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

Slade Kobran

Slade Kobran is an innovative strategic marketing executive with a proven talent for elevating the visibility, performance and profitability of growth-minded organizations. Kobran achieves these goals through the expert orchestration of branding, lead generation, market development, new product launch, and external and internal communications. He is known for his ability to identify new customer markets, products and revenue streams that generate substantial profit. Kobran’s many hats have included Chief Marketing Officer; Vice President, Strategic Initiatives; Vice President, New Business Development & Marketing Services; and Vice President, Marketing with such market leaders as Infogroup, ADP and Dun & Bradstreet.

Reeling In Recurring Revenue: Three Steps to Sustained Success

Thu, Jul 18, 2019 | Posted by Jeff Greenberg

A fisherman, as a rule, has to work pretty hard to bring home the catch of the day—hours of grueling effort, in pitching seas, to struggle to reel in one tuna at a time. Imagine, however, a utopian upgrade to this model—simply navigating to the “hot spot,” and sitting back with a frosty beverage while the fish jump, willingly, into the boat.

If you run a recurring revenue stream business, you get to inhabit this magical place—a customer signs up, and they keep paying you, month over month. But, simply having a recurring revenue stream does equate to perpetual hockey stick revenue growth—and I played hockey! There are a number of things that can cause your recurring revenue model to “flounder,” affecting your revenue and margin growth.

In this blog series, we’ll look at the three issues facing recurring revenue businesses—churn, balancing acquisition and retention and creating a retention program. It is my hope that, by the end of this series, you will secure your recurring revenue enterprise against the sharks that could bring it down—and that’s no “Big Fish” story!

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Dear CEO, You’re About To Be Disrupted

Tue, Sep 1, 2015 — I was watching one of the business channels recently when a commercial for Salesforce popped on the screen. In it, Steve Weston, CEO of mortgages at Barclays, was talking about demands of customers of tomorrow when he made reference to being “Uberized out of the world.” Apparently, now not only can you be “Googled”, you can also be “Uberized”, and so can your company.

What Kind of Marketing is the Right Kind of Marketing for My Company?

Wed, Feb 4, 2015 — In today’s digitally empowered world, it’s tempting for businesses to take a “ready-fire-aim” approach to marketing. In some cases, it almost seems that the philosophy is, “throw up a Facebook page, send out a quick eBlast and wait for the customers to come pounding at our door.” Indeed, the proliferation of tech tools that promise low-cost, effortless marketing can be enticing to people who lead with their gut instead of their head. For an illustration of how many such tools are on the market, click here for a “supergraphic” that highlights just the first several hundred.

A Recipe for Outbound Marketing Success in an Inbound Marketing World

Thu, Jan 8, 2015 — I had a conversation recently with a business associate who was pronouncing dead the discipline of outbound marketing – which, simply stated, is the technique of reaching out to a prospect proactively to gain their attention and ultimately, their business. This associate went on to say that his recent attempt to send a direct mailer to hundreds of prospects was an abject failure. Hardly any business had resulted from the investment. When I probed as to the reasons for the failed outbound marketing attempt, I learned that this individual conducted no appreciable follow-up, had not developed a plan to reinforce the message in the mailer and had no rhythm, cadence or even schedule for reaching back out. It is often forgotten in this brave new world where inbound marketing – abetted by social media and other relatively easy portals for a prospect to initiate contact with a business – rules the day that the outbound side of the equation, when executed well, can still have a place in many business’s toolkits.

The Brave New World of New Markets - Five Steps to Conquering New Business Frontiers

Wed, Sep 24, 2014 — If there’s one thing that has been constant in the history of America, it’s the spirit of exploration. From Lewis and Clark to Dora the Explorer, our tales of wanderlust have been well-chronicled and have led to great advancements in science, medicine – and business. If you think that’s a heady legacy to live up to, you’re right. However, as responsible business stewards, the need to grow and expand is what fuels our passion to seek new markets for our business. As you consider whether the time is right to expand your company into new markets – either geographically or by customer type – ponder this. According to a study by KPMG, 90 percent of U.S. business executives involved with business development and corporate strategy have seen revenues increase from high growth and emerging markets. This is a sure sign that a broader expansion will open our business up to a world of new possibilities – and financial rewards.

Growth Insights for CEOs