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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.
Changing the Conversation: How ABM Helped One Company to Break the Mold
Fri, Oct 22, 2021 — Written by Don Lee, with Greg Acquavella, Senior Marketing Manager, Gryphon.AI Sales and marketing technologies have transformed the way companies attract and retain business. Just ask the team at Gryphon.AI, which has developed a unique solution to businesses that wish to improve their sales efficacy. Using a concept called “real-time conversation intelligence,” Gryphon uses an AI platform to provide in-the-moment call coaching and guided selling.
“We need more leads” (and what must come first)
Fri, Aug 27, 2021 — A client’s desire for “More leads from Marketing" is often the impetus for our firm’s engagements. We’ve learned that “more leads” can be great. If. There’s something that companies need beforehand, or “More leads” won’t do much good.
When You’re Behind on Sales
Wed, Jun 30, 2021 — With the first half of 2021 coming to a close for companies with calendar year financial statements, there’s a topic on many business leaders’ minds. “Will we meet, beat, or miss our 2021 sales goal—and by what percentage?”
Your Sales and Marketing Pros Are At Odds – Here’s How to Get Them Aligned
Thu, Dec 3, 2020 — Since the era of cavemen, the roles of Sales and Marketing professionals have been fairly well defined. The earliest marketers would create awareness for that remarkable new invention, the wheel; and the salespeople would roll it down the streets, sharing the features and benefits to interested customers, then collect five dodo-birds in compensation. In the million years since, Sales and Marketing departments still have a similarly symbiotic existence -- but a lot seems to have changed in the digital era. Today, the gap between Sales and Marketing represents a gray area at most companies — from the smallest distributors, to the largest multinational enterprises.
The Marketing & Sales Accelerator
Thu, Aug 27, 2020 — 3 Steps for Achieving Greater Sales Co-authored by John Baglivo and Alan Landau A well-functioning partnership between Marketing and Sales is critical to the growth of any business. But how do you get there and ensure that your efforts are coordinated and that investments in these areas are as efficient and effective as possible? This question is more important than ever as you look to accelerate growth in a challenging market where the margin for error is slim. Unfortunately, misconceptions, misunderstanding and mistrust often get in the way of a collaborative relationship.
Find New Markets and Shift Your Focus -- At Least Temporarily
Wed, Jul 22, 2020 — Part 8 of the series: A B2B CEO’s Guide to Navigating the COVID-19 Revenue Reality The COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly has created an economic crisis that has left few businesses untouched. But, if you have been following this blog series, you understand the value of innovation, and, in particular, the value that your aligned sales and marketing leaders will bring to that strategic exploration. Now is the time to entrust your collective team to the task of identifying new opportunities. Borne out of necessity in a world of shelter-at-home mandates, so many new creative ideas have emerged. If your market-facing teams really understand your core competencies, they will find creative ways to apply those core competencies in a unique and innovative fashion to solve today’s challenges.
What You Should Do About “The 80%”
Wed, Jul 8, 2020 — Co-Authored by Kimberly Miller, CMO, Chief Outsiders and Chris Dohl, President, The Alias Group The conventional wisdom of the 80/20 rule is that 80% of your company sales come from 20% of your customers. If you believe that, then you might believe that those top 20% of customers would guarantee success. And from an operational standpoint, maybe the 80/20 rule could turn into the 20/80 rule, meaning that those 20% of customers should take up 80% of your sales team’s efforts. Now more than ever, businesses should be appreciative of their entire customer base—not just the top 20%. The 2020 coronavirus lockdown has shown us that diversity in service and product offerings and diversity in clients and prospects helps any business weather the storm.
Compensation Alignment
Mon, Jun 29, 2020 — Part 7 of the series: A B2B CEO’s Guide to Navigating the COVID-19 Revenue Reality Experience has shown that when sales and marketing are aligned in a strong partnership, they deliver more profitable revenue growth. I have seen this theory in action in subscription businesses, advertising businesses, and tech solutions companies, to name a few. And, if you have read all of the blogs to this point, you now have some insights about how to create this powerhouse one-two punch to effectively conquer your marketplace.
Sales Enablement and Support
Tue, Jun 9, 2020 — Part 6 of the series: A B2B CEO’s Guide to Navigating the COVID-19 Revenue Reality Your sales executive likely has a keen sense of what types of sales support materials traditionally have been helpful, and therefore has an opinion about sales support needs from marketing. But times have changed, and the playbook has been torn up. Given the times, the sales team simply can’t say with conviction that they truly understand exactly what sales support tools will help convince buyers to move forward. In our last blog, we talked about partnering between sales and marketing for lead generation and lead management optimization. Let’s explore how sales and marketing can partner to close more sales from those leads.