DITCH THE SALES FUNNEL and GROW REVENUE FASTER, MORE PROFITABLY The model of a “funnel” to represent a sales pipeline is ripe for retirement. A gentleman named E. St. Elmo Lewis is given credit for initiating the idea of a funnel in 1898. It would be amazing if a business model like a funnel would still find relevance 120 years
THE NEW “GROWTH KID” ON THE BLOCK: INTRODUCING HORIZON (ZERO) Since the introduction of Horizon Growth planning in the late 1990’s, businesses which have successfully understood and adopted this multi-year approach to generation of new revenue and profit streams have realized the benefits of forward planning. Horizon Growth planning was introduced in 1999 in a book titled The Alchemy of
“WHEN IS RETURN ON LEARNING (ROL) MORE IMPORTANT THAN ROI?” If you completed a class on finance and accounting, you are likely familiar with Return on Investment (ROI). Are you ready to take the pop quiz on how to calculate it? No? That’s OK, it’s not my objective here or to question your degree. What I do want to do
SEVEN (7) WAYS NOT TO SCREW UP YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION Screwing up value propositions creates a critical risk to the health and growth of your business. How important you think they are might be colored by your personal experience. For me, a value proposition is a powerful summary of who you are and what you offer. It defines what is
Value propositions – officially defined as “an innovation, service, or feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers” -- are critical to the health and growth of your business. Precisely how critical you consider them in this regard is a function of personal experience. In this ebook, I share a best practices discussion with practical guidance
What do Bob Dylan, Soundboards, and "Big M" Marketing Have in Common? My wife has always been a huge Bob Dylan fan. Me too, but not like her. Years ago she bought Dylan tickets in the center section for his last concert at the State Theater in Minneapolis. When we arrived at the theater, the usher said, “Oh, there’s a
While many of us desire the latest technology and aesthetics, there’s no way we can operate our machines without a powerful and well-maintained engine. We just can’t get to our destination without it. The same principle, while seemingly simple, applies to your company’s growth strategy. Ironically, filling the machine up with the right gas, and keeping it from breaking
A Best Marketing Practice: Cultivating "Lead" Customer Relationships for Breakthrough Products and Services It’s been many years since I learned what a “lead” customer is, and how to build lead customer relationships to build confidence and reduce risks of new product or service launches. The concept of a lead customer, or lead user, is probably one of the most beneficial
BUSINESS STRATEGY, DIGITAL STRATEGY, and “THE ROAD NOT TAKEN” by ROBERT FROST Many of you probably read Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” somewhere in your educational career. It’s a short poem of four stanzas and 20 lines total. For a poem so brief, it’s surprising that Frost’s famous work is so powerful yet often misinterpreted. If you can’t recall
“WHAT DO YOGI BERRA, GARTNER RESEARCH, AND THE BUSINESS ADOPTION OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES HAVE IN COMMON?” Of all the memorable lines that Yogi Berra is known for my favorite is: “It’s déjà vu all over again.” The application of déjà vu to business adoption of innovative emerging technologies seems to actually express what Yogi might as well have been trying