I recently sat down with Scott Alexander from Jairus Marketing for another insightful discussion about a topic that resonates deeply with both of us: shifting from a founder-led business to more sustainable business models. This is especially relevant for early-stage companies, particularly those in the healthcare sector where the CEO is vital as both the visionary and primary salesperson.
Sat, Jun 29, 2013 — Today's blog is by guest blogger, Des Cahill. I recently enjoyed reading Barbara Fowler’s blog post “Hiring the Right CMO”, which outlines the things CEOs should thing about when considering the right CMO for their company. As a CMO, I thought it would be interesting to flip the perspective and outline what a CMO should look for in a CEO they might work for. Caveat - my background is primarily as a marketing executive (CMO, VP Marketing, VP Product) in Silicon Valley tech companies both large (Apple, Netscape, Autonomy) and start-ups (efax.com, Ensighten). So my views reflect primarily a Silicon Valley tech and B2B perspective. I also spent 5 years as CEO of a start-up (Habeas), so I do bring a view from both sides when considering what it takes to create a successful working relationship for a CEO and CMO.
Sun, Jun 23, 2013 — I just finished reading several books that come at the changes in the marketing and sales process from different perspectives. Launch by Michael Stelzner, discusses how to use social media to grow your brand and your business. It includes some very pragmatic tools and examples for the marketing crowd. I highly recommend it as a primer for anyone interested in how to optimize their social media efforts. Sales Shift by Frank Belzer presents how the buying process has changed and how it will continue to evolve. Of particular interest is Belzer’s discussion of why sales skills that have worked in the past will no longer be effective going forward. When considering the combination of these two perspectives, the transformation of the commercialization process is significant.
Wed, Jun 19, 2013 — Today's blog is by guest blogger, Curt Cyliax. How can you boost your company’s short-term earnings while maximizing long-term value? After managing the purchase and sale of a number of companies, we’ve identified five primary drivers to maximize business value. If you’re a business owner who plans on selling a business or transfering your company in the future, you’ll want to know how you can maximize the value of your business, make it more attractive to potential buyers, and get top dollar for your business.
Wed, Jun 12, 2013 — This blog elaborates on Richard Browne’s article in CSP Magazine entitled, 'Future-Proofing Your New Site.' The mobile wallet revolution is poised to happen over the next 12 months. Besides the major branded entrants like Square, Google, PayPal and ISIS, there are now over a hundred other mobile wallets announced or in service. The mobile wallet has the potential to reshape your business; here are six benefits that create opportunities for you to improve your customers’ experience.
Sat, Jun 8, 2013 — Today's blog is by guest blogger Kevin Dincher. 25 years ago as a new manager, I had to fire an employee for the first time. When I inherited her, she was a long-time employee with a lengthy history of poor quality work, low productivity, negativity and troublesome relationships. Firing her was drawn-out and excruciating—but I learned early on the importance of hiring the right people—and not hanging on to the wrong ones.
Wed, Jun 5, 2013 — What is "Quid Pro Quo? Wikipedia defines it as an exchange of goods or services, where one transfer is contingent upon the other. Phrases with similar meaning include: "give and take", "tit for tat", and "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." Recently, I have been involved in several discussions with CEOs on charging for their goods and services. The discussions weren’t concerning the actual price for the services, but the ultimate cost between the buyer and the seller. Let’s share some examples. (with the names changed to protect the innocent or, in some of these cases, guilty parties) The Stories One CEO—I will call him Joe—runs an executive consulting firm. He had a problem with a leak in his house. He needed immediate help and called one of his clients Sam, who is the owner of a construction company. Sam immediately sent someone out to fix the leak but didn’t send Joe a bill. When Joe asked him about it, Sam responded, “No problem. You’re a friend. Don’t worry about it.” Adele owns a restaurant in town. Bill, an influential colleague held several events there but has been ignoring the bills Adele has sent. The amounts are significant. Adele is worried about pressing Bill too hard as he could possibly react strongly and hurt her restaurant business. Bill has been referring business to her. Tim is the CEO of a local accounting firm. The firm needed a new website. He contacted Rachel who owns a website design firm, and they discussed a cost-effective approach to building the site. They decided to exchange professional services rather than money, so he is now taking care of her accounting and she is taking care of his website. Any of these sound familiar? Have you encountered any similar situations? For a another perspective on this, read this legal blog.
Sat, May 18, 2013 — Today's blog is by guest blogger Mark Chinsky. Part I: The following blog is the first in a 2 part blog series on the problems with today’s backup solutions, and why you need to think about business continuity solutions instead. Even if some of your business solutions are ‘cloud based’ such as Salesforce.com or Hubspot, you still likely have other servers in your office(s) that are used for other business critical functions like email, accounting, manufacturing, collaboration, file storage and the like. Because of this, virtually all (sane) businesses have some type of backup solution. Whether it be tapes, hard drives, or even with a cloud service like Carbonite or Mozy. However, what many people don’t realize is that backup solutions are designed to allow you to retrieve you data in the event of a data loss, not to actually minimize your down time in anyway.
Wed, May 15, 2013 — This is an updated version of an article published in Yahoo Voices by Barbara Fowler, CMO and partner at Chief Outsiders "Make new Friends but Keep the Old Ones" True for Customers too. Positive customer service experiences are the key to building and maintaining a business. Multiple studies have repeatedly concluded that gaining new customers is much more difficult than keeping your current customers. A delicate balance must be kept between actions that go above and beyond in retaining customers and actions that focus on immediate costs or promote profitability for an organization. Just as important as this balance is the integration of a high quality customer service approach or mindset throughout all departments of a business.
Sun, May 12, 2013 — This is a revised blog, originally posted on UNDER30CEO. I am sure most of you have been in a situation similar to mine. Last month, I attended Social Slam in Knoxville, Tenn. I knew absolutely no one who was going to the conference, but I decided to attend because I believed it was relatively close to my new home in Charleston, S.C. (Seven hours later, in a tremendous rainstorm, I arrived. I stand corrected.) The experience gave me the opportunity to adopt a fresh perspective on attending a conference as an unknown. I knew it would be hard to go and meet people, but I figured, “So what? I’m an adult.” I was up for it — and you should be, too. Pushing myself beyond my comfort zone improved my networking skills and expanded my circle in new ways.