So, here's what we're thinking...

As businesses grow, so do the challenges that come with managing them. Many organizations reach a point where they need experienced leadership to guide strategy, improve processes, and support growth—but aren't ready to add another full-time executive salary.

Sales and marketing have always been about developing relationships. The relationship begins with creating a product or service that solves a buyer’s problem and adds value. Beyond that, great salespeople know how to develop relationships with customers and prospects in order to stay top of mind with them and gain access.

How many times have you heard this phrase? “There are three things that make a restaurant successful: location, location, and location.” It’s hard to say whether this is true or simply anecdotal, but there’s no question that a good location at least contributes to the success of a restaurant, or most any other brick and mortar business. For one thing, a good location is an easy ticket to raising awareness.    

You can do anything for 20 minutes, right? How about if you use those 20 minutes to log into LinkedIn, engage your network, grow awareness of yourself, promote your company, and expand your list of valuable contacts?         

As we step into 2025, there’s no better time to revisit and refine our strategies for achieving personal and business success. One tried and tested method to drive focus and clarity is by setting SMART goals. First coined in 1981 by George T. Doran, SMART goals – an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound – still offer a framework for turning aspirations into actionable plans.       

Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion claims that 70% of people who contact a company already know they will do business with them. That’s because they’ve done their research online before contact. This is even true of people looking for a financial advisor. Therefore, an effective, optimized online presence is required to compete in the modern finance industry. 

Is it time to revisit your brand? There are a lot of reasons why companies endeavor to do this, including new leadership, evolving product and service offerings, changing consumer expectations, the competitive landscape, unclear positioning, and lack of internal/external focus and clarity. Because branding often encompasses more than just your visual identity, a great way to begin the process is with a brand discovery and alignment project.       

In many ways, your email list is your greatest asset. Email is consistently ranked number one among marketing activities with a whopping 2,900% ROI. Whether you're a B2C business sending transactional emails or a B2B business guiding leads and prospects through the buyer's journey with nurturing campaigns, email is where the rubber meets the road. But running a successful email marketing campaign takes planning and knowledge of how to maximize your engagement.

There’s a reason why talk about marketing and sales team alignment is all the rage right now. It’s the basis of so many important and emergent marketing and sales trends – the move from lead gen to demand gen, the shift to RevOps from siloed ops, selling to a committee vs. an individual with account-based marketing (ABM), and making a move towards asynchronous selling.

While there are many upsides to this alignment, there are just as many obstacles facing teams as they try to get on the same page. Read on to break down the top five challenges facing marketing and sales teams as they try to align, as well as a few solutions for making team alignment a reality.

Marketing can seem overwhelming. It never stops because everything you do is designed to lead to another thing, and then another. It's a never-ending cycle of SEO, ads, leads, calls-to-action, downloads, blogs, conversion paths, content, prospects, emails, social media, subscribers, and data collection.