Marketing + Finance: An unlikely match, or a love story written in the stars?

Marketing + Finance: An unlikely match, or a love story written in the stars?

We’ve all heard it said that opposites attract. This time-tested sentiment holds true in the C-Suite, where leaders balance roles between risk aversion and growth investment. Opposite perspectives are valuable to inform decision-making. But opposing priorities are deadly to team culture and corporate health. The rubber often meets the road in the relationship between Marketing and Finance. Should the company invest in strategic, but often unpredictable (risky), marketing initiatives? Or should the business limit its spend to programs already proven to generate measurable results? What is the right ratio of risk vs. caution, reward vs. stability? There is no one-size-fits-all…
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Marketing ROI: Return on Investment or Really Obscure Information?

Marketing ROI: Return on Investment or Really Obscure Information?

Marketing ROI: Return On Investment or Really Obscure Information? Every founder, CEO, CFO and investor wants to know their return on marketing investment. And rightly so. But getting to ROI is not always a straight-forward “dollars in, dollars out” calculation. Businesses are spending money, investing in a variety of marketing activities, yet unsure of how (or even if) those tactics are moving the needle.  To reach healthy, sustainable brand and business growth, organizations must move beyond Really Obscure Information to measurable Return On Investment.  This webinar features a panel of experienced B2B and B2C marketing leaders, who bring some clarity…
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Crafting Your Competitive Edge: The Power of Employer Branding

Crafting Your Competitive Edge: The Power of Employer Branding

For many industries, recruiting and staffing remain the biggest barriers to growth following the pandemic. And for companies in highly competitive fields, finding and keeping the attention of qualified candidates is continuing to take more time, creativity and resources.  More than ever, the reputations of the company and its leadership matter during a candidate’s search. According to a recent survey conducted by Randstad, 86% of workers would not apply for, or continue to work for, a company with a bad reputation with former employees or the general public. So, how do you attract candidates to your organization to help fuel…
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Unlock Your Business Potential: How Market Fit and Focus Drive Maximum Value and Top Exit Multiples

Unlock Your Business Potential: How Market Fit and Focus Drive Maximum Value and Top Exit Multiples

Many business owners overestimate the current value of their business, and underestimate the potential value of their business. They have a great solution - potentially the “best kept secret”. But they’re missing the ingredients that fuel transferable value and make their business irresistible to potential buyers. A meaningful deal in today’s market requires more than a great idea or novel solution. Strategic investors are looking for businesses who have proven their ability to create demand, dominate a category, diversify revenue streams, and consistently grow revenue. Aspirational hot tech investments are a thing of the past. Today’s founders and their teams…
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Sales + Marketing: Creating synergy for success

Sales + Marketing: Creating synergy for success

For early stage businesses, marketing often reports to the founder or head of sales, and plays a subordinate role as a sales support function. This model can work during the forming phase of business growth - when sales is driving most engagement and is helping to further define the market fit. But eventually, to scale a brand and expand the business, marketing and sales must become peers within the leadership team - playing complimentary, but truly different roles.  Making the shift from sales-led to sales and marketing synchronized can be tricky. It’s truly a “make it or break it” moment…
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The Marketing Budget: Planning for Growth Amid a Shifting Economy

The Marketing Budget: Planning for Growth Amid a Shifting Economy

During the annual planning season, business leaders often want to know how much to allocate to their marketing budget. But there’s no easy answer.  At the same time, marketers are challenged to guarantee ROI for each dollar spent resulting in unrealistic expectations about the time and budget needed to develop a consistent ROI-yielding marketing engine.  These scenarios result in a recurring cycle of trial and error: invest → get frustrated by the unclear ROI → pull the plug (and abandon any progress) → pick a new tactic → start again.  This webinar features a panel of experienced sales and marketing…
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Beyond the Business Operating System

Beyond the Business Operating System

As business operating systems - such as EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System®) - grow in popularity and practice, many small and mid-sized businesses are experiencing the power of embracing simple concepts and proven tools to create alignment and strategic growth momentum. But once the foundation of an operating system is in place, these growing businesses often discover gaps across their functional departments. When these gaps exist within the growth engine of the organization - sales and marketing - that growth momentum stalls, and entrepreneurial tension rises. No business can achieve healthy growth without a strong revenue engine. But excellence in…
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Overcome Random Acts of Marketing: Marketing Essentials for SMBs

Overcome Random Acts of Marketing: Marketing Essentials for SMBs

Most entrepreneurial businesses will struggle with "random acts of marketing" as they shift from a founder-led, sales-driven business to a more strategic growth organization. Getting from random to predictable results requires marketing maturity - which starts with a strong brand foundation. In a LinkedIn Live event with Sales Xceleration, Authentic Founder & CEO Jennifer Zick discusses the essential ingredients that every growing business needs for fueling a strong, high-performing, revenue-generating marketing engine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nB37HlKwr8 Key Takeaways Modern marketing requires agility due to the diversity of tools and strategies available today compared to decades ago.  Small businesses must be resourceful in how…
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Making Sense of Revenue Roles

Making Sense of Revenue Roles

Watch Webinar: Making Sense of Revenue Roles Sales may sound like a simple concept. Until you are scaling a business. What begins as “just win business” quickly becomes a broad and complex discipline that requires expertise for attracting, winning, keeping, and expanding customer and partner relationships.  While many business leaders use terms like business development, sales, and account management interchangeably - they are each truly unique roles. It’s important to understand the difference so that you can create the right balance of sales expertise and build a team with clear roles, goals, and appropriate incentives. It’s equally important to recognize…
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