Alejandro J Gutierrez’s site

Alejandro Gutierrez

Define Organization Level Goals that would tie to the project in the case (5 points), Describe the connection between the organization goals and the project outcomes – be very specific (15 points) Include sponsor and key stakeholders.

Show how the project will meet those goals – be very specific (10 Points)

The primary organization goals for this project with the  Loyola CIE is:

More [quality] applications for Baltipreneurs program, from both student population and students.

This is an easy metric that is related to several outcomes. First, more applications from the community implies that awareness has spread about the program in the Baltimore area community; more quality applications is indicative of the program being better understood, as well as an increased level of entrepreneurship and innovation in the city. Even if this is the cause and not the symptom, more quality businesses going through the program will improve Loyola’s reputation and relationship with the community, as well as contributing to the overall ecosystem in Baltimore. As far as relationship to competition (of which the relationship is moreso collaborative than competitive), it signals Loyola CIE securing its place among more longstanding innovation programs, like Betamore or ETC (which is ranked in top 10 in the nation as far as participant company success). This connects to the overarching goal of Loyola CIE, which is the fomentation of the Baltimore business ecosystem through innovation and entrepreneurship, especially with businesses with founders of color, to provide a positive impact to the community and economy at large. More quality student applications implies the same about the student body in an even more clear-cut manner; the presence of more applications displays a wider awareness and understanding of the Loyola CIE and its available resources, as well as the innovative spirit spreading among the student body. This directly impacts the second goal of the Loyola CIE, to involve students in entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives and connect them positively with the surrounding community. All this necessitates a steady change in Loyola’s reputation in the area, which has hitherto been more aloof and only involved in a community service capacity (as is the Jesuit way).
The sponsor helping along the way is Wendy Bolger, the Director of the CIE; key stakeholders involved and to be interviewed include Bill Romani (Entrepreneur in Residence, CIE partner) and the Deans (Getz and Smith, allies with the Baltipreneurs program). The clients and targets of change are the students and community, particularly the pending quality business founders.

More “downstream” effects:

-Happy mentors – a better quality program that is better prepared for COVID-19 and features higher quality businesses will raise the status of the program, allowing for more networking potential and perks offered for the mentors who are otherwise volunteering their time. Mentor satisfaction will be measured with surveys throughout the program using a Likert scale measuring various aspects of the program, focusing on utility.

-An effective remote program with more dedicated companies that can better navigate online technology and provide growth metrics/ be motivated to make their companies grow and successfully use provided resources.

-Better quality program means more success and higher reputation, which will hopefully lead to more funding donations. Last year $10K was donated, the goal for this year is a tentative $20K.

-Increased reputation in the Baltimore ecosystem means more credibility within Loyola University, meaning the program has to navigate a lower level of organizational politics and increases independence and autonomy.

-Increased reputation means more qualified professionals and academics seeking to get involved with the program and the steering committee, as well as increased external connections like fellowships and collaborations with other institutions. Loyola CIE and Baltipreneurs will be able to leverage experience from year to year to tell a story, show success, and reach more people via networking.

-More student involvement creates momentum within the student body to increase involvement and capacity for the students to have input on the continuing offerings and design of the program.

The Project will meet these goals by interviewing key stakeholders (the Deans involved) on the program, interviewing the participating businesses throughout the program as weeks go on, and interviewing/marketing to the student body to discover and meet needs. The KPI for applications is an increase to 80-100 applications, at least 30 from students, with at least 1/3 being of sufficient quality. This is the key stakeholder priority and leads to other successes in the secondary goals mentioned above. This increase in applications is the key internal metric; other resulting metrics to monitor once the program gets underway are the satisfaction of mentors and stakeholders in the program, the progress of the businesses, etc. The listed external metrics are more “soft” to measure, and are impacted by the internal ones (Jones & Rothwell, 2017, pp. 60-62).

The discrepancy between the current state is not enormous, as the increase in applications numerically only needs to rise by about 50% – the main issue, however, is the quality of the applications, and the quality of the business participation and capitalization on the program resources in a remote format (Jones & Rothwell, 2017, p. 64).

Using the tables in Jones & Rothwell, pp. 66-67:
Business Direction – Community impact, increase innovation and entrepreneurship.

Power Structure – Director Bolger is the main contact, with the Deans providing support, and the administrator (Vargas) helping with daily activities. Romani offers advice and counsel. All activities are beholden to the Provost, although she is fairly distant and more involved with University activities instead of the CIE

Who is involved – All must run through Wendy

Roadblocks – limited reach with COVID-19 forcing everything remote. University politics at a certain level, as the Provost can stop any activity at any time. Not a large amount of funding.

Benchmark expectations – previous applications were around 60, mostly unqualified. Student applications only had 2 of quality.

How things get done – All levels are empowered, organization is small. Mentality is one of testing and trial and error.

 

Jones, C.M., & Rothwell, W.J. (2017). Evaluating organization development: How to ensure and sustain the successful transformation. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press (Taylor & Francis Group). ISBN: 9781138196452.

Alejandro Gutierrez

WFED585 Summer 2020

 

What needs to be achieved through the OD intervention?

The Baltipreneurs program will have an increase in application quality and numbers.

What would the desired change state look like?

Via increase with numbers and quality of applications, as well as the requisite engagement with students and community necessary to achieve those higher numbers, the reputation and efficacy of the Baltipreneurs program will increase. Loyola CIE will have more doors opened to funding and community partnerships, as well as having more of an impact on the local business ecosystem.

What metric will be used to measure success for the desired change after the intervention?

We are shooting for 80-100 applications, with 20-25 being of students. We want at least 30% of the applications to be of sufficient quality. In the past, there were 60 applications, 20 of which were from students; however, few applications were of quality, and only 2 of the students submitted quality applications. A secondary, derivative goal is to increase funding donations from $10K in 2019 to $20K in 2020.

Who/which are the targets of change (e.g. people/group/units)? What level of change do we need? 

Loyola students and the local community members applying to the Baltipreneurs program are the targets of change. We need an individual level of change, working with the specific individual applicants to increase awareness of and understanding of the Baltipreneurs program and the Loyola CIE and its resources. Inspiring entrepreneurship and innovation is part of getting more and more quality applicants, as is streamlining the application support process, as is rolling out more and better tech usage due to COVID-19, as is increasing awareness among students and the community.

What are the specific evaluation expectations at each level?

The expectations are currently that students are aware of the Loyola CIE and Baltipreneurs, but are not aware of the resources available and have not used them, and many are not genuinely interested. The expectations of community members are that they are not aware of the Loyola CIE or Baltipreneurs unless they are in select startup-culture circles.

Are the evaluation expectations aligned with the aims and levels of the change intervention? 

Yes, the goals are to increase both the nominal awareness and also the use and interaction among the target groups.

Are you in agreement with each level of targets, with regard to evaluation goals and objectives?

Yes, the appropriate levels are accounted for and are the key difference-makers for the organization as a whole. All goals or additional positive results are “downstream”

1. How will you secure time for designing, data gathering, analyzing, and reporting the evaluation outcomes? Include who you will network with to get these resources?

I will arrange the time with Wendy Bolger, the director of the Loyola Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, who will provide all needed resources and contact methods for students and accelerator participants. Additionally, the Deans Getz and Smith will be available for help with the Baltipreneurs program.

1. How much time will each employee or groups of employees need to participate in the evaluation elements you have defined to date? What will they need to do in these events – what is their role? 
   Wendy Bolger (Director), Mauricio Vargas will contribute time as needed as much as they can throughout the week. Mauricio will help with execution, and Wendy will help with evaluation and feedback, as well as providing the resources and contacts needed to carry out evaluations and interviews.
2. What other departments will need to be included in order for your project (and the evaluation plan) to be successful? What is their role in approval/chain of command/resource allocation/general support etc?

The CIE will be included – Wendy as the main contact and a major contributor, and is the Director of the program. Bill Romani is an advisor; Mauricio Vargas is the program assistant that will help with execution of specific activities. Deans Smith and Getz will be able to help with interviews and with designing the Baltipreneurs program. Wendy is the highest chain of command, although she and the deans are all beholden to the provost, who is only distantly involved.

1. Will you need to purchase expertise – consultant or other help to complete the project AND should those additions be included in the evaluation plan – if so what would you evaluate (stick to the outcomes rather than evaluating the person who is performing the tasks).

We can do everything ourselves, and there is no budget to purchase expertise.

4. Is there a need to acquire any technology? Use current technology in a new way? Request technology help?

The program tried a program called Trusted Peer last year that did not work out very well, as it just created another application and program that people had to update and pay attention to (they didn’t do that). Wendy wants to try the academic software Moodle, which the Loyola IT department will help with, and roll it out in conjunction with requiring more deliverables and specific concrete assignments from the businesses involved in Baltipreneurs to gauge their learning and progress. Zoom will also be heavily implemented due to COVID-19 restrictions.

5. What are the opportunity costs for doing the project and not doing the project AND for planning and implementing an evaluation plan and for doing no evaluation? 

The opportunity is there to create a more effective, widely known program that reaches its own goals more effectively (aiding the Baltimore ecosystem, especially businesses with founders of color, and integrating the university into the community more) and that receives more prestige and funding. Not doing this project will miss the opportunity, and keep students and community members largely in the dark about the Loyola CIE and Baltipreneurs, on both its function and, to many, its very existence. An evaluation gives the opportunity to see where to focus efforts the best to reach the target audience and increase ROI, no evaluation can leave us spinning our wheels and focusing efforts on low-reward activities.

 

The good thing about the change effort in this case, a business incubator/accelerator, is that there are multiple weeks and each week will afford the opportunity to adjust for the next.

Reaction – We will monitor continually, administering surveys each week to get feedback on the new remote program and the software use, e.g. Zoom, Google Suite, webinars, etc. and adjust accordingly with each week’s programming.

Learning – We will ask participating businesses in the accelerator what they found valuable each week, what they’d like to see more of/ get more information on, and what they did not like about the week. Major takeaways will be recorded.

Behavior – We will monitor the business metrics / require activities and see if the businesses were able to enact the learning from the programming for each week, or utilize the contacts and resources provided. For example, if we have a course on pitching, we would want to see them provide a revised Investor Pitch Deck for the following week to see if what they learned was able to be applied.

Results – We will establish KPIs to be measured before and after the full accelerator programming, if applicable in each case. For example, perceived efficacy of the course to the business founders (measured via feedback and survey), # of social media followers, sales and margins, costs, entry into other programs, connections with mentors, etc.

 

 

If a project is worth doing? Consider these questions as you decide – or look back:

What is your goal? Primary goal is to increase quality applications to the Baltipreneurs program from students and from community members, but especially students.

Secondary goals include:

-Increased reputation in the community, within the institution among the faculty, and in the surrounding startup ecosystem with similar organizations etc.

– Increased student awareness and engagement

-Increased fundraising

-More successful Baltipreneurs accelerator

-Adjusting program with COVID-19 considerations

• What’s stopping you from reaching the goal?

The current student engagement is low, as the CIE is relatively new and figuring out best distribution channels (other than a sandwich board outside the office). The student body is not particularly of the mindset to engage, at their early age and career stage, in innovation and problem solving, and is not particularly representative of the demographic that the Baltipreneurs seeks to reach (people of color, more innovative and “scrappy entrepreneurial” set of people). Also, faculty support is largely neutral with some “wait and see” institutional politics involved. Baltipreneurs is only in its second year (about to have third iteration). COVID-19 has stolen a bit of the center stage with institutional considerations and energy, and is obviously reducing student interaction due to everything being remote. It presents logistical and human challenges as far as creating a quality program with the necessary engagement via a medium (virtual) that is not great for those aspects.

• How much change is needed to overcome the problem?

In the smaller scale to the primary goal, only a moderate amount of change is needed in approaching the marketing and involvement of the CIE in the community and in student’s lives. It is for sure a “snowball effect.” In the larger sense, the slow change of the student body will help with the slow rollout of developing institutional policies for student recruiting, and an institutional shift toward a more innovative teaching mindset (rather than the traditional memorize-and-regurgitate model) is essential to make the organization as a whole more innovative. This is a larger-scale change.

• Are you certain this will solve the problem?

One can never be certain, but I really do not see how it could not help to at least a moderate and significant degree.

Business Case

• Define the problem or opportunity – what were the objectives or outcomes

Success of the CIE, defined in the short-term as a more effective Baltipreneurs accelerator program. This is, in turn, defined as better quality and higher number of applicant businesses, with a focus on student businesses and local businesses with founders of color in particular, as well as a smooth transition to a remote program. This gives the opportunity for the larger short term goal, which is a more successful Baltipreneurs program.

• How does or did the project align with the strategic goals of the organization?Describe the benefits of this change project to the organization.

The organization is focused on increasing a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship among Loyola’s student body, as well as being present as a positive force in the community to the same end, particularly toward businesses with founders of color that represent communities that often lack equitable access to resources, capital, mentoring, and guidance. Increasing the efficacy of the Baltipreneurs program, as well as the CIE’s impact on, and awareness among, the student body is a key part of the puzzle in establishing the Loyola CIE in a position for maximum impact on innovation and entrepreneurship within the larger Loyola University organization and the DMV (DC Maryland Virginia) area at large.

• Who is the sponsor or in charge of this project?

Wendy Bolger, director of Loyola CIE.

• Are there resources defined for the project?

Loyola CIE has a 1.5 million dollar grant currently allocated to all operations. I have the time of Wendy and the other employees and stakeholders in the CIE. I will also be given access to student and Baltipreneur participant data and contact information as the program unfolds in September.

• Explore and list the potential risks in doing the change project?

Potential risks include:

-missing the mark on change and having a mediocre Baltipreneurs program in a year where it matters

-failing to adequately adjust for COVID-19 virtual considerations

-stepping on the toes of one of the faculty stakeholders within the University and creating bad blood

-wasting time resources

• What is the scope of the project? Are there any concerns that the scope will expand (or scope creep) and how will you address it?

While the related ultimate goals are much larger in scope, the scope of the project is limited to the upcoming academic year (as far as students involved in the CIE) and the upcoming Baltipreneurs accelerator cohort (October). Any scope creep will be assessed in terms of that scope, and limited to that particular focus. I am a mentor for the accelerator outside of this class, so any scope creep will probably be pushed to that capacity (which will not start until this class is over), or end up with a polite refusal on grounds of not wanting to leave the defined scope.

• What associated costs are included in implementing this change project?

Will have to use minimal CIE resources to perform marketing and surveys. Most of the costs are going to be in the mode of time offered by stakeholders.

• What is the timescale or timeline for the project (as it happened or will happen)?

Timeline is to assess and centralize data and goals, with stakeholders on the same page, by August, then performing the marketing and data-driven actions through September to prepare best for the October accelerator program. Students will be engaged in September once their semester begins. The project will end after the 2020 Baltipreneur program ends and post-cohort data is gathered.

• What are the key performance indicators that will be monitored during the project?

KPIs include – increase in total applications from 60 to around 80 or 90, with at least a third being of sufficient quality. Student applications numbered 20, with only 2 being of quality – we want to increase that to 25 applications from students but with the major change being the commensurate quality increase (a third at least). Fundraising is expected to increase from 10K USD to 20K USD.

• What was or will be the impact on operations, human resources, quality, employees?

Loyola CIE will increase reputation and connections with local businesses and other Entrepreneurship and Innovation organizations, as well as with innovation programs at other universities. Employees will be more engaged, and other Loyola faculty will buy in more to an innovation mindset that is going to be necessary as the University itself rebounds from COVID-19 losses and faces changed value proposition for future students as programs transition to remote or partially virtual. Operations as far as student involvement will be more focused and integrated.

• What is or was the organizational capability to deliver the project outcomes?

Loyola CIE has sufficient resources and access to provide all needed data and contact points to achieve current scope of outcomes. While there are only 3 direct members of the CIE, there is additional support from institutional stakeholders, and ability to tap into some of the resources of the larger Loyola University institution (the CIE is autonomous but part of the institution).

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The Baltipreneurs accelerator needs a higher amount of applications, and a higher quality of applications, from businesses in the DMV area (DC, Maryland, Virginia), particularly from Baltimore. Due to COVID-19, it also needs to transition to a fully remote program, whereas before it met once a week at the Loyola University library. The organization’s strategic goals are the fomentation of entrepreneurship and business success in the DMV, and increased awareness and participation from students and the local community. The sponsor is Wendy Bolger, the Director of the Loyola Center for Innovation and Entrepeneurship. Higher quality of participating businesses and higher awareness will result in more funding and community impact for the Loyola CIE via its accelerator program.

The resources for the program must come out of the 1.5 million dollar budget for the Loyola CIE.

Risks

• decreased involvement due to remote state of program
• decreased student involvement due to summer time and COVID
• inability to digitize program successfully
• loss of stakeholder involvement

The scope of the project is limited by the autonomy of the CIE within the larger Loyola organization and the limiting to the Baltipreneurs accelerator. Costs of implementing the change are unknown as of yet, but will most likely be minimal and utilize existing resources (student contacts, community outreach, volunteers, etc.)

The timeline is to get this all established by the end of the summer (August).

KPIs include the increase in # of appplications and more applications from the students and local community. It will also be measured in % attendance for the sessions.
Impact includes greater awareness for the program and the Loyola CIE as a whole, as well as higher credibility in the community and among the greater Loyola organization. Funding will follow. As part of the greater cultural narrative of the times, the Baltipreneurs accelerator can be instrumental in building wealth and jobs among communities of people of color and low socioeconomic status, and providing resources to enable women and other underrepresented groups to found and grow successful businesses. This seems a worthy cause to work towards, and the increased success of the Baltipreneurs accelerator will directly impact those ends, as it directly impacts the local business ecosystem.

 

Backgound

Mission and Vision

The subject of this Case Study is The Loyola University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, an autonomous organization of Loyola University founded in June 2018. The Loyola CIE seeks to foment and inspire entrepreneurship at Loyola University, as well as in the Baltimore community. The CIE has a particular focus on providing support, resources, and education to entrepreneurs who are female and/or people of color, as these groups typically lack access to the same resources and support as their white/male counterparts in the Baltimore area. Nobody, however, is excluded from the program or the vision for the program.   The Director of the CIE is Wendy Bolger, with whom I was able to speak on June 5, 2020. Wendy was able to share background information about the Loyola CIE, as well as its vision, focus, and progress so far; she also explained the challenges they have faced and are facing. Wendy is seeking to increase student awareness of and involvement in the CIE, as well as enhance its awareness and impact in the Baltimore community. She also needs to transform much of the center’s operations to be based on remote technology due to the present COVID-19 crisis and the closure of the physical university and offices. The Loyola CIE features an accelerator program called the Baltipreneurs, for which I was a business mentor in the winter; she is also seeking help with this program in the future, increasing breadth, quality, and quantity of applications among students and community for the fall 2020 cohort. Especially given recent events in our nation, I am very excited to be a part of these initiatives.

Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, the Loyola CIE spans the educational and small business sectors, helping to foster entrepreneurs from the early stages of business development to being a successful business in the DMV (D.C. Maryland Virginia) ecosystem.

Loyola CIE team is made up of 3 employees, led by Director Wendy Bolger, and is quite lean, although there are numerous consultants, mentors, and stakeholders involved in a broader capacity.

Annual revenue would be more in the form of budget in this case, and is $1.5 million.

The organization is quite new, so experience with change is not of much length of time, but there has been much change in just 2 years. All the program initiatives and activities are relatively new. Physically, they have switched offices multiple times due to holds on construction of a new building. Perhaps most impactful, COVID-19 has completely changed the nature and face of the workday for the organization and is going to completely change the Baltipreneurs accelerator in the Fall.

The culture is experimental, open, innovative, inclusive, collaborative, and “fun.”

I want to focus on The Loyola CIE’s Baltipreneur’s accelerator for this assignment series. The change effort involves not only adapting to the successes and failures of the first cohort, but the second cohort and program will need to be completely remote due to COVID-19. The program will involve the three CIE employees, as well as 10 local businesses and their members. The accelerator will span 8 sessions across 3 months. This is not a training event; the organization needs to change its pervasive identity with use of technology for digitalization and remote access according to standards dictated by COVID-19 regulations, and contribute fully to the businesses involved to empower the founders to take advantage of resources, capital, and guidance provided.. Amidst this change to digital format as opposed to in-person, we are seeking to increase the number and quality of business applications to the program.

 

 

Hi! My name is Alejandro Gutierrez from Harrisburg, PA. I attended Loyola University for my undergraduate degree in Psychology (minor in Asian studies) and have since lived in Thailand, North Carolina, Baltimore, and Santiago, Chile (3.5 years). I have been a part of multiple startups and accelerator programs, and I love businesses that are doing unique and interesting things in new ways. I have a passion for fixing real-life problems with data and other tweaks. Recent favorite reads include Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek, which confirmed that I am very interested in the transformational process of modern business to be a healthier and more productive environment for the modern worker. I love soccer, snowboarding, working out, yoga, eating healthy, traveling, reading, and beers with friends.

One that comes to mind is that at my previous job, a staffing company, management created a situation that stomped all innovation or good ideas, and was even inconsistent with the rest of the culture and policies of the company. We had one client that was absolutely terrible and flaunted all of the rules of how we ran things; unfortunately, this client was also the highest volume (i.e. they ordered the most employees weekly) and so a disproportionately large percentage of income for the company. The margins were low on this account and it was entirely volume-based; it was a miserable company to work for, so we had to staff 10 times to fill one position for more than a couple weeks due to turnover; the management at that client was petulant, rude, and borderline abusive to the employees; and, most damaging perhaps, it took complete priority and kept other accounts from growing or being serviced adequately because they threatened to leave as clients all the time, and gave absurd timeframes so they became an urgent priority multiple times a week regardless of what was going on elsewhere.
I guess to avoid this, a company would have to be more selective about identity and whom they want to work with, and diversify clients a bit more so you can “fire” the bad ones like this.

Another example was not creating a culture of discipline and results; my first time in a management role in a small marketing company I founded involved having various interns and employees to help work on our clients’ accounts. Unfortunately, I was very lax and almost had the feeling that I owed the employees and interns something, like I was constantly convincing them to stay or something; some were internally driven which was fantastic, but I think, with many, they got very little out of the experience and we certainly got very little quality work from them.
Expectations needed to be set better, and I can’t have the perspective that they are doing me a favor by doing what they are supposed to be doing.

I feel that as far as selling, it’s one of those things that most people may know what to do but continuing to do it on a consistent basis may feel akin to banging one’s head against a wall. What this course has done for me in this sense has reassured what I knew about sales (it helps for the motivation if you feel confident in your methods), reinforced that the setup and whatnot is important but at the end of the day you just have to sell, and made me feel comfortable that my sales style – more authentic conversations and relationships that isn’t just the “shotgun” approach of selling incessantly to a ton of people until I get a sale – can work with the proper plan end execution. I want to continue to develop the skill of having those productive business relationships that don’t feel forced or fake.

Some of the big takeaways for me in this course was the closing with a quality proposal stage; I felt that in the past, I had sort of bumbled into closing sales, also frequently building the relationship to the proper level but not being aware or confident with proceeding forward to actually getting the contract inked. I’ve learned also that with my background I have an above-average sense and creativity with Marketing (most folks studying OD are not coming from this background) and I’m looking forward to using that. The Marketing in Action and Article Critique groups were something I had been dreading to a certain extent, but they’ve proven to be my favorite parts of the course and quite enjoyable!

 

 

• Paragraph 1: Have you ever been in a situation where you approached someone new and they rejected or ignored you? How did that experience impact you? Did you give up or push forward in order to overcome the initial reaction?
• Paragraph 2: What has this experience taught you about being persistent that you can leverage in your future as an OD professional? What has this class taught you that could have helped you handle the original situation more positively?

Part 1:

I have participated in a franchise trade show, so I think it goes without saying that I was on the business end of many, many rejections, some of which were by folks who had long given up on being polite that day. I did not give up and continued pushing, mostly because my bosses were present and very, very intensely of the opinion that one must be aggressive and volume is key. To be fair, there was some data backing this up that they were privy to – i.e. they knew the approximate numbers for a “funnel” to convert into a sale for what they were selling: a franchise. However, this is a pretty blunt instrument of measurement, and the “funnel” mentality is arguably not very accurate these days (or was ever) and makes a few key assumptions, one of which being that you need QUALIFIED leads not just leads. Long story short, I persevered with everyone who would talk to me, because we had to reach a number to be allowed to go home. Probably not the best. We got a few quality leads I think, but in general I don’t think any sales were made from the 3 days of leads from the trade show. However, they did something right (maybe changed methods?) because, although I left the company for something else, I hear they actually did close some sales a few months later in different locations.
This experience, and talking with one of the bosses who felt that the volume method was probably not best, solidified my opinion that a more targeted, authentic approach is probably better. Granted, just being at a trade show qualifies the lead somewhat, but it heavily depends on industry etc. “Pushing through” usually just resulted in someone giving you contact info to leave them alone.

Part 2:

I learned that it’s important to have a good process, and do it until it works (to a certain extent). It appears the bosses knew what they were doing, as they have been successful since – it probably just needed some refining and perhaps a different approach to whom they were selling to. It’s not always fun, either. I did sales with them (staffing company) that were not franchise related also, and I hated to admit it, but a lot of it was just volume. People kind of needed what you were selling, or they didn’t, and you couldn’t become disheartened because they might need what you were selling, just 6 months later than you had originally reached out. There is a lot going on with other companies, and catering to vendors and sales is frequently not their priority, even in the most functional of companies (and many are not very functional in certain aspects). For larger accounts, the relationships were absolutely key. You had to target a certain decision maker and work on it for months, hoping they stayed with their current company long enough to buy your services. In that sense, persistence is key.
One of the bosses was incredibly pushy and just fish-in-a-barrel when it came to sales; I hated that style, but he actually succeeded just through sheer force of will many times. That is definitely something I could have integrated to this original experience, including the aforementioned lessons – sometimes it isn’t glamorous or doesn’t feel particularly smart or innovative, but you just have to sell consistently over, and over again until you figure out what works or get lucky with the right target. Sometimes. SOMETIMES. At the very least, use the “no” as a learning experience and figure out your best chances for a yes.

Content marketing is absolutely and unequivocally worth it – however, it must be done right! Done incorrectly and inconsistently, with no plan, it just adds to the noise and dilutes/befuddles an organization’s core identity and message. In that sense, it is both the way of the future and the death of us – because there is so much trash content out there, it can certainly feel like a death. I am also concerned about the enormous invasions of privacy currently going on with large corporations and all their tech and apps and services constantly mining and selling our data. While that sounds pretty tinfoil-hattish, any research into the actual issue is quite alarming. I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of having a conversation with someone and mentioning something, only to have that thing, or something related, show up in an ad 15 minutes later. That’s only the beginning.
As far as how this influences me, I am going to absolutely partake in content marketing, but I want to do it well; I think it should be minimal, useful, well-crafted, and reach the correct people who actually give a damn about what you’re saying. If I’m saying nothing new, and saying nothing useful, and saying it to the wrong people – what’s the point? It’s false productivity.