Seven Steps to Shorten Your Sales Cycle
Thu, Apr 11, 2024 | Posted by Bob Sherlock
Does your company provide customers with expensive business inputs?
Or are you crucial in other ways to your customers’ business success?
Does your company provide customers with expensive business inputs?
Or are you crucial in other ways to your customers’ business success?
Wed, Sep 9, 2020 — Shake Off the Shock-and-Awe Hardly anyone wants to hear it—it’s all so obvious—but the grim reality is front and center, so I’ll step up and say it. Nothing has torpedoed the U.S. economic growth engine like COVID-19. All at once, business ground to a halt back in March 2020 and we’ve all been grinding the gears and cycling the starter ever since, in a desperate bid to spark a restart. The desire to revive the revenue machinery has caused many businesses to tear up the playbook, toss out the strategic plan, and feed the engine whatever fuel they can get their hands on.
Thu, Apr 23, 2020 — As the saying goes, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” but unfortunately the saying doesn’t tell us how to get going. Thinking about the many types of crisis, from a data breach to a product recall, from a catastrophic weather event to a pandemic, it's clear they are all different with a unique set of challenges, and as such different ways of “getting going." However, they all have one thing in common and that is the need to quickly, clearly and effectively communicate information.
Wed, Apr 22, 2020 — As the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic continues to mount, the workforce remains ever fearful. With unemployment rising by the millions, and those still employed wondering if—or when—the other shoe may drop at your company, it’s never been more critical to be transparent. Right now, your employees are looking to you for the kind of leadership that will help them, and your company, get through the crisis.
Fri, Apr 26, 2019 — “We win 15% of the projects we propose. Our competitors also win about 15%. “With the other 70% of proposals, no one wins. The prospect doesn’t proceed with anybody.” -CEO of a technology integration company Ever heard yourself saying something like that—or heard a peer say it? The status quo is often your fiercest competitor.
Tue, Apr 9, 2019 — If the goal of strategy development is to achieve profit growth, statistically speaking, most companies fail at it. Books like Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick by McKinsey’s Bradley, Hirt, and Smit, as well as whitepapers from the Corporate Strategy Board, point to the exceedingly low odds – one in 10 -- of driving profitable growth, based on an in-depth analysis of thousands of companies. At the core of this conundrum is a coherent organizational culture, which still remains elusive decades after Peter Drucker famously said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Certainly, we all have been in executive strategy presentations when an intellectual, fact-based debate about strategic choices devolves into chaos – derailed at the hands of human biases and social dynamics.
Tue, Mar 5, 2019 — In times when our world is divided, one thing tends to be a “great unifier”—the spectacle of athletic competition. Across the globe, sports inspires us, gives us hope, makes us healthier, breaks our hearts and, ultimately, brings us together. Though most fans care about how their player or team performs in the field of play, away from the field, the business of sports has been in disruption. How sports organizations are addressing these newfound challenges provides a road-map for fundamental lessons that can help a CEO in any business gain growth-oriented insights. In a series of blogs, I will lead you through the high level challenges shaking the foundation of the business of sports, and offer some frameworks and ideas to address them. My goal is to build on conversations that are already taking place—and, perhaps, start some new ones.
Fri, Jul 13, 2018 — The role science is playing in transforming leadership skills is profound. Recent neuroscience research is becoming key in transforming much of what we thought we knew about leadership. Insights gained are dramatically changing the way companies deal with the accelerated pace of change, changing nature of work, generational differences, demands for organizational performance and how we deal with performance issues and performance management systems.
Thu, Aug 17, 2017 — Business increased by 300% since joining Vistage Chief Outsiders Fractional CMO, Neil Anderson, has a conversation with Vistage Member and CEO of Scottish Stained Glass, Martin Faith, about his experience with Vistage, an executive coaching organization that provides leadership training and business coaching to CEOs and Executives.
Wed, Jun 21, 2017 — Peer Advisory Group Helps CEO Focus on His Business Versus Working in His Business A Chief Outsiders Fractional CMO has a conversation with Vistage Member and CEO of Seattle Fish Company, James Iacino, about his experience with Vistage, an executive coaching organization that provides leadership training and business coaching to CEOs and Executives.