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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.
Marketing Requires Vision
Tue, May 6, 2014 — Over the years that I was in marketing leadership, I experienced the variety of misconceptions that companies had with marketing. It was rare to find a company that viewed marketing as a profitable tool to communicate the vision of the company. Instead, they expected marketing to compensate for their shortcomings, and somehow convince customers to prefer us despite our failures.
Five Marketing Lessons to Learn from Jimmy Buffett
Sun, Jul 14, 2013 — Friends asked my husband and me to join them for a Jimmy Buffett concert recently near Dallas, Texas. Never in our wildest dreams did we think that over a span of a few hours we would escape to a tropical venue where we would be entertained while learning marketing tips from a barefoot guitarist on a stage singing about margaritas, cheeseburgers and shark fins. Jimmy Buffett’s brand, inspired by his lyrics and lifestyle, has taken on a life of its own. I made it my mission to find out what Jimmy Buffett has done so right to grow a loyal fan base comprised of all sizes, shapes, ages and social economic classes. What I discovered during the course of observation and investigation, are the following five marketing tips. 1. Focus your strategy on a niche that plays to your strengths. 2. Build a brand that leaves a visual image in the mind of the customer. 3. Engage and listen to your target audience to grow loyal followers. 4. Establish partnerships that stay true to and enrich your brand. 5. Give back to the community in a way that complements your brand. Keep reading if you want to know how these tips worked for Jimmy Buffett and how they can work for you.
For Business Strategy, Timing Can Make All The Difference
Thu, Sep 6, 2012 — I got to thinking the other day about the importance of timing for successful business strategy. I can remember several instances when I had made or been part of business proposals that were not initially approved, but ended up being put into place and were very successful. Some were vehemently shot down and dismissed with words like “we will never do that!”, only to have us do the exact thing proposed sometime later. One example was a proposal to our CEO for expanding our product portfolio with a service line adjacent to our main business. Although we were the established market leader, we felt our future growth prospects were limited and that within a few years we would be faced with the scenario of trading customers with our competitors and raising prices in order to meet our financial goals. Our proposal was to launch a new product line, either through our own development or through an acquisition, which would serve as a source of future growth. We presented what we considered to be a compelling business case which detailed the large market opportunity, attractive margins, fit with our sales model and, most importantly, the pain points we could address for our customers. Although a departure from our main product, it was a fit with our core capabilities, and was a credible expansion for our business.