The Definitive Business Growth Guide

 The Definitive Growth Guide  The Growth, Marketing & Sales Strategies,  Tactics & Tools Used U sed by World Class Organizations

Compiled by

Michael Haupt

 V0.96 Draft December 2015 Check for latest version here here..

FAQ's Feedback & Corrections  Additional Services Serv ices

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Special Thanks and Acknowledgements  Any reference material material worth using using is a collaborative effort, effort, this one more than most. most.  The list of contributors contributors to this this guide is a long one, but the names listed below stand out from all the rest. Special thanks go to each of these companies and individuals who have consistently (many over a period of 10 years or more) produced content that informs, educates, inspires and delights. Long may it continue.  Jay Abraham Drayton Bird Buffer Content Marketing Institute Convince and Convert  Jeffrey Gitomer Gitomer Michael Hyatt Dan Kennedy Leadpages Clayton Makepeace Marketo Ken McCarthy  Tom Peters Sandler Training Euan Semple Brian Tracy  Wordstream

Auth0 Chris Brogan Andrew Chen Conversion Rate Experts Duct Tape Marketing Seth Godin Avinash Kaushik Kraig Kleeman Jay Conrad Levinson Marketing Donut Perry Marshall Optimizely PwC Rich Schefren Smart Bear Wishpond

 Table of Contents Con tents How to Use This Guide ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................ ............. 5 Part 1 – Strategies & Tactics .................................................... ......................................................................................................... .....................................................7  Advanced................................................... .............................................................................................................. .................................................................................. ....................... 7 Intermediary........................................................ .................................................................................................................. ...................................................................... ............10 Basic ................................................. ............................................................................................................ .......................................................................................... ...............................17 Part 2 – 90-Day Marketing Plan ........................................................ ................................................................................................. .........................................21 Part 3 – Marketing Legends Hall of Fame................................................. ................................................................................ ...............................23 Part 4 – Noteworthy Blogs ......................................................................................................... .........................................................................................................28 Growth Hacking Blogs ........................................................ ........................................................................................................... ...................................................28 Marketing Blogs ................................................. ........................................................................................................... ...................................................................... ............29 Sales Blogs ..................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................. ............ 36  Appendix – Tools Tools ................................................... ............................................................................................................. ...................................................................... ............38

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How to Use This Guide  Welcome fellow fellow marketers, sales sales professionals, professionals, founders founders and dreamers! dreamers!

 This guide was originally originally compiled for my own purposes, purposes, because I was sick and tired tired of the noise about social media for business whenever I searched for marketing and sales best practices online. The reality is that even the self-proclaimed guru’s are starting to admit that after a 5-year investment in social media for sales, the ROI is dismal. So, I  wanted to cut through through the noise noise and create a collection collection of strategies, tactics tactics and tools used (and proven) by world-class organizations. Over a period of more than 20 years I've gathered together these gems – I hope you find them helpful. If you prefer a spreadsheet format (which allows you to sort and filter to your specific requirements), please download from Brain Dumps. Dumps. As with this guide, you won’t even require an email address to download the Excel spreadsheet. Business growth strategy is a vastly complex topic because of all the variables involved: the team, the product, the market, the economy, the buyer’s mindset and thousands of other nuances. Naturally I know nothing about your specific s pecific circumstances, which is why I intentionally designed the guide as being like an onion. One of the layers will have just the right solution for your specific situation, some of the layers might be less useful and yet other layers will be completely irrelevant to you.  The challenge was finding finding a way of quickly quickly getting to the layer that’s just right right for you, and I think we’ve succeeded. You can quickly scan through summaries of the growth strategies relevant to the current level of your business – that should take no more than ten minutes. One of the strategies will pique your interest, at which point you’ll click the link. This will take you to a blog post that explains the strategy in more detail, and then importantly provides further links to current best practices and case studies.  This approach provides provides two benefits benefits to you: you can quickly drill down to the level of detail you need and I can ensure that best practices and case studies always stay updated and relevant, because we don’t need to revise the book edition. Despite the onion approach, the guide can still become overwhelming, particularly if you’re new to business growth strategies. strategies. This is why I offer a complimentary consulting consulting session, during which I can quickly guide you to the most important areas to focus on for your business. You can find details here: Services Services.. Here's what you can expect in each section of the guide.

Part 1 – Strategies & Tactics  The first important important step is to identify identify what (high level) stage your business business is at: Startup, Established, or Leader. This is not an exact science, so a quick definition might be: Startup : Pre-revenue, a founding team in place, product is achieving some traction, all business activities operate under significant budget constraints. The Basic Strategies section on page 17 would be most applicable. Established: In business for 5 plus years, revenue is strong, marketing and sales processes in place, sufficient customers and you satisfy them sufficiently to keep them. The Intermediary Strategies  section  section on page 10 would be most applicable. •

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Leader : One of the dominant players in the industry, has the advantages of size, financial resources, and managerial managerial talent, wishes to grow even further. further. The  section on page 7 would be most applicable.  Advanced Strategies  Strategies  section

Part 2 – 90-Day Marketing Plan Senior Marketing hires are expected to hit the ground running and create key wins in their first few months on the job. Use this high level plan to prioritize your activities during this crucial time: page 21.

Part 3 – Marketing Legends Hall of Fame I’ve studied marketing for over over 20 years, by going directly to the marketing marketing greats. This list represents my mentors. Follow them if you want to be an exceptional marketer or sales professional. There are plenty of self-proclaimed "guru's" who aren't on this list generally they're part of the online cacophony and can be safely ignored: page 23.

 Appendix – Tools  There's a ton of junk out there, so how do you know know which tool is worth worth considering considering (and how do you even know what tools are available)? This collection represents those that have impressed me. For a tool to make it onto this list, they usually need to have closed at least a seed-funding round. If they're able to do so it means they've made it through the first round of investor scrutiny. That's no guarantee of success, but it's better than having no inclusion criteria at all. You can find the tools on page 28.

More Questions? http://michaelhaupt.com/faq/

Feedback? I intend to keep both the Growth Guide and Toolkit as up to date as possible and there’s no way this can happen without your help. If you have any corrections, suggestions or additions please leave a comment here: http://michaelhaupt.com/feedback/

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Part 1 – Strategies & Tactics  Advanced  The following strategies strategies and tactics are usually usually only considered by by companies who are are leaders in their industry, have well-defined marketing and sales processes in place and now want to consider additional growth strategies. On a scale of implementation complexity from 0 to 10, these strategies are typically 7-10. If you need slightly simpler and quicker wins, skip ahead to Intermediary Strategies  on  on page 10. !"#$%#

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