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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.
4 Tips for Creating a Sustainable Flow of Qualified Prospective Residents
Wed, Jan 18, 2023 — With an aging population, the demand for senior living facilities in the U.S. has never been stronger. Money and Markets projects that by the year 2040, the United States will need about 1.8 million more senior housing units to accommodate the growing number of senior citizens. That will mean that demand doubles over the next 20-plus years. The increase is expected to really take off after 2025 as baby boomers reach the 80-year mark, and then continue to age and need more housing options than are currently available. Despite growing demand, competition for residents in many markets has never been more fierce. If you want to keep your occupancy rate high and even better yet, maintain a waitlist of potential residents, having an integrated, multi-channel marketing program is essential.
Reap Big Rewards with Sales & Marketing Alignment in 2023
Tue, Jan 17, 2023 — When it comes to corporate synergy, there’s perhaps no greater return on your investment than to align your sales and marketing efforts. Though it’s simply common sense to have the two revenue-responsible departments working in sync, it can also mean dollars and cents. One study found that sales and marketing teams, when well-aligned, can wring out 200 percent more revenue as a result of their collaboration. You may already feel like this cross-pollination is happening at your company: Key personnel are collaborating on projects, keeping each other informed, using a common language, and possibly even delivering cross-functional reports from Salesforce, Tableau, and other analytical tools.
Consider These Six Focus Areas Now to Secure Market Success in 2023
Thu, Jan 12, 2023 — By: Rich DePencier and Scott Wright After the bubbly has lost its fizz, and the first quarter is – ready or not – swinging into motion, thousands of SMB owners, founders, and CEOs are looking to encourage and cajole their senior leadership to finalize their 2023 plans. But, framed against the backdrop of economic headwinds, hiring challenges, and political headlines, this year’s planning process is taking on a whole new sense of urgency. Rather than mapping out a strategy for maintaining the status quo or eking out incremental growth, it is clear that 2023 requires a dig-deep mentality. The question you may be asking as you face what’s to come is: What is my company’s next “big idea” -- and how will I get the team to achieve a loftier set of goals?
Chief Outsiders’ Commitment to Go-to-Market Success Expands With New Chief Sales Officer Role
Tue, Jan 10, 2023 — Today’s CEO has to work harder than ever. With a tightening economy, fears of a recession, and a post-COVID marketplace that remains hard to read, the CEO truly is in the hot seat. With an average tenure of fewer than seven years, according to some estimates, the CEO has little runway with which to work in creating market and revenue success. It’s an unfamiliar place for many CEOs – particularly those in the SMB and mid-market space. They’ve built their business on a foundation of great industry knowledge, hard work, dedication, and a healthy dose of sweat equity. But in changing times, and with little understanding of market forces outside their particular industry, it can be difficult to get an infusion of the right market insights needed to build next-generation strategies for success.
A New Brew: Harnessing B2C Practices for B2B Success
Fri, Jan 6, 2023 — If you know the difference between a watery, burnt, drip cup of coffee and a delectable, creamy cappuccino, you have all you need to build your business-to-business (B2B) company to new levels of success. Certainly, it takes more than a shot of caffeine to grow B2B sales, revenues, and relevance – but there’s a story brewing here that we believe holds the secret to relevance in today’s marketplace.
CEO Go-To-Market Warning: Avoid the Blind Spots That Cause Products to Miss the Mark | Part 3
Wed, Dec 7, 2022 — Part 3: Do you have Product-Market Fit? There’s a time-honored Chinese proverb that the journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. But did you know that one of technology’s greatest recent success stories started with a “Tiny Speck?” In fact, it was only about 13 years ago that entrepreneur Stewart Butterfield was knee-deep into the development of Tiny Speck’s first game, Glitch. To accelerate the process, he launched an internal messaging platform called “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge” – or Slack for short.
The Dollars You Could Invite to Stay
Mon, Nov 28, 2022 — We’re hearing concerns from business owners and executives that it’ll be harder to fund their growth initiatives. It’s understandable, with most companies experiencing increases in the cost of their inputs (people, materials, etc.) and some facing softer demand. The good news: There are two major sources of money companies can tap without needing to raise external capital:
CEO Go-To-Market Warning: Avoid the Blind Spots That Cause Products to Miss the Mark | Part 2
Mon, Oct 31, 2022 — Part 2: Beware of Market Forces that Impact Company and Category Survival In 2022, the market has been turned upside down. Remote work, the supply chain squeeze, and the rollercoaster economic environment all have roiled even the best of intentions for businesses of all sizes. And though your company’s go-to-market approach will still help you gain or maintain your share of the market, winning the “checkboxes” isn’t enough to stave off the macro forces that are constantly reshaping and disfiguring the landscape you’re selling into.
Beyond the Elevator Speech: Messaging that Truly Leverages Your Employee Brand Advocates
Wed, Oct 19, 2022 — Who is the most important brand ambassador at your company? Is it you, the CEO, whose job it is to motivate, inspire, and exude confidence in your company, its products, and its services? How about your business development team, whose sole purpose is to funnel new client lifeblood into your veins and arteries? Or is it the marketers, who toil to define and develop your brand and make it ready for prime time?