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Outsider Insights | Beyond the Sale—Why CEOs Are Turning Attention to Retention and Expansion
Outsider Insights
Across Chief Outsiders, we talk to hundreds of CEOs every month. In this 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.
AI, With a Dash of Humanity: Three Ways That High Tech and People Partner for Smart Business Strategy
Tue, Aug 6, 2019 — We live at the dawn of some very technologically compelling times. Businesses around the globe have supplanted humans with artificial equivalents, in a bid to meet customer demand for greater efficiencies. Indeed, some of this Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been integrated into business processes so smoothly, that we barely notice anymore. As an example, someone was recently texting me, and in their query asked me where I was. My iPhone picked up on the context queues in the message and prompted me with my current location – I just tapped and sent. In fact, AI, and automated machines in general, are very, very good at particular types of work. Monitoring, for example. People are horrible at monitoring – it’s boring and repetitive, and by our nature, we can easily become distracted. In some cases, in fact, extended monitoring is essential to life itself – in places like the intensive care unit at your hospital, or aloft at 41,000 feet, keeping an airplane with 300 passengers stable and safe. By 2022, one survey says that companies will dump a whopping $79 billion into such cognitive and AI systems designed to save money, build efficiency, and foster profitability.
Reeling In Recurring Revenue: Three Steps to Sustained Success
Thu, Jul 18, 2019 — 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!
Four Steps to Creating a Data-Intelligent Strategic Digital Marketing Plan
Wed, Jul 10, 2019 — This eBook presents an approach to the development of a data-intelligent digital marketing strategy to drive business growth.
Demand vs. Lead Generation: A Strategic Approach to Creating Highly-Qualified Leads
Tue, Jul 9, 2019 — Generating leads for B2B companies is one of the most important responsibilities of your marketing team. The concept of demand generation vs. lead generation many times are considered the same, or that one philosophy rather than the other should be adopted. Cracking the code of generating highly-qualified leads to grow your business involves the right focus on both demand and lead generation.
Is It Time to Replace Marketing Staff with Automation Technology?
Fri, Jul 5, 2019 — One of the biggest challenges CEOs face, aside from hiring the right talent, is balancing the number of employees against the need for driving growth. Business leaders are always looking closely at their marketing departments and questioning the return on the human resource investment. With the continued evolution of technologies, marketing automation is generating vast amounts of performance data and reaching business prospects in ways never before possible and, frankly, in ways that humans cannot. It makes sense, then, that companies are increasingly investing in technologies to improve the speed and effectiveness of marketing efforts as well as to provide a direct data link demonstrating marketing’s impact on company performance. Now that artificial intelligence is becoming more sophisticated, technology will start to significantly shift personnel needs in marketing departments of the future.
2019 Top Internet Trends and How They Impact Your Business
Tue, Jun 25, 2019 — For at least the past decade, developments in digital marketing – and technology in general – have served to disrupt virtually every industry. Whether you manufacture a product or deliver a service, your business undoubtedly has been roiled by digital developments, and their impact on the expectations – and buying behavior – of your customer base. Keeping apace with forthcoming developments can help any business better prepare for what’s to come – altering practices to successfully navigate this digital-first world.
Moving to a Blue Ocean With Growth Gears: Five Steps to Chart a Course for Success
Thu, Jun 20, 2019 — Whether you are a seafaring sort or not, it’s fairly intuitive to expect that a peaceful, sparkling, blue ocean is much more navigable than one roiled by rolling tides, scary sea vermin and dangerous storms. This relatable parable constitutes the foundation of “Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing - Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth,” a book by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne which provides a series of waypoints by which to guide businesses into calmer seas. I recently successfully led a client through the Blue Ocean Shift process prescribed by Kim and Mauborgne, and realized how well the lessons align with similar ones espoused in “The Growth Gears,” a book authored by my Chief Outsiders colleagues Art Saxby and Pete Hayes. “The Growth Gears” does a terrific job of building a process around how to go from random acts of marketing, to a purpose-based method of marketing an organization, by following three pillars—Insights, Strategy and Execution.
How to Generate Winning Results with PAC
Wed, Jun 19, 2019 — Most of us have heard of the Five P’s of Marketing (Product, Price, Promotion, Place and People) and how getting those right is essential for success. Certainly, all of these have a role and are important, but for small to mid-sized companies, experience shows that PAC is the biggest driver of success. These are: Product Audience Communications Executing well on PAC provides your business with focus and a market-informed approach. The PAC mindset creates a differentiated product and an activating message that reaches those most likely to buy. Consistent revenue and profit growth naturally follow.
Does Your Customer Delight Take Flight?
Mon, Jun 17, 2019 — Let’s assume, like most businesses, that you have a keen focus on pleasing your customers. You have plans, people and policies that ensure you are offering a great experience, and you are doing everything you can to make it easy to do business with you. That’s all well and good -- congratulations! However, it’s important to note that there are brands committed to going beyond “pleasing” their customers -- they are moving up to “delighting” their customers.