Growth Insights for CEOs

Winning the Fraud and Cybersecurity Race: A Go-to-Market Blueprint for Competitive Edge
Fraud and cybercrime have become a systemic, trillion-dollar drag on the global economy—but the fight to turn the curve is more than a market opportunity.
Over the past few years, I have worked alongside cybersecurity and fraud-management teams in government, banking, and payments, and nothing is more satisfying than seeing a new solution stop a romance scam or prevent a pensioner from losing their life savings.
Recent Posts

What is AI-Enabled Selling and Why is it Important?
Tue, Sep 24, 2024 — Salesforce’s “State of Sales” report surveyed 5,500 sales professionals earlier this year. Two findings caught my attention. First, sales reps spend only 30% of their time selling during an average week. Second, 81% of sales teams said they are investing in AI. Of those using AI, 41% believe that they have “fully implemented AI.” The remaining 59% range from having no strategy at all, to tinkering with tools.

99 and Counting Backwards
Tue, Jul 2, 2024 — Out for a walk on a cool May morning, I saw a pickup truck pull alongside. It was Ray from up the street. “Are you around May 31st?” he asked. “I’m having a 99th birthday party.” That’s funny, I thought, Ray can’t be much over 70. “Yep, this one is my 99th. Last year’s party was my 100th. Figured there’s no way I’d ever live to be 100, and I really wanted to have a 100th birthday party. So I did!

What to Do When Your Sales Team Isn’t Delivering – Advice for CEOs
Tue, Jun 11, 2024 — It’s one of the most challenging questions you’ll ever have to ask as a business leader – “why isn’t my sales team delivering the results we need?” Putting a microscope on your team sometimes yields some unpleasant truths, but this exercise is critical when revenue numbers are lacking and the sales pipeline is drying up. Changes need to be made. But before addressing the problem, you need to identify the root causes.
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Quarterly Business Reviews: A CXO guide to Best Practices
Thu, May 16, 2024 — Most companies run regular QBRs (Quarterly Business Reviews). Getting into QBR practice its benefits, like getting your broader team buy-in on your sales and marketing team issues, creating a sense of urgency on important cross-team action items, building a learning culture within your team, sharing new product initiatives in advance, collect and measure customer feedback (or NPS) regularly. Not to mention you get valuable team face time, undistracted by daily sales activities.

The Art of the Proposal: Do’s & Don’ts
Tue, May 7, 2024 — CEOs often struggle with why their sales team doesn’t close more deals. A common reason why deals don’t close is the proposal is not being presented in a way that communicates the most value to the prospect. Worse, the salesperson is having trouble getting feedback from the prospect regarding the proposal's status and, therefore, keeps it on their forecast for a ridiculous amount of time. This article will provide a way to ensure your team creates the most value for your product and service, enabling your company to win more deals and increase revenue.

The Benefits of a Unified Sales and Marketing Strategy
Mon, Apr 22, 2024 — It used to be that companies could achieve growth by simply focusing on sales or having sales and advertising be complementary marketing tactics. But today, macro and micro pressures along with evolving landscapes across industries have resulted in a more competitive landscape. Tools like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) provide a level of sophistication, and these tools can help business leaders bridge strategies and tactics across different business units.

Seven Steps to Shorten Your Sales Cycle
Thu, Apr 11, 2024 — Does your company provide customers with expensive business inputs? Or are you crucial in other ways to your customers’ business success?

Boost Your Sales with Effective Cross-Sell and Upsell Strategies
Mon, Mar 18, 2024 — In today's highly competitive market, businesses must have a cross-sell and upsell strategy to boost sales and revenue. By offering customers additional or upgraded products or services that complement their original purchase—and presenting them at the right time during the buying process—businesses can take advantage of customer interest and increase the average transaction value.

Harnessing Fear: The Catalyst for AI Strategy
Wed, Feb 7, 2024 — In business, it seems like artificial intelligence (AI) is painted as either the great white hope or the big bad wolf. There is very little middle ground. This polarization can contribute to inertia and paralysis when it comes to leveraging AI for business strategy development. Simply put, CEOs do not have a sense of urgency regarding AI, and this attitude is putting them behind the proverbial eight ball as competitors adopt AI as a strategic tool.