The State of Work in 2023: A Comprehensive Look at Where We Are Now

If there was one word to describe the state of work right now it would be this: complex.

Work got really complicated in 2021 and 2022 and it’s likely going to be even more complex in 2023.

Questions are flying at business leaders faster than they can answer them.

  • How will we work this year and what will that work look like?
  • How will we manage in world of new employee expectations?
  • How will the best organizations do more, faster, better this year?
  • What has changed since last year? What are we already seeing and what should we expect to see next?

There are many new factors to consider when it comes to hiring, managing, and retaining employees. And that’s just to find people to do the work that needs to get done for the business to operate. Then, there’s the whole aspect of the work itself! Strategizing around the kind of work companies do and how they do it will determine which organizations succeed this year.

Topics: Leadership Hiring Recruiting HR Business Culture

How to Hire a Chief Revenue Officer

The role of the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is experiencing unprecedented demand right now. Resources on why a CRO is important are gaining traction, and CRO job postings are increasing. So, why are so many companies looking to hire a CRO for the first time?

Over the past last year, the B2B space has likely made about ten years' worth of digital adoption progress. CEOs are still trying to do it all themselves, but with advancement happening faster than ever before, they can no longer keep up, making CROs critical in a post-pandemic world.

No industry has been spared by the disruptive effect of this global pandemic. Some B2B organizations have been negatively affected by supply chain disruptions, stifled sales models, and shifting buying patterns. Others have seen exponential growth due to the emergence of new markets, shifted buying patterns, and grappled with scale-up operations. But businesses experiencing a boom are not in much better shape right now because they are also managing unprecedented revenue challenges.

The pandemic has not created a need for a CRO; it has accelerated the need.

Topics: Revenue Growth Leadership Strategy Strategic Revenue Growth CRO Chief Revenue Officer Hiring Revenue Generation Recruiting

Business Networking - How Do You Make Connections in a Virtual World?

A study on remote work from Xant summarizes its findings in saying,

“Sales teams are facing unique challenges – not only are they working from home, but their customers are too. They are adjusting to remote work, fighting distraction, and also facing an out of sight, out of mind mentality with their leads and potential customers.”

In fact, their research reveals that sales teams are reporting their top challenge right now as the “inability to communicate or connect with customers.”

But salespeople are not alone.

Remember, anyone meeting someone new right now is doing so virtually.

Everyone is in the same boat trying to navigate making virtual connections with new people both professionally and personally. And while some have felt natural, like messaging potential collaborators over social media, others have not, like going on a first date via video call.

Our current normal has changed how we connect with new people. For introverts, this shift has been a welcome change, whereas extroverts have typically found it harder to adapt. However, removing the in-person aspect of making a new connection does not change the reasoning behind connecting in the first place.

Ultimately, the methods to meet new people may have changed, but why we connect is still the same. New introductions require a genuine desire to offer something of value, listening, nurturing the connection, and following-up, whether the relationship is sales-related or not. The people that aim to engage, understand, and build trust will succeed whether they are connecting with other people online or offline.

Topics: Networking Hiring Customer Relationship Management Recruiting Referrals Business Development Professional Development Social Media Inbound Marketing Personal Development

Recruiting - How and Where to Find Your Next CRO

The purpose of the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is to drive organic revenue growth by leveraging each revenue-generating function and department within your organization.

This is a position that was born in the Silicon Valley SaaS sector, but it's no longer isolated to the tech space. More companies are finding value in adding the CRO position to their C-suite, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

Whether you're a company like Continental Airlines, which has had a CRO for nearly two decades, or a business that is just realizing the value of this position, it's a specialized role. Here is what a CRO can bring to the table and what you need to know to find your company's next CRO.

Topics: CRO Chief Revenue Officer Hiring HR

Resolving CFO and CRO Conflicts

Sitting through a tense meeting where finance and sales are positioned on opposite side of the table engaged in conflict is as iconic in corporate America as a row of cubicles. In fact, for all levels of managers and executives, serving time in battle during these situations for their respective teams is essentially a rite of passage.

In these all too common scenarios, both sides often emerge worse for the wear instead of uniting to drive business growth. The result is a corporate landscape where revenue potential remains unfulfilled and employee satisfaction suffers. Organizational stagnation and, ultimately, demise can quickly follow when conflict breeds.

To attain sustainable business profitability, the issue of clashing CFO and CRO perspectives needs to be addressed and the entire premise of assigning roles needs to be examined.

Topics: CRO Chief Revenue Officer Hiring HR Management Business Culture Collaboration

Distinguishing Between a Business Development Consultant and a Sales Person

While sales and business development are often used interchangeably, it would be an error for these two very different jobs to be characterized in exactly the same manner. Business Development may also be used as a mask when a sales person does not want to be viewed as a sales person. Some companies will make the sales people feel more important by giving them a special title for their new business cards.

Those who focus primarily on sales and those who work in business development have unique objectives and pathways for accomplishing those objectives. Both business development consultants and salespeople are integral to the growth of a business, but the two roles should complement one another rather than being considered as interchangeable.

Topics: Hiring Sales Training Business Development

How to Get Your Sales Team to Perform Beyond Expectations

To get a sales team to perform beyond expectations, we focus on these five essentials: 

  • Characteristics of a High Performing Sales Team
  • Hiring Best Practices – building the best team
  • Data Mining – providing the right data
  • CRM – the right tool for your organization
  • Training - the ongoing need

Topics: Sales B2B Hiring CRM Sales Training

Managing Remote Teams - Which type of boss does it best?

In the new world of technology where distance is not a factor for production, there is a trend for staff to work remotely. The remote workers can be outsourced from around the world via a crowdworking website such as Amazon's mechanical turk, a low cost solution such as fiverr.com, or a pool of freelancers like Outsource.com.  

Remote Worker:

“ A remote worker is someone who works outside of a traditional office. An employee might work from home, from a coffee shop, or from anywhere that is not a regular office; although depending on the type of job they do, they might find themselves going into an office on occasion (if the company’s hub is geographically close to them)."

Topics: Leadership Hiring Recruiting Management