Discovering 10 difficult business problems CEO's must immediately interpret & solve to unlock growth

There are many challenges facing business today with B2B sales and marketing requirements having seismic change regardless of the company size. To understand and diagnose the current challenges, I used my 15+ years with P/L expertise with $100+M in quota coupled with the 8+ years of entrepreneurial leadership execution leading sales and marketing organizations to diagnose the current market conditions environment. Using the ‘Inquisitor Learning Methodology” (ILM) to diagnose business challenges that help define critical underlying difficulties facing organizations for 2021 and beyond.

The “Inquisitor Learning Methodology”, asks discovery questions to gather and synthesize information to determine the potential underlying problems. Then, overlay that synthesis with a quantitative and qualitative analysis to align and validate the information. Those are combined to interpret the data to then respond by taking action. This methodology I developed over my career leverages the understanding of the data correlations to create the corresponding list that all business face today. ILM output is designed to make incremental, tangible improvements by perceiving the core problems that can then enable the company to solve these challenges and foster dialogue to unlock greater grow catalysts.

1. Customer obsession and delivering customer satisfaction: Keen attention to ensure value for customers at every touchpoint.

2. Syncing the sales journey & sales pipeline: Navigating the seismic shift in B2B sales to the non-linear buying journey.

3. Focus: 90% of CEO’s said teams are focused on low payoff activities. For sales, calling the wrong people or not understanding why they are doing the activity.

4. Communication with stakeholders: internal & external: Consistent, regular communication using a defined communication plans without adding more Zoom calls.

5. Updating the blueprint for customer acquisition: Shift in B2B market from in-person towards holistic validated convergence.

6. Consistent delivery of sales results: Only 43% of front line sales pro’s made their quota in 2019 down 13% from 2018.

7. Team cohesion: Pandemic shifts to remote team members and difficulty maintaining a sense of community and employee loyalty.

8. Strategic planning: 94% of CEO’s said they need help with business strategy. Identify new markets with supporting strategies.

9. People first: Developing a new culture that fosters cooperation and efficient teamwork. How to reduce infighting are causing CEO’s to intervene and mediate conflict.

10. Talent optimization: From talent acquisition, leadership development and succession planning all need attention and a fully developed plan.

We will break down each of these business challenges in greater detail in an upcoming blog post yet wanted to share the results prior to completing all of the posts. I will provide real world experiences and interpretations for each of these business problems and an overview of potential solutions.

In every case, these are tangible, difficult problems facing businesses today and I welcome the opportunity to discuss your specific challenge using the ILM to help identify potential resolution opportunity for your teams.

Note:

These elements that are incorporated into the post:

• Real World Experiences: Lessons learned from my experiences are always bolded and blue.

• Critical Competencies: These are tangible proven skills sets that I have developed over my career. These should give insight into my competency and are highlighted in yellow.