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Recent Posts
When the Founder Is the Rainmaker: How to Scale Without Losing the Spark
In many founder-led businesses, the founder isn’t just the leader—they’re also the best (and often only) rainmaker. They land the big deals. They have the trusted relationships. They know the pitch inside and out because they are the pitch.
It works—until it doesn’t.
As the business grows, this model creates a bottleneck. Every new opportunity depends on one and only person. And it’s the same person every time. But there’s a downside. When that person is also responsible for running the business, mentoring the team, and shaping the vision, something eventually gives.
How to Build Your Marketing Team for Growth
Tue, Mar 7, 2017 — A marketing organizational roadmap for B2B venture CEOs After slogging through the early startup phase and acquiring the first handful of customers through relationships, sheer selling tenacity and perseverance, many founding CEOs at B2B ventures ask me: “To scale my company, I know I need a marketing team. But I don’t know where to start and what path to follow. Can you help?”
Are You Really Ready for Mobile?
Thu, Mar 2, 2017 — Let’s start with one important question. Which of the following is critical to effectively using mobile technologies to build your business and accelerate your revenues? (a) The commercial readiness of the technologies employed (b) Aligning mobile strategies with your business strategy (c) Having a plan which understands and prioritizes mobile deployment across customers, partners, and employees (d) Your internal business readiness to deploy and support mobile technologies (e) Developing a plan with goals, milestones, investments and returns, and key success metrics (f) All of the above.
How to Build a Winning Healthcare Digital Marketing Team
Sun, Feb 26, 2017 — The Expanding Role of Digital Healthcare Marketing - The role of digital marketing as a key factor in achieving growth at community health plans continues to expand. However, having employed a traditional approach for decades, your health plan marketing organization may lag in the adoption of digital marketing methods and best practices. Your marketing ROI may even be slipping or is not accurately measured. A recent ACHP (Alliance of Community Health Plans) survey shows that most health plan organizations consider digital marketing mediums to be more effective than traditional print and broadcast communications. Increased competition and the shifting consumer-to-patient journey amplify the urgency of adopting digital methods. In addition, the need to more closely track the effectiveness of tactics and improve ROI amid pressures to reduce spending, mean that it’s time to enhance and refine your digital healthcare marketing efforts.
Monologues Vs. Dialogues: Four Ways that High-Growth Companies Connect With Their Customers
Fri, Feb 24, 2017 — I’d like to introduce you to the first great marketing philosopher. Way back before Coke was teaching the world to sing, and, about the same time that the guy selling the round wheel cornered the market on transportation, a guy named Zeno of Citium was positing on the very important marketing attribute of listening.
When is Return on Learning (ROL) More Important than ROI?
Thu, Feb 16, 2017 — If you completed a class on finance and accounting, you are likely familiar with Return on Investment (ROI). Are you ready to take the pop quiz on how to calculate it? No? That’s OK, it’s not my objective here or to question your degree. What I do want to do is to highlight when to use ROI, and when an even more powerful concept, Return on Learning, or ROL, can be even more appropriate.
CMOs: Your Days Are (Still) Numbered
Tue, Jan 31, 2017 — Chief Marketing Officer Tenure Drops from 48 to 44 Months High CMO turnover is a continuing trend in major US companies. While the average tenure has risen over the past decade (the average length of stay was a mere 23.6 months in 2004, compared with 48 months in 2014), a recent study released by Spencer Stuart indicates we may be approaching a down swing - last year's average CMO tenure clocked in at just 44 months (the first drop in a decade).
What do Value Propositions, Word Clouds, and Before/After Diet Ads have in Common?
Thu, Jan 19, 2017 — As consumers, we can’t miss the constant series of “before and after” adverts promoted by diet product companies. You know the ones I mean. Big and unhappy before, slim and smiling after. The long-term and continuing use of this approach can be explained by only a couple of reasons: (a) either these companies can’t think of any more creative ways of marketing their products, or (b) the ads actually work.
As the World Turns: What Globalization Really Means to Your Enterprise
Wed, Jan 4, 2017 — This could very well be the shortest blog you ever read – this New Year, or last! That’s because, at the moment I decided to begin a series of blogs covering the megatrend of globalization, the New York Times decided to announce that it is dead. Though the sentiment of this particular New York Times feature was fueled by the recent U.S. election of Donald Trump, I wanted to make sure that my particular viewpoints on globalization were still valid.
5 Steps to Building Credibility
Fri, Dec 30, 2016 — It’s hard to build a name for yourself when you’re brand new. There’s always the catch-22 of needing a foundation of customers to develop credibility, but needing credibility to attract new customers. You can have the most innovative, honest and necessary product on the market, but if no one knows about it – it’s time to get people talking.