Today, we’re going to whip up a secret sauce.
Now, I can’t promise that this tasty combination will result in your anointment as a Kitchen Hero or the envy of Gordon Ramsay. But when basted upon your business, your clandestine condiment could unlock the kind of business success that will have your competitors salivating and your customers asking for seconds.
Mon, Jun 28, 2021 — Written by: Paul Sparrow, Area Managing Partner & CMO, and Don Lee, Partner & CEO, both of Chief Outsiders The city of Las Vegas is an interesting study in best intentions -- resplendent with people hoping that the flip of a card or the roll of the dice will produce luck-driven riches. About 150 percent of the time, our protagonists leave with empty pockets and dashed hopes. If luck is so evasive in Sin City, what makes anyone think it’s the foundation for any serious effort? Unfortunately, we see it all the time – a well-meaning entrepreneur or CEO employing instinct and a mega-watt smile, hoping to achieve Bezos-like success.
Tue, Jun 22, 2021 — Introduction: Greening Your Garden - How a Fractional CMO Can Accelerate Your Growth In the world of botany, there are only a fortunate few who have the expertise to produce green, healthy, and thriving plant life every time they put a seed in the ground. For the rest of us – well – we generally need MiracleGro or some other catalyst to make the garden grow. As a CEO, you, too, are invariably looking for your own version of MiracleGro – that evasive ingredient you need to help catalyze growth and turn your brown landscape a verdant shade of green. The good news? A confluence of trends, including the rise of the “gig economy” and the COVID-19 pandemic, have supported the notion of the fractional Chief Marketing Officer – essentially, a gardener supreme who brings the plant food, seeds, and water in a bid to help you sow success.
Fri, Jun 4, 2021 — Written by: Paul Sparrow, Area Managing Partner & CMO, Chief Outsiders with Shannon Muniz, Fractional Chief Sales Officer, Sales Xceleration, Orlando, FL. The sprint is on! The American economy – stuck in the blocks for much of 2020 while waiting out the pandemic – has heard the starting gun and is accelerating around the track at a feverish pace. With vaccines, optimism, sales, and profits on the rise, the time to sit on the sidelines is over. I recently talked about the surging economy with Shannon Muniz, with the goal of understanding whether the time was ripe to double down, invest in your business, and grow your base (spoiler alert – it is!).
Thu, Apr 8, 2021 — Business opportunities in healthcare technology have never been more abundant. At the same time, the challenges of capturing market share in the complex healthcare marketplace are as daunting as ever. For young companies and startups looking to gain traction and generate revenue, a sound go-to-market strategy and demand generation plan are essential. For many resource-constrained companies, a fractional Chief Marketing Officer has proven to be the fastest, most cost-effective way to achieve their growth objectives.
Wed, Apr 7, 2021 — The short answer is no. Fractional CMOs, especially the CMOs at Chief Outsiders, are battle-tested veterans who not only were the heads of marketing for 2+ firms, but we all moved up through the ranks earlier in our careers, mainly doing execution. We do strategy and execution when the client needs it. In general, we get things done!
Thu, Mar 25, 2021 — A senior marketing executive can revolutionize a company’s growth, but choosing the right candidate requires asking three key questions to understand first what the company needs, and then if the candidate can deliver it. There are times when a Chief Marketing Officer might not feel like a necessity, especially for a middle market company that has managed to grow well without one. But what worked for years can falter: growth stalls, a competitor begins to dominate the market, or new investors arrive with a more ambitious vision for the enterprise. And that can prompt the hunt for a new marketing leader. Like any talent search, the process can seem obvious in theory, but much more daunting in practice. People might have the right names on their resume and glowing references, only to still prove a bust when faced with the unique circumstances of a given business.
Thu, Mar 12, 2020 — I don’t know about you, but I look forward to a new Patrick Lencioni book like I do the next Grisham novel. Not for entertainment purposes (while they are always a fun read), but from the sheer joy of reading an expression of well-crafted thinking. In Lencioni’s latest (and greatest) fable and framework – The Motive – Patrick does not disappoint. But there’s a catch. While this may be his most important work, it may become his least popular. Why? Because rather than challenge his business leadership audience with new methods, he’s challenging us with a completely new mindset; and one that many of us will instinctively fight.
Fri, Apr 5, 2019 — Manufacturing CEO, are you frustrated and concerned because your company is not growing? And what has gotten you here is no longer working and you’re not sure what to do? Until recently your growth has come via customer referrals, word of mouth and sales generated leads. But sales is no longer producing enough new leads or revenue and competition is threatening. Marketing is tactical at best and more random than integrated and aligned. What if you could call in an expert who could quickly assess the problem, identify and prioritize growth opportunities, develop and implement a plan to restore healthy growth and train the management team to carry on? Marketing triage-stop the bleeding, find the low hanging fruit and build ongoing insights, strategies and capabilities.
Thu, Feb 28, 2019 — Mark Coronna, Partner & CMO--Chief Outsiders with Tom Judge, VP Strategy--Direct Marketing Partners Account-Based Marketing, or ABM, has increasingly captured the attention of marketers in the past several years. If the concept is new to you, don’t worry, you are not too far behind the adoption curve. Small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are the focus of this article for three important reasons: ABM is often misunderstood as a shiny new wonder-tech or a label for strategic selling or outbound tele-prospecting programs. We want to clear any misunderstandings up. The newest technology and best practices related to high-performing ABM programs are still trickling down to SMBs from much larger businesses which have adopted this approach. But the fundamentals of ABM are at the fingertips of most small/medium firms without expensive technology. ABM programs can be scaled to SMBs in a way that makes them both effective and affordable, and can be an integral part of your combined go-to-market and sales program.