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From Economic Insight to Growth Strategy: What CEOs Should Do Now
At our most recent CEO Growth Talks, I spoke with Taylor St. Germaine, Senior Economist at ITR Economics. The timing couldn’t have been better — the latest GDP numbers had just been released, and Taylor broke down what they mean for CEOs planning growth.
As always, ITR brought a clear and fact-based perspective. The economy is growing. Consumer spending is strong. And while some industries are facing headwinds, opportunities abound for leaders who are ready to act.
But the real question for CEOs isn’t just what the economy looks like. It’s: how do you prepare your business to grow in this environment — and the one coming next?
Hiding the Full Value of an Innovation
Wed, Nov 4, 2020 — “If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.” -Yogi Berra A powerful, sales-producing change that most companies can make quickly: Find messaging that is not working very well, and replace it. This is especially important when marketing an innovation.
Shooting Some Holes in the Minimum Viable Product
Thu, Apr 2, 2020 — With the right vision, appropriate resources, and more than a sprinkle of luck, a really good idea can quickly become a sensational success. When that happens, as late-night comedian John Oliver might say, such an idea becomes “a thing.” Unfortunately, when a good idea becomes “a thing” — like the product equivalent of John, Paul, George, and Ringo – the quality can suffer if too many producers try to put their imprint on the hit record. The idea can get watered down, generalized, and misused.
Go-to-Market Security Issues Every SMB CEO or Sales/Marketing Exec Needs to Prevent
Tue, Oct 8, 2019 — Five Key Areas You Must Proactively Manage Mark Coronna, Area Managing Partner & CMO, Chief Outsiders with Mark Sheehan, Principal & CIO/CISO, Stowell Solutions Group This article is a practical guide to being proactive in preventing security issues in your go-to-market (Sales and Marketing) programs and operations. There are many services to use once you have an issue, but in this article, we are offering a checklist of things to do to help reduce your risk of significant incidents that could damage your brand, reputation, revenue, and business valuation. We think it’s better to be proactive than have to react to security events.
A Practical Guide to Using Account-Based Marketing: What Small- and Mid-Sized Business CEOs Need to Know
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.
Forging a Solid Go to Market Plan – Without the Assumptions
Wed, Sep 14, 2016 — Business owners and entrepreneurs live in a constant state of observation. Equal parts tenacious and curious, they never stop watching, listening, and comparing their product and service offerings to the competition. They ask themselves daily, hourly: “Is the competitor’s product better?” and “Am I really putting an impactful marketing message out there?”-- often secretly wondering if they truly know the answer.
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.
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.