When you ask Matthew Scullion, CEO and co-founder of Matillion, what his company’s vision statement is today, he’ll answer that it is “to make the world’s data useful.” However, when he co-founded the company in 2011, you would not have heard such a lofty answer. Matthew and his team founded the company to create a …
When you run a B2B company, it goes without saying that producing significant returns is always a top concern. However, every time you deliver, you only raise the bar higher. It’s not enough to rely on add-on acquisitions and margin enhancement to fuel growth. They work but they’re not the end-all, be-all. You need a …
How Data-Enabled Digital Lead Generation Derisks B2B Organic Growth Read More »
At Sterling Woods, we have a simple working definition of go-to-market strategy. A go-to-market strategy answers these four questions: Who are we targeting? What problem are we solving for them? How do we solve that problem better (faster, cheaper, more seamlessly) than anyone else? How are we getting in front of the correct targets with …
What Is a Go-To-Market Strategy, and Why Do You Need One? Read More »
Brian Roland founded Abenity nearly 15 years ago with his brother, Mark. Brian had worked sales jobs before, and while he’d been successful, he felt disconnected from his purpose. He was young and single at the time, and he was earning more than he needed. Why? So he could say he made a nice salary? …
The Role of Self-Awareness in Succession Planning Read More »
It’s a story we often hear on the CEO Campfire Chat podcast. A founder faces a problem in their life. They search for a solution in the marketplace, and it just doesn’t exist. Instead of sitting idly back, they create a product or service to address their need and bring it to market to share …
Your Founder Is Not Your Market: Finding Product-Market Fit Read More »
In our digital world, verifying that someone is who they say they are can be challenging. Kaarel Kotkas, CEO and founder of Veriff, noticed that even big brands with huge budgets struggle to verify customers’ identities—if it was that difficult for them to get it right, what hope did smaller organizations have? This is the …
Devin Miller began his law career at a top 100 firm. And while he was serving big-name clients like Amazon and Intel, he found his direct client contact was limited and his impact felt minimal. He couldn’t shake the sense that he was just a cog in the wheel. He wanted to be a true …
Provide Winning Customer Care in Professional Services Read More »
The traditional venture capital model has been around for years. Unproven startups raise rounds of financing in exchange for equity in their company. Eventually, they grow to a size and stability that allows them to access debt from lenders, but in the meantime, if they want growth capital, they have to give away a stake …
We recently explained the importance of crafting rich buyer personas based on data rather than anecdotal evidence. Very few organizations serve only one type of customer. Your buyer personas, therefore, represent a number of customer types you interact with regularly. The creation of detailed buyer personas can feel like an academic exercise. It’s about sorting …
Connect the Dots Between Buyer Personas and Revenue: Identify Your High-Value Segment Read More »
All professional services firms face the same challenges when trying to scale. The product they sell isn’t an item—it’s their team’s time and expertise. When you have a specific number of employees, each with a finite number of hours in the day, how do you grow your business without demanding more time and energy from …
Scale Your Professional Services Firm Without Working Overtime Read More »
Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are difficult to launch. There are significant upfront costs associated with manufacturing and storing the product. Most CPG verticals are already crowded with countless brands. And with third-party marketplaces like Amazon capturing most online traffic, it’s a challenge to gather first-party data and win loyal customers. With all those hurdles …
How does one leader manage the complexity that comes along with running a multinational organization with thousands of team members that goes to market under more than two dozen brand names? That’s the question Sharon Love, President and CEO of Community Brands, answers every day in her work. Community Brands is a consortium of 33 …
Growing Through Complexity with Commonsense Strategies Read More »
