My Story
I am an international executive and entrepreneur. I have broad and deep experience in starting, growing and expanding Internet/e-commerce, business/professional services, and consumer product/ service enterprises from pre-revenue to $8 billion+ in sales.
A proven corporate strategist with a track record of re-structuring operations, growing markets, instituting leading edge-technology, and building collaboration with customers and stakeholders.
I have advised start-up and early stage companies bringing a laser focus to critical path planning and execution while providing insight and guidance to navigate the inherent challenges of ramping up.
With verifiable year-after-year success in achieving revenue, profit and business objectives within start-up, turnaround, and global organizations in emerging Asian markets and international, multi-cultural environments, I have:
- Developed highly successful, go-to-market and brand positioning strategies for five companies.
- Managed three turnaround situations, saving one company from bankruptcy.
- Devised the strategic & financial plans used to raise nearly $57 million for two start-up companies.
- Guided two companies through an initial public offering (IPO) raising over $90 million.
- Directed the sale of three companies realizing shareholder value in excess of $400 million.
With a passion for applying strategic insight, go-to-market expertise, and continuous improvement, I drive multi-national companies to deliver top line revenues and bottom line profitability.
Expertise
A successful go-to-market strategy — decisions about where to compete and how to win — must define the target market, the benefit to the customer, and address marketing and promotion by determining distribution and marketing channels.
But what most companies lack is an effective system that acts as the bridge between the go-to-market strategy and the exceptional customer experiences that are the ultimate path to success.
A ‘go-to-market system’ builds customer advocacy by creating a superior customer experience that:
- Synchronizes operations with the ever-changing marketplace to accommodate industry disruptions, competitor moves and entry into adjacent markets.
- Understands the needs of the target-customer, allowing deployment of sales resources to the highest-value opportunities within each customer segment, selling channel, and geography.
- Establishes simple, clear decision roles and processes
If your company is missing any of these three capabilities, it may require a tune-up or a complete overhaul. Does your Go-to-Market strategy and system measure up?
Online marketing strategy effectively defines company intent by evaluating three metrics: Awareness – how well is the brand known, Sales – is awareness converting into sales, Consumer Advocacy – are customers referring your brand?
With those three metrics in mind, the keys to implementing a successful online marketing, sales and e-commerce strategy are:
- Identify the metric goal, and determine a plan to achieve it such as: social media, blogging, landing pages, Google ads, and site linking.
- Understand the audience: who they are, how they behave, and where they are.
- Meticulously track the metrics using insights to drive and fine-tune strategy.
- Canvas the marketplace and the competition to gain valuable insight and ideas.
- Commit to a learning loop: test and refine, constantly course-correct, and improve by “listening” to the data.
- Create an omni-channel approach to avoid isolation from other business activities.
Reaching customers through the “noise” is becoming more difficult, and technology is making it a whole lot tougher. Online marketing must continuously evolve and respond to keep ahead.
The company that clearly articulates what it does, why it’s relevant and how it’s different enables customers to make better and faster buying decisions. The goal is to determine what your brand should stand for.
Whether consumer products, business services or emerging technology, there are three common criteria for successful brand strategy. First, know the top customer decision-making criteria, second, determine gaps in brand positioning and potential opportunities for brand movement, and third, ensure the brand aligns with the message and the offerings support the brand.
As products and services become more difficult to differentiate, branding that cultivates a strong, trusted image can help build a larger, more loyal customer base. Effective organizations understand:
- How they will manage their brand(s) to win in markets that offer the best payback
- How their marketing mix will drive optimal customer behavior; and,
- How their resource allocation will drive their ability to win and keep customers.
Properly managed, a powerful brand positioning strategy can lead to extraordinary revenue growth potential.
It is both and art and a science to create strategic relationships to grow brands globally. Whether you build the sales expertise internally or through external representatives, it is important to:
- Determine clear targets and financial objectives
- Build and nurture key partnerships
- Develop and establish partner operating standards
- Measure and monitor success
- And finally, renew and evolve partnerships
The key to Business Development is to design a pragmatic, actionable paradigm that:
- Finds the customer sweet spot, and zeros in on the highest-value customers
- Ensures the sales coverage and capacity to match the customers and channels
- Satisfies customer delivery preferences to cost effectively yield full revenue potential and exceed customer expectations.
An effective, executable sales and operations plan evolves and responds to savvy and sophisticated customers.
Clients & Customers
