ways to fuel massive growth in 2015 - Vistage · 3 5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015 Creating a company social networking space is another way app technology can engage and strengthen

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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

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ways to fuel massive growth in 2015 - Vistage · 3 5 ways to fuel massive growth in 2015 Creating a company social networking space is another way app technology can engage and strengthen