Shows
The Practical CMOTech Enables Metal Fab Segment GrowthIn this episode, The Fabricator's editor-in-chief Dan Davis provides invaluable insights on leveraging technology to drive growth for metal fabrication leaders. He draws apt analogies like Oreo's product innovations and personalized banking to demonstrate how smart investments in production and marketing technologies enable manufacturers to expand revenues. Dan highlights automation, robotics, and collaborative bots as key investments on the production side. He advocates personalized outreach shaped by AI and modern digital tactics for sales and marketing. Like financial firms once did, manufacturers now can democratize technologies to level the playing field. Companies can gain control and cultivate the specialized...2023-11-1538 min
The Practical CMOEvolving Search Algorithms Demand Ongoing SEO StrategyOur guest is Tim Doyle, the Vice President of Sales at TopSpot, a digital marketing agency serving over 800 industrial and manufacturing clients. They discuss the current state of industrial marketing, characterizing it as uncertain yet still seeing strong growth in some sectors. Tim highlights a leadership void in many mid-size manufacturers and how fractional executive engagements can fill gaps. We dive deep into the current state of marketing in the industrial sector. Tim gives us the lowdown - things seem uncertain, but some verticals still see solid growth. He highlights a big issue in mid-size manufacturers - a lack...2023-11-0925 min
The Practical CMOWhat’s Going on in Healthcare Marketing?Unique markets have different levels of Marketing maturity, use different ways of going to market, have different metrics of success, and view the role of Marketing in their organizations quite differently. Sometimes, it’s too easy to get too focused on what you have traditionally done in Marketing, and also a challenge to look outside your unique market for best practices in other markets which you might adopt. In today’s program, we are going to do a deep dive into the Healthcare market, and do a temperature check on its overall health and growth prospects. We will also chara...2021-11-1830 min
The Practical CMOWhat’s Going on in Industrial Marketing?Unique markets have different levels of Marketing maturity, use different ways of going to market, have different metrics of success, and view the role of Marketing in their businesses quite differently. Sometimes, it’s too easy to get too focused on what you have traditionally done in Marketing, and also a challenge to look outside your unique market for best practices in other markets which you might adopt. In today’s program, we are going to do a deep dive on the industrial businesses, and do a temperature check on their overall health and growth prospects. We will also char...2021-10-2527 min
The Practical CMOBrand The “How” Not the “What”The value proposition of most businesses is based on what they do well. In many cases, focusing on what the company does--the products they make or the services they offer--is neither differentiating nor compelling. Even more problematic, many value propositions do not offer clear benefits to the problems and challenges their customers face.
In this podcast, we will discuss creating value propositions on the “how” businesses create value instead of “what” they do. Codifying, packaging, and branding a company’s service components can often deliver a message which is more compelling and differentiating. And what’s more, codifying th...2021-09-2133 min
The Practical CMOLies, Damned Lies, and MarketingThis podcast is a very unusual but realistic view of what Marketing does well and what it doesn’t do well. You’ve been promised big results with a quick turnaround. You’ve been told that social media is a silver bullet for increased sales (so far, you haven’t seen an impact). Your marketing team and vendors have overpromised and underdelivered, and you’re disappointed. You’re frustrated.
Perhaps you’re close to giving up on marketing entirely, but something tells you that you shouldn’t—you just need to know how to use it wisely.
In Lies, Dam...2021-08-2533 min
The Practical CMOIntellectual Property (IP) Opportunities and Marketing: What are You Missing?This podcast offers a practical guide about how you can use the Intellectual Property (IP) you already have in your business to enhance your revenues and profits, create more competitive differentiation, make your business more attractive to business partners, and enhance your exit value.
Intellectual Property is a largely unexplored business opportunity for SMBs due to a series of myths. We are going to explode those myths with some ideas to help you drive growth and competitive advantage.
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Today’s Participants:
Host: Mark Coronna, Partner and CMO, Chief Outsiders
mc...2021-07-2135 min
The Practical CMOIs It Time to Use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Marketing?Like many emerging technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) is making its way into the market through several applications. Emerging technologies are often misunderstood and misapplied early in their adoption. Even when the technology itself is ready for commercial application, individual businesses need the maturity and readiness to use these newer technologies effectively.
In this program, we will focus on how AI is being used in Marketing applications today. We’ll focus on what works and what doesn’t and lay out some specifics around how you can use this technology to improve your B2C and B2B Ma...2021-06-2135 min
The Practical CMOFour Best Practices for Ensuring Success from Start-up to Scale-upMost business start-ups fail. The numbers are both compelling and ugly—only 10% of all business start-ups reach $1M in revenue and fewer than 1% get to $10 million.
What if you could beat the odds by employing four tested business practices? In this program, we are going to take a positive track and outline a set of proactive actions every business exec contemplating starting a business, or already actively building a new business, can adopt to beat the odds and achieve your goals.
https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep-20-four-best-…t-up-to-scale-up/
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Today’s Participants:
You...2021-05-2437 min
The Practical CMOYour First Step to Becoming ”More Digital”The adoption of “digital” in your business may be an initiative you have considered but consistently tabled. With markets rebounding from COVID and with quickly forming preferences which will transform the way business is done online, you may be behind the curve. “Digital” offers increased abilities to manage your employees and your customer acquisition and relationships as online business becomes more of a preference and less of an option.
But “digital” is hard to define, hard to prioritize, and often hard to execute well, following the “Business First, Digital Second” approach.
This expert session will help you structu...2021-04-2036 min
The Practical CMOAmazon: Friend or Foe?With the pandemic impacts on many businesses, a shift to more digital marketing and digital engagement with customers is definitely a priority for many CEOs and Marketing execs. One bridge to be crossed is the shift, or addition, of e-commerce channels for products and service delivery. And the second bridge comes right after the decision to move online: should you consider Amazon a friend or a foe as part of your e-commerce strategy?
There are two parts to understanding an Amazon decision, the first an analysis of strategic fit and the second, if you decide to use...2021-03-2344 min
The Practical CMOCustomer Communications Are Evolving: Are You Ready?Now that the shift to a higher percentage of remote workers looks like it will continue after the current pandemic recedes, it’s time to ask what types of communications businesses should be used for effective customer acquisition and current customer development and retention. With an anticipated, 20-30% of the post-pandemic workforce projected to work remotely, what are the most effective communications channels and content? Should we reconsider a blend of more traditional communications along with a higher mix of digital? In this program, we’ll discuss best practices and share practical ideas for managing internal and external communications.
2021-02-2336 min
The Practical CMOLeadership: Inspiring People to Be Their Best
When you boil down the model for successful leadership, what do you have? Do those key aspects of leadership translate from military to public companies? And is it possible to share practical guidance to help developing leaders grow?
In this podcast, I’ll be discussing these and related topics with Craig Whelden--a retired Major General in the U.S. Army. Craig also served as a senior executive for nine years in the U.S. Marine Corps. If you are aware of the cultural differences between these two service branches, you’ll understand just how unique Crai...2021-01-2244 min
The Practical CMOPricing with Daring CautionWhat is it about pricing that appears daunting? Is it that it seems a strange mix of art and science which itself is intimidating? Is it a challenge because we lack the data from customers and competitors required to make high-confidence decisions? Is it because we don’t have the courage to match our pricing with the value we provide? Or is it because we fear making a decision that may have unfortunate negative consequences on our business?
An effective pricing strategy may appear like the holy grail, but businesses need competitive pricing which matches their value pr...2020-12-0932 min
The Practical CMOTransformational Growth -Time to Consider?There are many ways to approach growth. Some businesses think incrementally about building off their core revenues and current customers. Others are a bit more ambitious and think one- or two years out and focus on bringing existing products and services to new adjacent markets. Still fewer other businesses think more openly about growth as transforming their existing business model or starting new businesses which could add significant revenue and profit streams. So, do you pick one, some, or all of the above forms of growth?
Transformational growth seems challenging and risky, so why consider it? In...2020-11-2631 min
The Practical CMOGET MOVING - The Two Most Important Words You Need to KnowThere is plenty of free advice on how and what to do to manage your business through and out of the health crisis. Some of it is getting recycled regularly and starting to seem stale. I recently met Kyle Arneson when we participated in an “expert roundtable” and found Kyle’s guidance incredibly fresh and empowering. Building on his USMC background, Kyle attacks challenges just like you’d expect from a tenacious Marine. Kyle’s focus certainly encompasses best practices in planning and execution, but his focus is on business leadership—in fact, just how well leadership sets the agenda and p...2020-10-2031 min
The Practical CMOOutperform Your Market: Embedding Horizon Growth Into Your Management ProcessTwo companies may take the same business processes or tools and adopt and implement them totally differently. Sometimes, there’s no “better or worse,” it’s more about making these tools and processes work best for you.
Here’s an example. There are many ways small- and mid-sized businesses implement EOS/Traction management disciplines. Some use formal implementers, some contract with part-time integrators, and some try to do the whole thing themselves. Any of these approaches can work, as long as you embed the discipline into your ongoing management processes.
https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep12-outperf...2020-09-2228 min
The Practical CMOInternal Networking is Your Key to Communication SuccessEven the smallest companies can be challenged by poor internal communications. Fortune- sized enterprises? Sure. But small- and mid-sized business? Yes, it happens too often in these businesses. You might ask how and why that can happen when you have an employee base of less than 200 and everyone works in the same facility. I asked that question after observing poor communications--and the negative effects of having a workforce which is not aligned--hurt business performance—over and over.
Today’s approach to the topic of “failure to communicate” will explore an innovative way to improve communications—focusing on building a...2020-08-1732 min
The Practical CMOCore Reasons for Poor Alignment of Sales and MarketingThis is a continuation of the conversation with Bob Lambert of Samurai Business Group, LLC. We pick up with Bob talking about the reasons poor alignment happens. He says there must be three things in place:
Understanding the goal - a clear view of your future.
Getting a strategy alignment supporting that goal
Understanding and accepting the role each person plays to get there.
https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep10-core-reason…es-and-marketing/
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When one or more of these isn't happening, you are guaranteed not only poor alignment but ev...2020-07-2814 min
The Practical CMOWhat Happens When Sales and Marketing Collaborate and What Happens When They Do NotThe dual challenges to both understanding the differences between Sales and Marketing and then align them for the benefit of your business don’t seem to be easy to resolve. For years, one of the most downloaded articles offered by Chief Outsiders has been the piece titled “What’s the Difference Between Sales and Marketing?”
https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep9-what-happens…when-they-do-not/
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Understanding the differences between these two disciplines and ensuring that they work closely together can be the difference between industry-leading growth and being an industry laggard. It is an important t...2020-07-2326 min
The Practical CMOChallenges and Best Practices in Securing Investment Capital - An Investor’s PerspectiveThis program is the second of a two-part series where we explore the challenges and best practices in securing the investment capital required to continue growth. We’ve been exploring challenges and best practices from two stakeholder points of view: corporate CEOs and investors. In this podcast, we’re exploring the investor’s point of view. While capital availability is always a timely topic, it is perhaps even more timely today. As the economy recovers, having ready access to expansion capital to take advantage of economic tailwinds will be critical to many businesses.
https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep8-chall...2020-06-2331 min
The Practical CMOChallenges and Best Practices in Securing Investment Capital - A CEO’s PerspectiveThis program is part of a two-part series where we explore challenges and best practices in securing investment capital required to continue growth. I thought it would be interesting to explore these challenges and best practices from the perspective of two stakeholders: corporate CEOs and investors. While capital availability is always a timely topic, it is perhaps even more so today as accessing the capital required for business expansion post the current economic crisis will be critical to many businesses.
https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep7-challenges-a…ceos-perspective/
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Additional resources referred to in this pr...2020-05-2833 min
The Practical CMOEOS® and TRACTION is an excellent management process, but where does the content come from?Many consider EOS®/Traction to be a best practice management discipline. Many small- and mid-sized businesses have adopted Traction to beef up their management processes as it provides a structured approach to aligning and prioritizing key initiatives and projects.
Traction only works when you have a mechanism for developing the required content. Traction implementation requires content like a one-page Marketing plan and a ten-year plan. Traction works best when paired with great content like that generated from planning approaches such as Horizon Growth, which is a best practice for planning your future revenue and profit streams.
2020-04-2027 min
The Practical CMOA Realistic Evaluation of EOS® - What it does and doesn’t do for your business.Many consider EOS®/Traction to be a best practice management discipline. Many small- and mid-sized businesses have adopted Traction to beef up their management processes as it provides a structured approach to aligning and prioritizing key initiatives and projects.
As a process, Traction doesn’t have a mechanism for developing actual content. For example, Traction implementation requires content like a one-page marketing plan and a ten-year plan. Traction works best when paired with great content like that generated from planning approaches such as Horizon Growth, which is a best practice for planning your future revenue and profit str...2020-03-2426 min
The Practical CMOFinding ’Grand Slam’ Clients Using an Ideal Client Profile to Build Your BusinessIdeal Customer Profiles are definitely a “Marketing buzz” term today, and legitimately so, if you understand the power of the concept and apply it to your customer acquisition programs. an Ideal Customer Profile describes the characteristics of the best customer you want to acquire and maintain over time.
https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep4-finding-gran…ld-your-business/
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If you were a direct marketer or an e-commerce guru, you would recognize this type of relationship as having high customer lifetime value, which would give you the highest revenue and profitability over the longest relationship time.
We’r...2020-02-2532 min
The Practical CMOFour Best Practices to Overcome Marketing-Sales Staffing Challenges in 2020What should you plan for if you are looking to add to or upgrade your Marketing or Sales management in 2020? What new challenges might you face as the talent pool changes? We'll address these key staffing questions:
How are expectations evolving for both companies and candidates, and are millennials really that different?
What will the labor market look like, overall, and what do best practices should you consider to recruit and retain staff effectively?
How will you find Marketing talent as Marketing continues to evolve and become more complex?
And what are the implications of the new role of...2020-01-2029 min
The Practical CMOHigh Powered Scope of ABM vs. Splatter Shot of Web LeadsSometimes the best way to get to know a host is to hear him as the guest. This special episode originally aired on SLMA Radio. Hosted by Tom Judge, President at Direct Marketing Partners, Tom and Mark dive into ABM.
If we're going to implement account-based marketing, can it actually yield a healthy sales pipeline?
Do you need to get a bunch of software and a bunch of staff? No. Use direct marketing methodologies and start a long-term relationship. Hear about the most targeted methodologies.
What can you do to achieve the sales p...2020-01-1721 min
The Practical CMOFixing the Sales and Marketing Communications FundamentalsWhat should you plan for if you are looking to add to or upgrade your Marketing or Sales management in 2020? What new challenges might you face as the talent pool changes? We'll address these key staffing questions:
How are expectations evolving for both companies and candidates, and are millennials really that different
What will the labor market look like overall, and what best practices should you consider to recruit and retain staff effectively?
How will you find Marketing talent as Marketing continues to evolve and become more complex?
And what are the implications of the new role of “Chief...2020-01-1623 min