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Go-To-Market Cultural Alignment: The Invisible Variable in U.S. Expansion
Many companies that find success outside the United States have one thing in common: the need to succeed in the U.S. market.
That is not complicated or surprising. The United States is the largest economy in the world and, in many categories, the single biggest available market. World Bank data clearly shows the scale of the U.S. economy relative to most global markets. For companies in high-tech, scientific, medical, industrial, and systems integration sectors, the U.S. is not just attractive. It is strategic.
Company leaders want to grow. The U.S. is where they look. They are not wrong.
Product > Market Alignment: The True Sign of a Startup Unicorn?
Tue, Mar 29, 2016 — For those of us knee-deep in the startup world, we’re inundated by Unicorn noise – first their rise and more recently their fall (or, at least their right-sizing). Any number of factors have played into this trajectory: from FOMO venture capital activity that drove unsustainable valuations, to startup growth hacking techniques that indicate initial hyper-scaling, but often run out of steam - exposing the startup’s gap between product and promise.
Blending, the “Brady” Way: Six Steps to Post-Merger Harmony
Mon, Mar 28, 2016 — If you grew up in the same era as me, your mission-critical Friday night objective included tuning into “The Brady Bunch,” one of my favorite childhood television shows. Greg and Marsha Brady’s predicaments paled compared to the pickles my siblings and I often found ourselves in -- yet the Brady kids – forced into sibling union by the wedding of Mike and Carol, seemed to navigate American life of the 1960s and 70s with relative ease (despite losing Bobby and Cindy briefly on a Hawaiian island and surviving an ill-fated attempt to form a family band).
Pitching for Success: Three Ways to Get More Sales Wins On Your Playing Field
Tue, Mar 22, 2016 — For those of us who participated in youth athletics, winning – we were told – was quite secondary to “how we played the game.” Sportsmanship and fellowship were the primary objectives, and if we were lucky, we would notch the kind of moral victories that kept our competitive juices flowing. But, at some point, we grew up – we took on responsibilities that matched our maturing wardrobes and shrinking hairlines; and, for those of us who have found our careers aligned with our company’s earnings growth, we now realize that winning – in fact – is everything.
Your Brand Promise RX: The Keys to Delivering an Amazing Customer Experience
Mon, Mar 21, 2016 — In late December, a young mother with a cranky infant in tow boarded a Southwest Airlines flight headed for Islip, New York. It was her son’s first-ever trip, and the plane ride home was the only time he’d been awake on an airplane. As soon as they boarded, a confident, caring flight attendant scooped up the anxious mother and baby, carried their bags, helped them find an aisle with an empty seat, and even cooed the little boy in her arms during the flight.
Pricing “SaaS”: What’s the Right Price for Your Service?
Sat, Mar 19, 2016 — The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model is flourishing, expanding, and boldly going where it’s never gone before—how do you know the right price for your service? The pay-as-you-use model that is widely employed by SaaS offerings has even propagated into areas like manufacturing, where such “value-in-use” strategies are gaining wide acceptance. For companies trying to ensure that this model is as remunerative as it can be, a SaaS offering has to ensure a properly balanced pricing structure. Furthermore, which attributes of our offerings support the highest value needs from our prospects, and how can we look at historical data to inform this pricing model?
Closing the Small to Mid-Sized Company Merger – Is It Too Risky to Ink the Deal?
Thu, Mar 17, 2016 — In our previous post, we lit the fuse on the concept of how a merger or acquisition may be beneficial when swashbuckling one’s way through the uber-competitive marketing landscape of the present. By making it this far, you may have decided that this strategy may be prudent -- especially now that you know when and why you might consider M&A for your company. So let’s now take a look at the downside of such an initiative—the “glass-half-empty scenario.”
Big-Brand B2B Executives Finally Opt In to Email Marketing
Thu, Feb 25, 2016 — It’s no secret that email marketing is a top driver for sales and customer growth. A vast majority of marketers say that it is their primary channel for lead generation. And despite the many claims that “email marketing is dead,” it continues to not only dominate, but also reinvent itself as new tools and technologies allow it to remain more relevant than ever for businesses of all sizes. Even more surprising is the fact that many large business-to-business (B2B) brands have not yet tapped into the potential of email marketing. From what we’ve experienced across our client base, some of these firms are finally turning to email to breathe new life into their marketing initiatives. However, what these newcomers are finding is that breaking into the “king” of all marketing channels is way more complicated than it seems on the surface. And that may be one factor that keeps some businesses from getting started.
Marketing…the big “M” and the little “m”
Mon, Feb 22, 2016 — When it comes to understanding the function of Marketing, there are often common words that enter the equation like “website”, “brochures”, or “sales collateral”. While these are tools that typically originate from the Marketing department, they only scratch the surface of what Marketing encompasses in total. A wise person once characterized the poorly understood function in the terms of “there is a big 'M' in Marketing and a little 'm'”. Wow, that is profound. So, what do we mean when we say the big “M” of Marketing?
Top 12 (Plus 1) Leadership Skills I Learned from Boy Scouts
Tue, Feb 2, 2016 — Robert Fulgrum reminded us that “All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” when he published his book of the same name. We’re told that if we: Share Everything Play Fair Don’t Hit People… …along with 13 more basic principles we will surely have a successful life. Well, he didn’t exactly say that, but certainly he asserts our lives would be more peaceful and our society less caustic.