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Karen Hayward
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Recent Posts
The CEO Dashboard Should Show Direction, Not Just Activity
If your dashboard only tells you what happened, it’s reporting history. A CEO needs direction.
Steps Taken Aren’t the Same as Direction
I've spent a fair amount of time backpacking, and one thing becomes obvious when you've been walking for several hours: knowing how far you've walked isn't the same thing as knowing whether you're headed in the right direction.
Your watch can tell you that you've taken 22,000 steps.
Vistage Chairs: Is Your Member’s Marketing Really Working? Ask These 5 Questions.
Tue, Aug 11, 2026 — Executive Takeaways Most CEOs challenge every capital investment but can't say with confidence whether their marketing is working. More leads isn't better marketing. Better customers are. If sales and marketing are blaming each other, the CEO hasn't asked the right question. The real measure isn't what marketing produced. It's what it changed about the future economics of the business.
Vistage Chairs: There's One Buyer Conversation Your CEOs Aren't Having
Wed, Jun 10, 2026 — Executive Takeaways Most CEOs misdiagnose why they lose deals — and it's costing them. Buyers won't tell your salespeople the real reason. They'll tell a neutral third party. The most common loss reasons are fixable — if you know what they actually are. Insight without action is just a good conversation. Win/loss analysis turns it into revenue.
Growth Without Guesswork: The Questions Great Vistage Chairs Ask
Fri, May 15, 2026 — Executive Takeaways Most CEOs are managing growth on assumptions that no longer reflect how buyers actually buy. The best Chair question isn't "how is sales going?" It's "where are the growth leaks?" AI search is already a revenue issue, not a future one. Insight without commitment is just a good conversation.
The New Sales Funnel: How to Revitalize Your Messaging to “Wow” Today’s Consumer
Mon, Dec 11, 2017 — For sales-driven organizations, 2017 marked the year that the baton was finally – and permanently – passed to the consumer. This was the year, it was declared, that all of the growing technology megatrends finally gave the consuming public the upper hand in the relationship with marketers. This means that, despite all of the efforts and resources we’ve invested into outbound sales and marketing efforts, heretofore, we’re simply going to find ourselves several paces behind an educated and savvy buying public.
The 1 Percent Secret: How to Price Your Product for Mid-Market Revenue Success
Fri, Aug 18, 2017 — Psst. I have a secret for you, CEO. How would you like to learn one easy, surefire way to immediately add more than 10 percent in operating profits to your bottom line? Before you declare this another attempt at “fake news,”– let me assure you, this is a legitimate, real, and practical offer. Though it requires very little in terms of effort to achieve – it does require a leap of faith, and resolve of focus, that many CEOs have either been reticent, or reluctant, to make.
Take the “Path to Closure” to Ensure Forecast Accuracy Success
Tue, Jan 17, 2017 — Only a half a generation ago, we thought we had it made, technology-wise. Getting onto the World Wide Web was as easy as loading up the latest CD mailer from America Online; and we were able to send important messages to beeping little black boxes that resided on our belt clip or purse strap. We truly had it made – or so we thought.
Enabling the Sale: How to Handle Requests for Customer References Without Losing Momentum
Thu, Sep 8, 2016 — Sales and marketing in the B2B space is ever-evolving, often disrupted with new technologies or strategies that revolutionize traditional processes. Sales enablement is a relatively new concept in the B2B sales industry, one that refers to the utilization of training, tools, metrics and marketing alignment to maximize a deal’s potential and close it faster, no matter the product or service.
The Art of the Sale: How to Conquer Your Prospect’s Objections and Close the Deal
Wed, Jul 20, 2016 — The face of sales has certainly changed, hasn’t it? When I started my career, the best sales reps were traditionally hired by large companies, and trained to execute a strategic sales process, using a specific methodology. Like soldiers in a battalion, each sales rep knew their role, was aware of the various possible strategies, and was armed for each deal with the scripts and insights necessary to succeed.
Rebooting Your Marketing Strategy to Meet B2B Buyer Expectations
Wed, Oct 21, 2015 — Before the digital marketing boom, sales teams were the hunter-gatherers – the ones that had to go into the forest and slay or harvest what our company would subsist upon. In those days, the typical B2B marketer was asked to sharpen the arrows, restring the bows – and hope that our prep work was good enough to ensure an acceptable bounty. When the sales team shouldered 100 percent of the prospective buyer’s journey, it was up to us to ensure the prospect knew about your company, could call or visit the office for more information, and were loaded down with a highly polished set of sales materials (and telephone script) that hooked them on the notion that yes, we are the definitive answer to their problem.