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The Chief Outsider
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Recent Posts
Turning Customer Insight into Customer Value
This blog is part of Chief Outsiders’ New Growth Imperative series, designed to help CEOs and leadership teams engage executive decision-makers at targeted strategic accounts by turning deep insights into compelling customer value.
5 Ways to Drive Business Growth from the Outside
Mon, Dec 12, 2016 — There are two critical elements to achieving your business growth goals: One, you must successfully run your business from the inside. Two, you must monitor the external environment. While most CEOs know the inner workings of their businesses, they are less in touch with the outside factors that affect it. Case in point: In a recent webinar I hosted, “External Factors that Stall Growth and How to Combat Them,” I asked participants, “Do you have a system to identify and monitor external factors that affect your business?” One-hundred percent of participants responded, “No, but I do want to create a system.” The presentation then focused on helping to identify the external factors businesses should be monitoring and how to monitor them.
9 Ways to Improve your Marketing Dashboard
Wed, Nov 30, 2016 — A marketing dashboard holds every measurable piece of data that is relevant to the growth of your business. Dashboards of the past were often uneditable screen shots, or endless Excel columns that blurred into mind-numbing statistics. The truth is, your dashboard is the star of the show, and can be a revenue-building machine if done smartly.
How to Survive the 5 Fatal Factors that Threaten Your Business
Fri, Nov 18, 2016 — Understanding the external factors that hinder your growth and survival The Bureau of Labor and Statistics in 2016 reports that only two-thirds of businesses will survive 2 years, half of all businesses will survive 5 years, and a mere one-third will survive 10 years or more. Most of us have heard these statistics, or at least a version of them. In the modern market, the success of a business depends on its growth. But why do some businesses successfully grow and survive while others become a failing statistic?
If Marketing “Leads,” Sales Will Follow: Achieving Alignment For Revenue Success
Thu, Sep 29, 2016 — Travel with me, if you will, back to 2006. It was a time, in the corporate world, when the sales team had all of the power and most of the fun. Company credit card in hand, they would organize meetings at conferences, trade shows, meetings on the golf course, or at their favorite hospitality event. Pleasantries were exchanged, orders were placed – and business kept rolling forward.
The CEO's Challenge of Staying Relevant in an Accelerated World
Mon, Sep 19, 2016 — And what to do about it Almost all CEOs face the challenge of maintaining relevancy in the markets they serve. More specifically, what keeps many CEO’s awake at night is the realization that something is materially changing in their company, in their markets, or within what was once a marquee product line. Yet, the rank and file just can’t see it. And if they do see it, they aren’t responding fast enough. Maybe our CEO can’t fully understand it. But their instincts tell them that it’s more than a seasonal blip; it’s something systemic that could rock the company off its foundation. In many instances, the problem boils down to the company not innovating fast enough. The world is seemingly passing it by. Relevancy is lost.
Forging a Solid Go to Market Plan – Without the Assumptions
Wed, Sep 14, 2016 — Business owners and entrepreneurs live in a constant state of observation. Equal parts tenacious and curious, they never stop watching, listening, and comparing their product and service offerings to the competition. They ask themselves daily, hourly: “Is the competitor’s product better?” and “Am I really putting an impactful marketing message out there?”-- often secretly wondering if they truly know the answer.
Attention, Company Founders: Keys to Avoiding Colossal Marketing Flops
Mon, Jul 25, 2016 — They’re some of the worst American marketing flops of all time: Smith & Wesson Mountain Bikes, Cosmopolitan Yogurt, and Coors Rocky Mountain Water. These three powerhouses are some of the most well-known brands on the planet – and yet they still hit the skids when their seemingly unique and interesting idea failed to meet customer expectations and gain traction in the market.
What do I do with my Marketing Intern?
Sun, Jul 17, 2016 — Internships are an important part of today's marketing teams. They provide recent college graduates a chance to combat the catch-22 of needing experience to get a job that will give them experience, while employers can select from the cream of the crop, see how a potential employee will fare in a real-life setting, and even create a pool of interns to pull from in the future. However, the key to a successful marketing internship is to make sure their time spent remains a win-win situation for everyone.
Pick a Strategic Direction: What Alice in Wonderland and the Cheshire Cat Can Teach CEOs about Growing Their Business
Tue, Jun 21, 2016 — In the whimsical world of Lewis Carroll’s famous tale Alice in Wonderland, the author paints mind-bending pictures of some of the most pressing questions in modern society. Though many regard this classic as merely a children’s story, every modern CEO can appreciate several scenes woven through the book that can be applied, succinctly and directly, to the challenges of today’s global business environment.