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David Mills

David Mills

David is one of the founders of Story Collaborative and serves as the Chief Growth Officer. He is passionate about finding the right strategy for each client and helping them move into sustainable growth. He is a veteran of organizational development and communications and has worked with thousands of businesses and nonprofits across the country.

More from David Mills

David Mills
By David Mills
on February 25, 2022

How sales enablement can support hybrid sales.

In 2021, almost one-third of outside salespeople transitioned to inside sales - permanently. But as the pandemic restrictions ease, a new kind of sales is emerging. It's the hybrid sales model in which sales teams use the best of virtual and in-person skills to become more efficient and meet new customer expectations of speed and convenience.

The missing ingredient? Sales enablement fueled by Sales and Marketing Alignment - a big part of which is driven by shifting priorities in the marketing focus.

David Mills
By David Mills
on February 24, 2022

 

Get the benefits of sales and marketing alignment without surprise costs

Alignment is a critical part of building revenue, that's why sales and marketing leaders, along with CFOs and RevOps teams, include an alignment system in their plan. While the benefits are appealing (reports of 30% revenue growth are pretty common following an effective alignment), they simply have to outweigh the costs, so you've got to nail them both down.

The bigger question should focus on whether the effort is really worth the cost.

David Mills
By David Mills
on February 07, 2022

The questions your website answers shows the status of your sales and marketing alignment

Your prospects have questions that either move them forward toward a "yes", or hold them back. Some of those questions are posed directly to sales, but others lie under the surface or are only shared inside the buying committee. The way you address those questions tells the whole story about the status of your marketing and sales alignment - are you still living in a world of isolated silos or is the team working together for growth?

David Mills
By David Mills
on February 07, 2022

How do you know if poor marketing and sales alignment is the root of slower sales, weaker revenues, and missed growth goals?

It's easy to place blame on sales or marketing teams when things don't go as planned. But more often than not, it's not a personality or performance problem- it's the lack of alignment.

David Mills
By David Mills
on February 07, 2022

A disconnect with sales leads to marketing failures

Marketing and advertising have changed. Ads are blocked, Google is removing third-party cookies, and iOS is restricting email. But those aren't the biggest challenges faced by marketing, because they need something that only the sales team can provide: a real understanding of customer problems.

David Mills
By David Mills
on February 07, 2022

Lip service marketing and sales alignment can lead to reduced growth

They do make strange companions. One is seasoned by thousands of customer conversations, while the other is focused on the latest digital communication tools. Alignment pairs the marketer who is just now mastering the details of the product or service, and the salesperson who knows every way to slice the product and solve a long list of customer challenges. The idea that they need to be aligned in the same workplace when they have different goals, different levels of experience, a language unique to each group, and even distinct pipelines can raise some eyebrows or lead to lip-service alignment.

David Mills
By David Mills
on January 25, 2022

 

The honeymoon period is an important initial period for new growth managers, marketing directors, chief marketing officers, RevOps leaders, and nonprofit executive directors, along with all the others who step into a new role to lead growth for their organizations. It’s an important first phase of work, because team members are more forgiving, expect that you’ll need to be brought up to speed, and no milestones have yet come due. It’s a time in which you can understand the context and the challenges that you now own.

David Mills
By David Mills
on January 19, 2022

Achieving a growth pathway takes momentum that can overcome the odds. 

Like hungry soldiers at Valley Forge, they are all tugging on our attention -more than 8,000 different marketing software systems, plus a small army of one-person bands that decided one day to keep working from home and use some of that software. Is that the army that you need?

David Mills
By David Mills
on January 14, 2022

The rapid pace of change since 2020 has thrust many leaders into the role of growth leader for their organization.  For some it is recovery, and for others it is a response to big new opportunities. Growth leaders can be found in almost every industry and with a variety of job titles. Some have a growth title like "growth manager, while others are working in RevOps. Most don't have a special title at all because they've added the growth leader job to their existing position. Whether they are an owner, a partner, a C-suite leader, or a department head, a growth leader's job has a single central characteristic: their desk is where the buck stops for company growth.