ways to fuel massive growth in 2015 - Vistage · 3 5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015 Creating a...
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2015 Trend Report
From widespread use of smart technology to the hub of social networks steering
consumerism and workforce productivity alike, 2015 is gearing up to change the way we do
business in an unprecedented way. With an overwhelming 74 percent vote of confidence
from small to medium business owners and CEOs anticipating increased sales revenue and
more than 61 percent expecting an increase in the total number of their employees over the
next 12 months, understanding how to connect with and engage the global marketplace
will be crucial in the coming year. Top industry experts share their insights with Vistage in
a 2015 forecast on leveraging emerging trends in technology, marketing, sales, human
resources, and corporate culture to strengthen and grow business.
5ways to fuel massive growth in 2015
Executive StreetThe Business Leader’s Resource
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5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015
1: Technology Go mobile and get personal: The year of the app
Vistage member and speaker Dave Nelsen, founder of social media pioneer TalkShoe, says 2015 will
be a mobile market with a significant trend moving from traditional desktop and laptop computing
to highly engaging mobile devices, smartphones and tablets. “We’re now in a world where we have
a 5 to 1 ratio of smart mobile devices to traditional computers, and that spread is increasing rapidly;
it’ll be 6 to 1 in 2015,” says Nelsen. “One thing all businesses have to think about for their growth is
how does this mobile computing environment affect me? How do I reach my future, or even present, employees, customers, and partners? In 2015, the answer is from a mobile device and with applications.”
Ranging from custom-developed to third-party and integrated with web browser software, mobile applications have cemented themselves as powerful engagement and influencing tools across all industries, as well as in enterprise. Citing a 2013 McKinsey study that states two-thirds
of the value of social media will come from improving collaboration among employees, Nelsen
asserts, “Everybody needs to start thinking through what apps they can develop or adopt that
will change the way they interact with customers, prospects, employees, and partners.” Among
some of the most innovative have been B2B apps that support the fast-growing trend of remote-
working and collaboration. Elaborating on the significance of the trend, Nelsen notes, “As I travel
to different countries, I’ve been using an app called Word Lens, an amazing augmented reality app
that instantly translates language text.” The potential for impact on the globalization of business
with apps like Word Lens is tremendous with its current ability to help people conducting business
across the globe better expedite communication with vendors and prospective clients alike. Using
a smartphone or tablet’s built-in camera, the app scans the foreign text, translates it and displays
the words into another language of your choosing, “It’s a lot like watching football on T.V. when the
yellow line indicating a first-down is superimposed and displayed on your screen,” enthuses Nelsen,
“I’m now able to see on-the-fly language translation on my device. This will become fairly regular
technology in the next year or two.”
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5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015
Creating a company social networking space is another way app technology can engage and strengthen employee productivity and efficiency. “Yammer is what I would call a private group
texting service,” explains Nelsen, “in a lot of ways it works exactly like Twitter which most people
are familiar with, except it’s closed and just for employees. When an employee sees something
that would be valuable to co-workers like an update on a competitor, a new product idea, a sales
opportunity, or a customer problem, they just post it to the team, right from their phone, in 140
characters or less; it’s fast and concise. Group texting services like Yammer or Chatter are the new
tools and are a much more efficient way to connect and communicate with our co-workers than
through traditional channels like email.
“Businesses have to also consider what apps they’re going to use for their customers,” Nelsen
affirms as he references his own consumer experience in a well-known auto parts store. The retailer
used QR code prompts to direct consumers to its app that aided in product selection based on the
consumer’s stated needs. Their app effectively influenced the sell with quick, accurate information in
the palm of the consumer’s hands. “Having the app on my phone and remembering the delightful
experience I had with it, influenced my choice in retailers as a return customer.”
“Perhaps one the most promising technologies emerging in 2015 with its potential for impact on the
economy is mobile payments through apps like Apple Pay,” says Nelsen. According to Statistica.com,
mobile payments in the U.S. will more than double from 2013’s 11.1 million to an estimated 22.6
million mobile payment users in 2015, and more than quintuple by 2018 with 57 million users. “We’re
going to be paying with our iPhones and Androids instead of with credit cards,” furthers Nelsen, “One
of the neat things about mobile payments, is that we don’t have to pull out credit cards anymore,
worry about someone stealing the number, or even scan it where it might be hacked; it generates a
one-time, non-reusable code making it a much more secure and convenient method of payment.”
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5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015
2015 technology must check list
Embrace the Internet of Things. Computing is everywhere, in smart devices from
watches to cars. With consumer and enterprise networks becoming increasingly
connected and mobile, adapt your services and processes for the mobile user
experience, including integrating useful B2B and B2C applications.
Get your head in the Cloud. Incorporating cloud computing into your business
now will position your company to accommodate the growing remote workforce,
strengthening productivity with access from any device and location. Vice President and
Gartner Fellow David Cearley notes, “Cloud is the new style of elastically scalable, self-
service computing, and both internal and external applications will be built on this new
style.”
Make Big Data a big deal. This year with focus on managing and analyzing the massive
amounts of data filtering in through the Internet of Things, social media, and the
digitization of consumer interactions. According to Gartner research, in 2015, 85 percent
of Fortune 500 organizations will have not positioned themselves to exploit big data for
its competitive advantages. Use Big Data and analytics to better strategize how to deliver
the right information to the right target market, in the right vehicle.
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5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015
2: MarketingShifting from broad strokes to micro-targeted: The year of the consumer
Next year will usher in a smarter, more well-informed and resourceful consumer who is empowered
with information at their fingertips, little more than a click away on their mobile device and within
fractions of a second. To be effective, marketing will have to be as engaging and as social as their target audiences and quality content will reign again as king. Social media, marketing automation, inbound marketing and mobile are the star players in the 2015 Marketing playbook. Ipsos notes that 61 percent of global internet users research products online, and the
statistical importance is further weighted by Forrester’s prediction of more than half of the dollars
spent in U.S. retail will be influenced online by 2016.
“2015 is going to experience a tectonic shift across industries and market sectors from a dependence
upon outbound marketing and cold-calling sales to a new appreciation for inbound marketing and
a pull in the ability to capture people who are looking for a service and or product,” says Vistage
speaker Andrea Simon, Ph.D., Principal/Founder of Simon Associates Management Consultants
(SAMC). She notes that the average cost for leads through inbound marketing is 61 percent lower
than outbound, and that the average website conversion rate more than doubles with inbound
marketing.
“The question is,” she contends, “how can businesses provide the type of non-intrusive, credible, on-
demand marketing strategies so that those people who are looking for their services or products are
attracted to their website and social media? How can we provide them with the type of information
and education that will help convert them; and, how do we go about closing the sale?” Simon says,
“It’s less about pushing for sales, and more about finding those who are looking, and helping them make the right decision to choose your business for their solution.”
“Social media is becoming an essential component of strategy, says Vistage speaker Max Carey, one
of the nation’s leading sales and marketing consulting experts. “It is not a strategy itself, but rather
a driver of strategy. It is necessary and mandatory; and, if you’re not in it, you will be left behind in
some way.” As founder and Chairman of CRD (Corporate Resource Development), Carey advises his
clients to embrace five principles of the “New Normal:”
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5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015
1 Social media is no longer just about friends, family and funny posts; it is now a proven and
powerful resource in commerce.
2 Confirmation and recommendation from peers and thought-leaders are received with value
and authority over traditional advertising.
3 Internet and social media marketing is the favorite pony in the race with global brands
like Coca-Cola shifting 65 percent of its traditional marketing spend over to Internet and
interaction-based vehicles.
4 Success with social media requires consistent engagement, responsiveness and
relationship-building more than just monitoring.
5 Marketing strategies are positioned to yield the greatest ROI when integrated
across-the-board and in multiple marketing and social media platforms, with
consistency in messaging and branding.
Source: Max Carey
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5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015
2015 Marketing must check list
Optimize your online experience. Search Engine Optimize your website not just with
keywords, but also with Google’s newly launched Hummingbird. In its first update to its
entire algorithm since 2010, Hummingbird searches more than just keywords, it looks at
the quality in relevancy with the phrase search query. If you haven’t already, Simon says,
“Now is the right time to take a good look at a Google Analytics scrub to see how well
your site is scoring.”
Use social media to build your brand’s presence and credibility with its target audience. Carey recommends interacting with the “20% Rule,” posts should reflect equal
parts in the categories of inspiration; humor; value-added content, things they wouldn’t
know, intellectual capital; re-tweets or shares of other people who had smart things to
say; and call to action and limited time offers.
Narrow your focus to reach your true target market. Carey states, “In 2015 you’ve got
to go from a wide-net-thinking to the exact opposite, a laser-focused ‘who are the best
buyers and who can best value what we have?’ ”
Make sure your site is mobile-friendly. “Responsive design websites are critical,”
Simon affirms, “With 35 percent of searches taking place on mobile platforms, your
website has to change in shape and form as it goes from a desktop, to a tablet, to
a smartphone.”
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5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015
3: Sales Turning inbound: The year of automation and integration
“Today’s world is so different because of technology. The consumer, regardless of the product or
service, gets whatever information they want at the knock of a finger, and can do it while they’re
moving from their mobile phones,” says Jack Daly, entrepreneur and Amazon bestselling author of
Hyper Sales Growth.
In fact, ComScore cites 4 out of 5 consumers use their smartphone to research and shop online and
according to research from TeleSmart Communications, 85 percent of interaction between buyers
and sellers is anticipated to take place online and through social media over the next
five years.
“It is no longer a competitive edge for a salesperson to be all-knowledgeable about their product or
service,” says Daly, a popular speaker for Vistage. “The key in 2015 is to use the same technological mechanisms consumers are using to understand the prospect’s business better than they do, and with an eye toward the future as opposed to just the present.”
The focus in the year ahead should be on integrating sales and marketing teams to work in concert
with each other, and on leveraging marketing automation to make the sales effort more productive,
says Marc Emmer, Vistage speaker and strategic planning expert. “While we’re focused on things
like social media, SEO, and other digital marketing assets, we need to think about how marketing
activities integrate with sales,” poses Emmer, author of Intended Consequences.
Furthering the consideration, Emmer notes, “As companies use marketing automation technology
like HubSpot, they need to think about creating synergy between campaigns and specific sales activities. We now have the ability to craft a message to a group of prospects based on their behaviors, interests and preferences, and scheduled meetings with a salesperson. This creates
a pretty dynamic shift in how companies are integrating their sales and marketing.”
Marketing automation is a real-time game changer for sales, combining efforts such as CRM, content
management and analytics, into one strong toolset suite. Aberdeen research notes that using
marketing automation can increase conversion rates by more than 50 percent.
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5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015
2015 Sales must check list
Create a sales playbook. In fact, Daly says every company should have two playbooks,
one for sales managers and one for salespeople.
“The sales manager’s playbook has got to have a chapter on recruiting, a chapter on
minimum standards and performance, and a chapter on professional development,” he
asserts. “The salesperson’s playbook is all about key systems and processes, and features
chapters on key activities, pipeline management, differentiation from the competition,
and a success guide that prepares salespeople to anticipate all of the things they might
encounter before they ever make a sales call.”
Leverage social media and the internet to get to know the prospect better. “It’s all
about information; information is power,” affirms Emmer, “In the past, salespeople were
not necessarily armed with the best information available, but today, before you even call
on a client, you have the ability to know everything there is about their affinities, where
they went to school, prior jobs, what their purchase history is, even their M&A activity and
purchasing behavior.”
Develop a two-lane plan to pace sales force growth with market needs and trends. “The first lane has to do with being successful in the short run, 2015-2016,” says Daly,
“paved with the necessary assets and strategies for the sales force’s current needs to
bridge the gap during this technological transition period. The second lane is about
identifying and taking measures to transform what the sales force will need to look like in
2017 in order to remain a competitive and viable business.”
“The last five years has been about companies trying to automate the pipeline management;
installing CRM; upping the game of analytics of the sales team; and becoming more progressive with
the types of people that they hire,” says Emmer, “The next couple of years are about marketing automation, and 2015 is about the integration of sales and marketing.”
“What we have to understand is that the dynamics of our business is changing and has changed
dramatically. It’s important for every salesperson and organization to put a priority on systems and
processes for the new successful practices,” advises Daly, “What I recommend to business owners and
Vistage members is to pick up Salem Ismail’s recently published book, Exponential Organizations,
take it in as quickly and intensely as possible, and then sit down and reflect on where your business
is relative to where the world is going.”
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5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015
4: HiringPrepare for a job seeker’s market: The year of recruitment and retention
With one-fifth of the current workforce nearing or having reached retirement age, as reported by
the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, recruitment and retention of top performers will be a major
priority for businesses. To stay competitive in the hunt for skill and talent, traditional hiring practices
will need to adjust tactics by including social networks and technology, referral incentive programs,
as well as internship and associate programs in their strategies. In addition, millennials are positioned
to fill the employment gap that retiring Boomers will leave behind, which means 2015’s workforce
will have a new set of personal priorities and career expectations.
“The hiring market for 2015 will be much tighter and a lot more competitive, resulting in a need to sell more to candidates than we’ve had to even in the previous 12 months,” says
Amy Carr, Executive Vice President, Human Resources, at Red Door Interactive. “We’re changing our
recruiting strategy and interview techniques to make them more candidate-centric.”
Carr details that the new strategy is multi-layered:
1 Developing relationships with passive job-seekers, people who are ready for a
new challenge.
2 Re-shaping prospective career paths from upward ladders to career webs that facilitate
growth in other directions.
3 Expanding the reach by engaging current employees in the recruitment effort.
“Because it’s a good market for people who are looking for jobs,” says Carr, “we’re putting more into
what advancement looks like internally and what the different paths are that facilitate advancement
into other areas of interests, growing their careers diagonally or laterally. The ideology is that instead
of people looking externally for advancement, we keep them engaged and excited about new
opportunities that we’re able to offer in different ways.”
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2015 hiring must check list
Make retention of talent as big of a priority as recruitment for talent. With more
career opportunities becoming available in the job market, staying attune with employee
priorities and expectations, and proactively facilitating paths to meet
them, will help to ensure top talent considers internal opportunities ahead of
external possibilities.
Expand the company’s recruitment reach by encouraging employees to engage their own social networks with career opportunity postings. Make it easy by
providing a ready-made message that employees can tailor to personalize or simply
copy, paste and post to their networks.
Develop a pool of experienced employee candidates by establishing an internship
or associate program. “Hiring with the understanding that there’s a limited term to the
program, once completed and if they’ve done really well,” says Carr, “associates may be
considered for a different full-time position within the company.
Carr advocates internships and associate programs to help cultivate emerging talent in the workforce, “What we’re finding is that when people graduate as an under-grad, they don’t yet have
the skills to be successful in a junior-level role. An associate program or internship is a way to give
them a chance with an opportunity to grow and groom them, without setting them up for failure in
a role that’s over their heads.”
Using an employee referral incentive program to transform recruitment into personal
recommendations has also yielded great success, “People want to work with good people,” says
Carr, “When I get a referral, I know they really mean it because they see it as a reflection on their
own reputation, and ultimately affecting the teams they work with.” Carr also notes that using social
media as a recruitment tool is more than just a trend; it’s a 2015 benchmark that can increase reach
exponentially, particularly when engaging current employees in the effort, “We have our marketing
team draft social media posts for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and all of the different outlets, and then
send those out to our staff asking them to promote the positions that we’re recruiting for on their
own networks.”
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5: CultureMillennials fill the gap and set the pace: The year of social capitalism
Technology changes everything—perspective, perception and expectations. With millennials at the helm of 2015’s charge ahead, their perspectives are shaping not only the way in which we do business, but also how we do business. As the first generation said to be technological natives,
millennials are extremely connected to social networks, their jobs, and to their perception of a global
society and sense of purpose. Companies aiming for success in the year ahead, and beyond, will
have to consider and reflect this new age of connectivity in every aspect from consumership
to leadership.
Dr. Gustavo Grodnitzky, organizational consultant and author of Culture Trumps Everything, charts
the correlation over the past decade between growth in business success and Social Capitalist
companies, “These companies are changing the way they see the world, in that they’ve learned that
outstanding financial performance and outstanding organizational culture are inextricably linked.
Culture precedes profit, which means profit is a result of having and sustaining an outstanding
corporate culture.”
www.DrGustavo.com
Connectedness n Profit Paradox: Profit Comparison
© “Culture Trumps Everything” by Gustavo Grodnitzky, Ph.D.
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5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015
Vistage speaker Grodnitzky asserts that in order to maintain a trusted and respected reputation
among consumers; to attract and keep the soon-to-be majority millennial workforce; and continue
to profit in a highly competitive future, companies must create a corporate culture that emphasizes the balance between the complex constituency of stakeholders.
“Anyone who comes in contact with the product or service that is created or provided by the
company—business partners, suppliers, employees, customers and shareholders, are all stakeholders
in a strong social capitalism culture.” It begins, he says, with:
1 Building genuine relationships and sharing a cause or common purpose.
2 Developing and showing trust through reliability, openness, competence, and concern; these form the foundation for trust in a culture.
3 Instilling a shared language that enables the company to communicate in a concise and
meaningful way.
Vistage Chair, speaker and corporate culture change consultant, Mark Taylor, expounds on the
perception of corporate culture, “There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what a good corporate
culture is, partially because of the way it’s been portrayed in the media with surveys like ‘the greatest
companies to work for.’ It’s not about pizza on Fridays, casual dress codes, or flex-time; it’s much
deeper than that. People are looking for meaning, especially millennials. Developing a strong corporate culture involves both clarity on company purpose and discovering what the core company values are and actually living them.”
Aligning with millennials’ sense of connectivity, corporate culture will re-shape teamwork as a
standard; will be much more considerate of balanced lifestyles that integrate personal and work
time; and will embrace technology for its communication and productivity benefits.
“One of the trends I’m seeing,” says Taylor, 35-year CEO and Corporate Manager, “is companies
like Zappos incorporating organizational governance systems such as Holacracy. Morning Star is
another example of a company that doesn’t have any managers; it’s about teams working together,
making commitments and holding one another accountable to perform. In these types of corporate
cultures, people feel like they’re a part of the team, making contributions; not just working on
something that they don’t even know what the impact on the bigger picture will be.”
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2015 culture must check list
If a mistake is made, acknowledge and address it openly, with a resolution. “Social
media is all about reputation and transparency; it’s not about being perfect,” advises
Grodnitzky, “It’s about being responsive, transparent and genuine with employees and
customers.” As culture becomes more peer-to-peer networked, denying mistakes or
taking no action at all in hopes that it will simply blow-over can cause more damage to
your reputation and trust value than the actual mistake itself.
Recognize that the constant connection to work from smartphones and tablets creates a blended lifestyle that has very little separation between personal and work
time. The 9-to-5 days are over. Strong corporate cultures will be very clear about the role
employees have in the organization and how their performance will be evaluated.
Include remote workers in the team setting. “With a growing remote-workforce, a lot
of business owners are including remote workers in team meetings with video chat or
conferencing technology,” says Taylor, “This enables people to be seen and heard, and
made to feel connected to the team effort, despite where they are in the world.”
Millennials want purpose and meaningful involvement. Taylor advises that one of
the best ways to engage the millennial workforce is by “Creating roles where people can
learn and develop their mastery.” Nearly 90 percent of millennials want a collaborative
rather than competitive work-culture; almost 80 percent want and appreciate
mentorship and coaching; and well over half consider making the world a better place as
their priority, as reported by Intelligence Group research.
About Vistage
Since 1957, Vistage has been bringing together successful CEOs, executives and business owners into
private advisory groups. Each group is purpose-built to help members help each other improve the
performance and outcomes of their businesses.
In our groups, about a dozen executives meet once a month to solve problems, evaluate opportunities
and work on an assortment of strategic and operational issues.
Our 18,000 members around the world represent a range of industries and a variety of backgrounds.
Contact us today if you are interested in joining a Vistage group at vistage.com