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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.
Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast: Has Your Company Failed to Order the Breakfast of Champions?
Tue, Sep 13, 2016 — You are a hard-working, dedicated CEO who wants to grow your company – so you have taken the necessary steps to understand your market and develop insights about growth opportunities. You have even transformed those insights into a cohesive strategy, and worked with your team on a successful execution plan. What’s more, you have metrics and milestones galore. Congratulations! You’re ready to grow! …Right?
Enabling the Sale: How to Handle Requests for Customer References Without Losing Momentum
Thu, Sep 8, 2016 — Sales and marketing in the B2B space is ever-evolving, often disrupted with new technologies or strategies that revolutionize traditional processes. Sales enablement is a relatively new concept in the B2B sales industry, one that refers to the utilization of training, tools, metrics and marketing alignment to maximize a deal’s potential and close it faster, no matter the product or service.
CEOs: What’s the Value of a Strategic Plan?
Wed, Sep 7, 2016 — A jargon-free discussion Did you know that, mathematically, if you improve revenue by 2% per month, you will more than double your business in 3 years? The value of a strategic plan then, is to create the “how to” strategies, initiatives and resourcing to get there. Whoa…so how do you get this done?
Strategic Plans Gone Bad
Mon, Aug 8, 2016 — No Middle Ground Strategic planning seems to have no middle ground: it’s either an exercise that teams often dread, or an indispensable guide for inspiration, direction and accountability. Margaret Thatcher gives her view of “the middle” in her famous quote “standing in the middle of the road is dangerous, it gets you knocked down on both sides.” As polarizing of a figure she was, and as heated the debate over her legacy is, history will give the “iron lady” credit for making decisions and ensuring actions.
Thinking Smarter about Machine Learning: A Conversation with Geoff Roach
Sun, Jul 31, 2016 — Artificial intelligence, or machine learning, is on the rise. From Siri to self-driving cars, new frameworks are becoming accessible to the mainstream, and products are growing increasingly "smarter." As massive quantitates of data are being plugged into predictive systems, this leads to a question of quality: How can we ensure the programs we put in place will understand the data we throw at them? Geoff Roach with Chief Outsiders argues that no matter how smart our machines become, humans will always need to be one step ahead.
Driving Marketing Post M&A
Tue, Jul 26, 2016 — M&A continues to be a preferred growth strategy for many executives according to KPMG’s 10th Annual Study of the M&A Outlook. The key trends driving M&A activity vary by industry sector but the primary challenge is consistent across the board - valuation disparity between the buyer and seller.[i] As a result, most of the effort is on financial evaluations during due diligence, and other areas, like human resources, can be postponed or overlooked.
Attention, Company Founders: Keys to Avoiding Colossal Marketing Flops
Mon, Jul 25, 2016 — They’re some of the worst American marketing flops of all time: Smith & Wesson Mountain Bikes, Cosmopolitan Yogurt, and Coors Rocky Mountain Water. These three powerhouses are some of the most well-known brands on the planet – and yet they still hit the skids when their seemingly unique and interesting idea failed to meet customer expectations and gain traction in the market.
The Art of the Sale: How to Conquer Your Prospect’s Objections and Close the Deal
Wed, Jul 20, 2016 — The face of sales has certainly changed, hasn’t it? When I started my career, the best sales reps were traditionally hired by large companies, and trained to execute a strategic sales process, using a specific methodology. Like soldiers in a battalion, each sales rep knew their role, was aware of the various possible strategies, and was armed for each deal with the scripts and insights necessary to succeed.
What do I do with my Marketing Intern?
Sun, Jul 17, 2016 — Internships are an important part of today's marketing teams. They provide recent college graduates a chance to combat the catch-22 of needing experience to get a job that will give them experience, while employers can select from the cream of the crop, see how a potential employee will fare in a real-life setting, and even create a pool of interns to pull from in the future. However, the key to a successful marketing internship is to make sure their time spent remains a win-win situation for everyone.