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Paul Sparrow
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Recent Posts
Beating Industry Benchmarks
In my previous blog, I discussed a fast way to assess relative marketing performance, and covered proven approaches to improving six industry benchmark-based Key Performance Indicators (reach, share, engagement, loyalty, pipeline, and progression) that can boost overall marketing effectiveness. Today, I’m going to review some of the key findings from recent research around Marketing benchmarks. I’ll select key metrics from each of these three benchmarks and their implications for optimizing marketing performance.
Executing Through Economic Challenges: Part One
Wed, Sep 9, 2020 — Shake Off the Shock-and-Awe Hardly anyone wants to hear it—it’s all so obvious—but the grim reality is front and center, so I’ll step up and say it. Nothing has torpedoed the U.S. economic growth engine like COVID-19. All at once, business ground to a halt back in March 2020 and we’ve all been grinding the gears and cycling the starter ever since, in a desperate bid to spark a restart. The desire to revive the revenue machinery has caused many businesses to tear up the playbook, toss out the strategic plan, and feed the engine whatever fuel they can get their hands on.
The Reopening Playbook — Real Strategies to Succeed Right Now in Today’s Marketplace
Mon, Jul 6, 2020 — Unless you are reading this blog from the Marshall Islands, Samoa, or about 10 other remote archipelagos, you likely have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. And my guess is you’re sick of reading introductions like, “In light of these trying times,” or “We’re all in this together.” Chances are as a company owner/CEO, you feel quite like you’re in this all by yourself. After all—it’s lonely at the top. So, a few practical tips to move your business through the hiccups and return to healthy growth might be helpful. In the next five to seven minutes, I hope to help jumpstart your current and post-COVID playbook. One prerequisite: Take a look at my previous blog about dealing with changes in the economy - in particular, the section that helps you assess what phase of growth your company finds itself in as you prepare to “reopen.”
Can Your Business Thrive Despite Changes in the Economy? Part 2
Wed, Feb 26, 2020 — Time to Hide or Double Down? Riding the 2020 Wave Establishing order in the midst of chaos can be most elusive, wouldn’t you agree? Just ask poor Chip Diller, the do-gooder ROTC cadet portrayed by Kevin Bacon in the seminal college movie classic, “Animal House.” Surrounded by fleeing masses in a parade gone wrong, and about to be bulldozed by a stampeding crowd, Diller thrusts out his hands and, gathering as much gravitas as possible, shouts, “Remain calm. All is well!” before he’s swarmed by the crowd and trampled into a facsimile of “Flat Stanley.”
Can Your Business Thrive Despite Changes in the Economy?
Wed, Jan 29, 2020 — Part 1: How Good are your Insights: Are you Guilty of Confirmation Bias? How do most business owners make decisions? If you answered, a) by reading the tea leaves; b) by the seat of their pants; c) through instinct and innuendo; or d) by flipping a coin, you may want to make an appointment with a good psychiatrist – and perhaps consider another line of work. In all seriousness, when I ask business owners about the foundation for their optimism about the economy, the answers often include sources such as cable news, blogs, websites, the Wall Street Journal, and sometimes even Google searches about the “state of the economy.”
Being Ferdinand Magellan: Four Key Predictive Indicators for Forecasting Your Growth Trajectory
Tue, Nov 27, 2018 — If you know the real story of the first man to successfully circumnavigate the earth, you know that Ferdinand Magellan died 16 months before his mission was completed. Despite his devastating death while in battle in the Philippines, his crew fearlessly sailed on without him – and completed his quest. They succeeded because Captain Magellan took the time to put the right KPIs in place – and his leadership team was deeply involved in the management, course predictions, and execution of the mission. Since they knew the predictable trajectory and the foreseeable obstacles before them, they were confident in carrying on to the finish line without their leader. As a CMO, I consider it my duty to provide navigable guidelines for those who are wondering what the best business growth metrics are for tracking, measurement, and forecasting. While Magellan’s guys didn’t exactly employ the same metrics as the ones I’m about to show you, it will be a good start in confidently sailing the challenging seas of your business marketplace.
What You Measure (And What You See) Is What You Get
Fri, Nov 16, 2018 — Are You Using Your KPIs Appropriately: Report Card or Predictive Data? After reading my first article in this series about using KPIs to properly predict the growth of your business, you likely began to understand why you should be wary of a simplistic view of KPIs in reporting company performance. Moreover, you may now fully realize the distinction between performance indicators and predictive indicators, which will help you uncover critical forecasts within your company data. As McKinsey explained in a recent article, “What gets measured, gets done.” That may be true, however, performance management begins to fail in any enterprise when executives use and act upon poor metrics, the wrong targets, or irrelevant information. How about an illustration? Let’s take a glance at a fictitious company example: New 3Q product sales at SparrowCo are up by 21 percent – and existing products sales are performing at the same steady level as last quarter, which was up 12 percent over 1Q. Business is clearly growing, would you agree? Everyone is happy, and the sales reps are counting commission dollars. Yay! Party time! But wait…there’s more! Let’s take a deeper look.
Are You Using Your KPIs Appropriately: Report Card or Predictive Data?
Fri, Oct 19, 2018 — Just a few weeks ago, I enjoyed yet another screening of the 1976 movie The Gumball Rally. If you’ve never seen it, it’s a slapstick satire about a wild and crazy cross-country race. The competition starts in New York City, with a goal to finish in the shortest amount of time. During the trek, a driver named Franco rips the review mirror off his windshield and dramatically announces the first rule of Italian driving: “What’s behind me is not important!” Even though I’ve heard this line plenty of times, I couldn’t help but chuckle. This belief is not only applicable to the business world – but appropriate when creating and measuring your company’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). According to Investopedia, a KPI is a set of measurable data that a company uses to gauge its performance over time. Examples include return on marketing investment, customer lifetime value (LTV), and customer acquisition cost (CAC). There are endless performance indicators you can use to measure your business goals.
Supercharging Your SWOT, Step One: Consolidating Your SWOT
Wed, Jan 10, 2018 — Conducting your SWOT analysis was fun, wasn’t it? It allowed you to take a break from working in your business, and allowed you to work on your business — a valuable step back during which you were able to take a breather from the day-to-day grind, and view the big picture of your business with clarity. No matter how long your SWOT process lasted, undoubtedly, once you got rolling, the information flowed — resulting in a growing cavalcade of lists that characterized your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Do I Need a Chief Growth Officer? Five Questions to Ask Your Top Marketer in 2018
Wed, Jan 3, 2018 — Back when my hair was long, and my taste in music was more eclectic, I was a huge fan of the musician Neil Young. Among the great albums he issued was one called “Rust Never Sleeps” – introduced at a time when newer artists threatened his relevance.