Growth Insights for CEOs
Bob Sherlock
Recent Posts

Marketing Leadership for CEOs: An Executive Guide to Growth
Executive Takeaways
- At a certain scale, Marketing stops being a support function and becomes the company's growth system.
- Everyone has opinions about marketing, which means it rarely gets the disciplined oversight it actually requires.
- The CEO is uniquely positioned to set clear intent and hold the function accountable.
- As a connected system, Marketing drives alignment and focus.
This blog is part of Chief Outsiders’ Marketing Leadership for CEOs series, an ongoing examination of the critical dimensions of Marketing (the capital “M” is intentional, as you’ll see) that every CEO needs to understand.
Recent Posts

Sold, not Bought: The Marketing of Unfamiliar Solutions
Mon, Nov 20, 2017 — Several years ago I met Davis, an executive in Ohio, who segmented his product lines into “Bought, not Sold” and “Sold, not Bought.” “Bought” products, he said, were familiar to prospective buyers. They had self-diagnosed what they needed and self-prescribed a product solution for that need. Often, they’d previously purchased a product in the category. By contrast, a “Sold” product presented an unfamiliar solution—so the prospect couldn’t self-prescribe, and may not have self-diagnosed. In fact, their need could be latent and wouldn’t be recognized without prompting.