailer of building materials.

5 Questions Every CEO Needs to Ask About AI

Fri, Apr 26, 2024 | Posted by Ed Valdez

"66% of CEOs and the C-Suite are dissatisfied (or ambivalent) with their organization’s progress on AI..."

Whether to employ AI as a business tool is no longer in question. A recent BCGX Radar Report cited that:

89% of CEOs and the C-Suite rank AI and Gen AI as a Top 3 Tech Priority with 51% ranking it as the #1 priority.
66% of CEOs and the C-Suite are dissatisfied (or ambivalent) with their organization’s progress on AI because of:
- A lack of talent/skills
- An Unclear AI and Gen AI roadmap and investment priorities
- No strategy for Gen AI and Responsible AI.

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Risky Business: How Marketing Content Can Take Risk Out of Business Decisions

Tue, Dec 29, 2020 — In my younger years, I loved the thrill of a challenging winter rock and ice climb. I found one at Maiden Cliff, which rises 800 feet above a lake in Maine. In late winter, sun-melted snow joins with natural seepage, freezes overnight, and creates giant icicles attached to the rock. What the sun helps to create, it also taketh away. Ice that is climbable with reasonable safety in shade can, after direct sun gets on it, soften, break away from the rock, or simply melt.

Hiding the Full Value of an Innovation

Wed, Nov 4, 2020 — “If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.” -Yogi Berra A powerful, sales-producing change that most companies can make quickly: Find messaging that is not working very well, and replace it. This is especially important when marketing an innovation.

Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Downturns

Tue, Apr 7, 2020 — Del Griffith (John Candy) and Neal Page (Steve Martin) are driving the wrong way on an Interstate highway at night. A motorist, driving in the correct lanes: “Hey, put your window down!” Page: “He wants something.” [rolls window down] Griffith: “Ah, he’s probably drunk.” Motorist and his passenger holler across the median: “You’re going the wrong way!!!” Page: “He says we’re going the wrong way.” Griffith: “Oh he’s drunk! How would he know where we’re going?” Page, nodding: “Yeahhh… how would HE know?” [Moments later, Griffith and Page narrowly escape a head-on collision with two tractor-trailers.] Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Paramount Pictures, 1987

Slam Dunks that Aren’t

Wed, Oct 30, 2019 — It might be correct to tell a basketball player that the best way he or she can score points is to dunk the ball through the hoop. Correct, that is, if the player is, say, 6’6” or taller. That advice, however, is not very useful for a player that’s 5’6”.

Did you lose a big sale to “None of the Above”?

Fri, Apr 26, 2019 — “We win 15% of the projects we propose. Our competitors also win about 15%. “With the other 70% of proposals, no one wins. The prospect doesn’t proceed with anybody.” -CEO of a technology integration company Ever heard yourself saying something like that—or heard a peer say it? The status quo is often your fiercest competitor.

Costs Spiking? The Right Price Moves can Offset the Impact

Fri, Jun 15, 2018 — Like so many of us, Phil is pressed for time. An avid mountaineer, when he prepares for a climb he wants to train just enough that he can summit and descend in a safe amount of time. He has a strategy (certain amounts of running and stair-climbing) to achieve that fitness level. Last year a back injury precluded his usual training approach. The injury didn’t mean he couldn’t prepare to perform at the required level. However, it did force him to look for alternative strategies to train.

Sold, not Bought: The Marketing of Unfamiliar Solutions

Mon, Nov 20, 2017 — Several years ago I met Davis, an executive in Ohio, who segmented his product lines into “Bought, not Sold” and “Sold, not Bought.” “Bought” products, he said, were familiar to prospective buyers. They had self-diagnosed what they needed and self-prescribed a product solution for that need. Often, they’d previously purchased a product in the category. By contrast, a “Sold” product presented an unfamiliar solution—so the prospect couldn’t self-prescribe, and may not have self-diagnosed. In fact, their need could be latent and wouldn’t be recognized without prompting.

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