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Outsider Insights | From Hustle to System: Why More CEOs Are Rebuilding Their Sales Function
Outsider Insights
Across Chief Outsiders, we talk to hundreds of CEOs every month. In this new 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.
Risky Business: How Marketing Content Can Take Risk Out of Business Decisions
Tue, Dec 29, 2020 — In my younger years, I loved the thrill of a challenging winter rock and ice climb. I found one at Maiden Cliff, which rises 800 feet above a lake in Maine. In late winter, sun-melted snow joins with natural seepage, freezes overnight, and creates giant icicles attached to the rock. What the sun helps to create, it also taketh away. Ice that is climbable with reasonable safety in shade can, after direct sun gets on it, soften, break away from the rock, or simply melt.
Best Practice Process (Stage/Gate) for Successful and Profitable Innovations
Fri, Dec 18, 2020 — As we know with most business activities, a well-defined process is often critical to keep your project on track. But equally important is to have specific targets that must be reviewed and approved before continued investment of people and money can continue. Given the complexity of innovation and new product development, and the high levels of new product failure for most industries, these initiatives carry a greater need for a rigorous process.
Customer Insights Essential to Successful Innovation
Tue, Dec 8, 2020 — Listening to your prospective customers seems to be a logical approach when identifying new products or services. But too many companies look internally to their teams, assuming they have the expertise and knowledge to innovate. It is true that they have industry and company knowledge. But they are not having daily, objective conversations with people in the target audience. Those conversations are necessary to fully understand their needs and pains, and what products or services will be valuable to them.
Successful Strategy for Entering International Markets
Mon, Dec 7, 2020 — "The life of a typical entrant is nasty, brutish, and short.” - Paul Geroski, London Business School There’s nothing that quickens the pulse of a growing enterprise-level business than expanding its footprint beyond its native borders. “Taking a company international,” as it is often less formally referred to, is no small task. What works well at home might be less than perfect abroad. It is also difficult to manage from a distance, so successfully going international takes some planning. CEOs need to keep target markets, objectives, entry mode, organization and execution in mind. It’s little wonder that many companies toil mightily to realize a decent return from a global shift. According to a Harvard Business Review study of 20,000 companies in 30 countries, it can take almost a decade to realize a positive rate of return on an international investment.
The Importance of Innovation for Sustainable Growth and Profitability
Thu, Dec 3, 2020 — The initial success of many small to mid-sized companies comes from an innovative product or service they developed. Passionately designed, promoted, and differentiated from competitors, it resonated with their customers. However, despite this early excitement and success, many companies fail to maintain a focus on innovation. Markets, customer needs, and technology are constantly changing. Those that recognize this and respond will drive growth and ensure a sustainable business for years to come.
Your Sales and Marketing Pros Are At Odds – Here’s How to Get Them Aligned
Thu, Dec 3, 2020 — Since the era of cavemen, the roles of Sales and Marketing professionals have been fairly well defined. The earliest marketers would create awareness for that remarkable new invention, the wheel; and the salespeople would roll it down the streets, sharing the features and benefits to interested customers, then collect five dodo-birds in compensation. In the million years since, Sales and Marketing departments still have a similarly symbiotic existence -- but a lot seems to have changed in the digital era. Today, the gap between Sales and Marketing represents a gray area at most companies — from the smallest distributors, to the largest multinational enterprises.
Positioning for Explosive Growth: A CEO’s Guide To Enthusiastic Leadership - Part Three
Thu, Nov 5, 2020 — Knowledge Is Power What’s holding you aloft in 2020? Whether or not you have cracked the code of 2020, most CEOs have spent the year snapping back to a changed reality. In our last blog, we looked at the importance of being engaged, insightful, and plugged in as the “table stakes” of leadership change in turbulent times. But all the engagement in the world is pointless if you don’t know the direction from which your headwinds and tailwinds are coming.
More Returns = More Sales? Amazing!
Thu, Nov 5, 2020 — How do you decide who your “favorite” online merchants are? With online ordering going through the roof, online brands and sellers have been focused on the best customer experience. They have focused on the “front end” – an easy to use web site, wide selection of items, and fast delivery, maybe even one or two days.
Hiding the Full Value of an Innovation
Wed, Nov 4, 2020 — “If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.” -Yogi Berra A powerful, sales-producing change that most companies can make quickly: Find messaging that is not working very well, and replace it. This is especially important when marketing an innovation.