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Chief Outsiders Promotes Marketing and Growth Leader, Anka Twum-Baah, to Area Managing Partner
Nation’s largest provider of Fractional Executive services to grow mid-market companies promotes Partner & CMO with a strong track record of business transformation and client success to Area Managing Partner
Chief Outsiders Expands Presence into Massachusetts
2.11.2013 — Industry Veteran Todd Chambers Empowers Mid-Sized Massachusetts Companies with Fractional Marketing Leadership. Boston, MA February 11, 2013 - Further solidifying its reputation as the nation’s largest executive marketing firm providing fractional or part-time executives, Chief Outsiders today announced it is launching an expanded presence in New England. Led by industry veteran Todd Chambers, the practice will focus on implementing market-based growth plans for the region’s top mid-sized companies.
THE STREET: Chief Outsiders CMO Sees New Era for Agencies
2.5.2013 — Large, Traditional Agencies and Media Buyers Not Relevant for Mid-sized Companies Houston, TX (PRWEB) February 05, 2013 Chief Outsiders CMO Pete Hayes made it clear in this article on THE STREET.com how the role of traditional agencies is changing for companies of all sizes. “It’s a terrific opportunity for mid-sized companies,” said Hayes. “With today’s digital marketing channels and management platforms, smaller companies have simple access to very powerful tools.” Hayes goes on to share additional perspective in this recent post on the Chief Outsiders CEO blog site,Growing Business and Shrinking Agencies. One reason traditional agencies are shrinking and digital marketing firms are growing is because executives of mid-sized companies are beginning to grasp the difference between the two. “That’s not to say that large traditional agencies don’t have a place and time. But digital marketing solutions are proliferating and changing the landscape,” says Hayes. “Companies that don’t take advantages of these affordable and effective tools will get left behind.” Digital solutions’ centerpiece now includes inbound marketing automation; cloud-based software that attracts and nurtures prospects using personalized content that converts prospects into customers and provides companies with a more measurable return on investment. About Chief Outsiders Headquartered in Houston, TX, and silver winner of the American Business Awards “Company of the Year,” Chief Outsiders serves mid-sized companies from coast to coast with part-time CMO services. Chief Outsiders is unique among strategic marketing consulting firms, taking businesses to the next level by working as part of the leadership team on a fractional or as-needed basis. Unlike most marketing consulting firms, Chief Outsiders believes that delivering a world-class marketing strategy on its own, creates very little value. The real value is created by helping the organization implement the growth vision. Chief Outsiders has been a premier source for marketing expertise, execution and leadership for companies such as i2C, AbsolutData, Bethyl Labs, Auto Load Logic and Riverside Company portfolio companies including OnCourse Learning, YourMembership.com and IDoc.
Build Success by Narrowing Your Customer Base
1.31.2013 — By Art Saxby, Founder and Principal Chief Outsiders, LLC (As featured on Business.com). Achieving success by narrowing your customer base? It sounds counterintuitive, but many small- to mid-size businesses can achieve higher profits and more success by downsizing the base of customers they serve. Creating the perfect situation in which you and your customer base share common goals, respect, and appreciation can alleviate personal and professional stress and allow your business to grow. Identifying Positive and Negative Customers Some customers can boost your profits. Others can break your bank. If you don’t know which are which, you’re jeopardizing your business. Many companies could significantly increase profits overnight by either firing troublesome, unprofitable customers or ratcheting the price up so unprofitable customers leave or become profitable. Positive customers truly understand and appreciate what you do. They’re willing to work with you and pay a fair rate for the product or service they receive. When you compare the revenue you receive from these clients to the time spent for their continued business, you should find a fair and practical balance. While every customer or client cares about price, your positive customers understand the value you bring to their businesses. You understand the issues they have with growing their businesses and you talk to them about ways you can help; they, therefore, understand and value what you do. Negative clients, on the other hand, can tax both your business’s operations and finances. For many companies, there’s a constant push to sell whatever can be sold to whoever will buy it. The business appears successful, and salespeople and operations stay busy in this scenario. However, these customers can actually cost your company money, without really understanding or valuing the benefits of the product or service you provide. Your sales team might have lured these customers in with big price discounts or unrealistic delivery commitments to close the initial sale. Negative customers often kill profitability by tying up valuable resources, like customer service time, engineering, or inventory. In many cases, these high-maintenance customers leave beforeyour startup costs are even recovered. When is it Time to Narrow Your Base? One of the biggest clues that your company is spreading its net too broadly in terms of customer base is when most new sales are closed due to low prices and discounting. To sell to a wide audience, a product or service must have broad appeal. However, if everybody likes your business, but nobody loves it, you are forced to compete on price. By trying to reach everyone, you meet a bit of everyone’s needs, but not enough of anyone’s specific needs for them to pay you a premium. It’s also possible you’ve loaded up your product/service with things customers don’t care about and aren’t willing to pay for. Analyze your sales team’s invested time. This process can reveal which customers take up the majority of your business’s efforts. Often, a salesperson will cater to certain companies or segments and have specific product lines she likes to push. It’s a natural tendency to gear your efforts toward your interests, but this approach can really inhibit a company’s growth. The likes and dislikes of a salesperson can actual control a company’s growth. If everyone is only focusing on what they consider their specialties, productivity and shared goals can suffer. Focusing on price versus quality, and on isolated sales efforts versus a unified vision, can weaken your customer service and profit potential. Companies can increase profitability by avoiding unprofitable customers. Clients who are only interested in price are often unfit for long-term business relationships. Come back next week for part II of Narrowing Your Customer Base. Art Saxby is the founding principal of Chief Outsiders, the largest executive-level consulting firm that helps the CEOs of mid-size companies implement their visions of growth. His career started out in the defense industry, moving into corporate planning and strategy and eventually into marketing at Frito-Lay. He later continued his executive marketing development at Kellogg’s, Coca-Cola and Compaq Computers. View original article on Business.com. Media Contact: Pete Hayes 512-923-6512
4 Ways to Develop Your Inbound Marketing
1.31.2013 — By Barbara Fowler, Chief Outsiders, LLC (As featured on outright). Inbound marketing can be an effective and inexpensive approach to expanding your audience and customer base. While traditional marketing focuses on getting your message out through advertising in newspapers, magazines, or television, inbound marketing entices people to come to you. Through creativity and community, you can develop loyal customers who will do the marketing legwork for you. With some basic research and the incorporation of simple changes into your overall marketing strategy, you can take your business to the next level. Research Your Industry Explore which strategies are effective for other businesses in your space. For example, if you’re part of a small law firm specializing in workman’s compensation claims, Google “workman’s compensation law firm websites” to get ideas. Examining Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn pages can really open your eyes to new perspectives and formatting techniques. Recently, a local deli asked customers to share their favorite sandwich ingredients on the deli’s Facebook page, and then named sandwiches containing those ingredients after the customers. Great ideas like this can be incorporated into your plan at little to no cost. Seek Feedback Your customers are your best source of ideas. Encourage and reward their constructive feedback. Ask them what specific things they like – or don’t like – about your business. Listen closely. By actively using customer feedback to change your strategies, you’re encouraging them to become more invested in your business. They will tell friends and family about their experiences. Appreciate them and reward them in some way, whether that’s through customer discounts or, in turn, promoting their businesses in a creative way. Use Social Media Effectively Make sure you’re engaged with your audience on a consistent basis to truly see the benefits. If you simply create a Facebook or Pinterest page without managing it, you’re not going to see results. Experiment with what works best for your audience and your interests. With a small fan base, you have the perfect opportunity to be creative and fun. Social media is a great platform for displaying feedback from, and rewards for, your audience. If you run a tech company, ask what your audience’s favorite gadgets were in the past year. Food or clothing businesses can support their customers’ creations by asking for recipe posts or outfit designs. Your support of your audience’s creativity and passion is communicated through these online forums. Reward your audience with gift cards or other perks for participating in the community to show them that you appreciate and value their ongoing involvement. Analyze Your Data Many tools are available to analyze your web traffic and possible conversions. Most small businesses start with Google Analytics. It’s essentially free, and it can help you analyze your web traffic. You can then better target your intended audience. The key to improving your business is making sure you seize every opportunity you have to get your name out and establish yourself as part of an expanding and welcoming community. Consistent analysis of your promotions, media interaction, and traditional efforts is necessary to best reach your desired audience. Inbound marketing gives you the opportunity to connect with your customers in a creative and entertaining way. Through research and feedback from your valued clients, you can design promotions, events, and social media groups that draw an even larger – and more loyal – customer base. Barbara Fowler, Managing Director at Chief Outsiders, a provider of part-time marketing executives to help mid-sized businesses. Fowlers specialties lie in sales and marketing synchronization, global business strategies and family business turnaround techniques. A frequent speaker and writer on topics such as leadership, cultural diversity and developing an environment of success, she has effectively led culturally diverse organizations and written and implemented training programs for CMOs worldwide. View original article at outright. Media Contact: Pete Hayes 512-923-6512
Young CEOs Getting Message: Outsourcing
1.29.2013 — By Barbara Fowler, Chief Outsiders, LLC (As featured on Under 30 CEO). This week “Under30CEO” the leading media property for entrepreneurs features Barbara Fowler, Managing Director at Chief Outsiders. She provides an outsiders perspective for developing a healthy relationship between sales and marketing as well as a perspective on the role and benefits of executive outsourcing. Under30CEO is inspiring the world’s next generation of business leaders by featuring direct interviews with the most successful young people on the planet, profiles twenty-something startups, provides advice from those who have done it before, and publishes cutting edge news for the young entrepreneur. Find Marketing Success through Outsourcing A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is key to the success of a business, particularly in small- to medium-sized companies. Marketing efforts will develop and nurture leads, and the sales staff will carry the interested customer to the end of the buying process. With each Google search, consumers are looking for the items they want before ever approaching a sales person, making marketing even more crucial in differentiating your company from the other 112,600,000 competitors and search results. With that in mind, filling the chief marketing officer (CMO) position in your company can be critical to the business’ success or failure. Thought it may initially seem frightening to extend such a key opening to someone from outside the company family, outsourcing a CMO can provide your company with a qualified and results-driven marketing director who can set up the processes, strategies, and goals to take your company to the next level. The Role of a CMO As head of marketing, the CMO has many roles to fill that can affect the success of the business. Drive revenue by delivering qualified leads to the sales organization through data-driven marketing efforts. Ensure excellent brand experience for prospective customers — this includes customer experiences with web content, payment, and service. Test assumptions using CRM and other data-driven research. Act as the right hand of the CEO and work closely with IT, operations, and other support areas within the company. When a CMO fulfills each of these roles, it allows marketing and sales to work together to solve issues, rather than assigning blame, and it helps the CEO and company’s vision for business success come to fruition. From the Outside In Looking at the above list of a CMO’s roles, it may still seem that outsourcing your next CMO is not necessary. You may think that someone who is already on staff could fill those roles just as easily. But the outsourced CMO possesses a set of qualities that cannot be found within your company walls. The outsourced CMO is: An Outsider. People within the same company have a tendency to think alike or become wed to an idea because they are so invested in the organization. They understand how things are done and are comfortable that it works. An outsourced CMO will have an outside view of your processes, procedures, and staff. They can interview other executives without any preconceived notions or biases, review current marketing and sales projects from the view of a customer, and will use this information to survey customers to develop fresh insights on company marketing tactics. Experienced. Outsourced CMOs have experienced challenges in a variety of different industries, stay current on best practices and trends in the marketing industry, and bring a different type of skill set that doesn’t currently exist within your company. They also will have connections with other industry professionals to get the talent and information your company needs to execute on marketing strategies. A Leader. Businesses going through a transition period (growing at an unprecedented rate, have lost a key member of the executive team, or are repositioning their brand) will experience conflicts or confusion from management and the staff. An outsider can help to keep a pulse on rising issues and work to transition the company into a more stable environment, since they won’t have formed alliance or relationships with the staff. An outsourced CMO has dealt with different types of company culture and management styles over their career, so their insights into what works and what doesn’t will be an invaluable asset. If your business has been sluggish, the management team has been clashing, or your business is in transition, bringing in some new blood may be the jumpstart your company needs. Outsourcing is not always the obvious solution, and the idea of bringing in someone with new ideas and different methods can be intimidating. However, the fresh insights, unbiased point of view, and varied experience of an outsourced CMO can revitalize your business and challenge your team to produce truly original work. Barbara Fowler, Managing Director at Chief Outsiders, a provider of part-time marketing executives to help mid-sized businesses. Fowlers specialties lie in sales and marketing synchronization, global business strategies and family business turnaround techniques. A frequent speaker and writer on topics such as leadership, cultural diversity and developing an environment of success, she has effectively led culturally diverse organizations and written and implemented training programs for CMOs worldwide. View original article at Under 30 CEO. Media Contact: Pete Hayes 512-923-6512
Chief Outsiders Adds Marketing Muscle to the Northeast
7.7.2012 — Technology and business marketing executive Slade Kobran joins Chief Outsiders’ strategic marketing consultants; brings marketing expertise to businesses in New York and New Jersey NEW YORK, NY – July 12, 2012 — Businesses in the New York Metro area are gaining access to new and significant support in their quest for growth as New Jersey-based strategic marketing consultant Slade Kobran joins Chief Outsiders. Chief Outsiders is one of the nation’s fastest growing and most innovative marketing strategy consulting firms, focused on implementing market based growth plans for midsize companies through fractional, or part-time marketing executives. As a Chief Outsider, Mr. Kobran will assist growth-oriented businesses as a fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer).
Chief Outsiders Continues Northeast Expansion
5.30.2012 — Marketing Executive, M.J. Jolda, Joins Chief Outsiders and Brings Global Fortune 100 Expertise to the New York Metro Area's Growing Businesses HOUSTON, TX – May 30, 2012 - Businesses in the New York Metro area are gaining a new resource as Northern New Jersey brand positioning expert and proven marketing executive M.J. Jolda joins the ranks of Chief Outsiders. Chief Outsiders is one of the nation’s most innovative marketing strategy consulting firms, focused on implementing market based growth plans for mid-size companies through fractional, or part-time marketing executives. As a Chief Outsider, Ms. Jolda will assist growth-oriented businesses as a fractional Chief Marketing Officer.
CEO Study Reveals Key Insights
5.22.2012 — Conducted in conjunction with The University of Texas, McCombs School of Business, new Chief Outsiders study uncovers key insights between market-driven and operations-driven businesses HOUSTON, TX – May 22, 2012 - In a new study dedicated to uncovering growth drivers of mid-size companies, Chief Outsiders, one of the nation’s most innovative marketing consulting firms, in conjunction with The University of Texas, McCombs School of Business solicited insights from nearly 200 mid-market CEOs from 27 industries.
Register Tapes Unlimited Taps Chief Outsiders for Expansion to New Vertical Markets
1.30.2012 — Chief Outsider Clay Spitz Heads Market Expansion Strategy for the Redesigned Classic RTUI Register Tape Houston,TX – January 30, 2012 - With a new spin on a tried and true product, Register Tapes Unlimited, L.P, (RTUI), the #1 manufacturer and converter of offset printed register receipt tape in North America, selected Chief Outsider’s Houston based Clay Spitz to serve as fractional Chief Marketing Officer. In his new partnership with RTUI, Mr. Spitz is currently developing and will soon lead implementation of a go-to-market plan to position the redesigned product for the large retail and Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) market.