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

Karen Hayward

Karen Hayward is a Managing Partner and CMO of Chief Outsiders. Karen is a results-oriented marketing, sales and operations executive with a proven track record for building and executing strategic programs that accelerate revenue. Karen’s industry marketing awards include a DemandGen Top 10 Award for "Using Sales and Marketing Automation to Fuel Corporate Growth" (2008 - CenterBeam) and a Stevie Finalist recognition for "Best Marketing Department" from the American Business Awards. In 2004, Karen was named a “Selling All-Star” by Selling (a monthly publication of Institutional Investor. She has also been a featured speaker at Interop 2007, On24 Webcast on Lead Farming, and a guest lecturer at USC East Bay. In 2010, Karen was recognized by CRN as one of the "Power 100: The Most Powerful Women of the Channel" for driving top-line revenue growth and revving up CenterBeam's social media program. Karen holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Outsider Insights | You Built Something Different. Your Messaging Made It Sound the Same.

Tue, Oct 27, 2026 | Posted by Dawn Werry

Executive Takeaways

Real differentiation often goes unsaid because messaging leads with inputs, not the outcome buyers pay for.
When the story changes by segment, buyers have no throughline and compare you on price.
Buyers won’t work out your advantage on their own, so the message has to state it.
Quick test: remove your logo and see whether a buyer could still tell it’s you.

Outsider Insights

Across Chief Outsiders, we talk to hundreds of CEOs every month. In this series, we explore the trends and challenges we’re hearing from these discussions – and what you can do if you’re facing the same issues in your business.

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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.

Growth Insights for CEOs