Part 8 of the series: A B2B CEO’s Guide to Navigating the COVID-19 Revenue Reality

The COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly has created an economic crisis that has left few businesses untouched. But, if you have been following this blog series, you understand the value of innovation, and, in particular, the value that your aligned sales and marketing leaders will bring to that strategic exploration.

Now is the time to entrust your collective team to the task of identifying new opportunities. Borne out of necessity in a world of shelter-at-home mandates, so many new creative ideas have emerged. If your market-facing teams really understand your core competencies, they will find creative ways to apply those core competencies in a unique and innovative fashion to solve today’s challenges. 

The key is to think beyond your current target market segments and existing value propositions.   Appropriately aligned marketing and sales leaders can partner with your product team to run internal workshops to collectively create new business opportunities. Each function has a role, including:

• Brainstorming ideas
• Vetting the market opportunities
• Validating the client need
• Confirming clients’ willingness to pay
• Estimating profitability
• Rapidly pivoting to the immediate opportunity

Tools such as Zoom allow you to have virtual brainstorming sessions to start the process. Don’t hesitate to give the team a challenge to collaborate, and to come back with three immediate opportunities — and see what they find. This form of brainstorming is, by necessity, highly creative. The team needs to know that all options are on the table and that you really, truly mean it when you say, “no idea is a bad idea.”

All ideas need to be sized and vetted then approved by you, so you are not handing over the keys to the kingdom without controls. You are instead simply empowering revenue-driven teams to think creatively and outside their normal world. Engaging your sales and marketing teams with other functions to collectively create solutions to fill voids will produce results that may surprise you and will bring the team together (virtually) to achieve a common goal.

Timing is ripe for revisiting the roles of the different functions on your team and making adjustments based on market conditions. Leverage the lessons-learned from industries that have previously navigated different but related financial crises. You will likely emerge ahead of your competition when the market is ready to recover and expand.

Chief Outsiders is prepared to support your evolution.

About Chief Outsiders

Chief Outsiders, LLC is a nationwide "Executives-as-a-Service" firm, with 70 part-time, or fractional, Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) engaged from coast-to-coast. Unlike other strategic marketing and management consulting firms, each CMO has held the position of VP Marketing or higher at one or more operating companies. Chief Outsiders have served on the executive team of over 1,000 client companies to drive growth strategy and execution plans for a fraction of the cost of a full-time executive.

Because of its market-based growth plans, quality of leadership, and experienced team, Chief Outsiders has been recognized for the past six years by Inc. Magazine as one of the 5,000 fastest growing privately held companies in the US, and was recognized in 2019 as a Forbes Small Giant. Chief Outsiders’ CEO Art Saxby and Principal Pete Hayes are the co-authors of “The Growth Gears: Using a Market-Based Framework to Drive Business Success,” an Amazon #1 best-seller for business owners and CEOs. For additional information about the companies who trust Chief Outsiders as their premier source for business growth acceleration, click here.