This CEO’s Leadership Worth $250 Million. Simplus CMO Shares Why.
Ryan Westwood is a man on a mission to spread leadership principles to his team, his one page business plan is one of the keys to his success. Simplus founded by Ryan, is a successful Salesforce technology partner which was just sold to Indian mega company InfoSys for $250 million.
Amy Osmond Cook, CMO of Simplus shared with me the “inside” story of how this deal came to be – it’s all about leadership and focus.
You’re company might be trying to get to $500,000 or $3 million in sales, the principles Ryan uses can still work.
[Listen to our discussion below on via your favorite podcast player – iTunes or Stitcher]Simplus was founded in 2014 in Utah. It went from zero sales to being sold for $250 million in a just a few very short years.
Sure, there’s the market conditions and finding the right partner but in large part it’s also having the right team, processes and leadership in place.
Focus
Simplus had been selling and integrating three technologies for its clients. In a bold move, Ryan narrowed down their offerings to one – Salesforce. He focused.
It could be “scary” to cut out a big portion of revenue. But by saying NO to one opportunity this opened the opportunity for Simplus to focus more on Salesforce integrations. Of course Salesforce is a powerful partner whose own ecosystem is growing.
In hindsight, a perfect mix of focus and a strong partnership.
Out of 1,400 partners, Simplus is one of the top 10.
Business plan
One of the core principles of Simplus is V2MOM!
- Vision
- Values
- Methods
- Obstacles
- Metrics
This is a one page business plan for the entire company, that evolves. Each unit then creates their own business plan for their unit. What does this do? It ensures that every leader has their own road map of success but all aligned to the company vision.
Marc Benioff uses this method with Salesforce.
(If you’re looking for help with leadership in your company definitely check out Entre Leadership.)
I also had the chance to speak with Amy about marketing and publicity and more.
Go Niche
Amy said it’s important to zero in on one thing. Your work should be what you love so it doesn’t even feel like work.
While Amy and I both like the principles in the book, “The 4 Hour Work Week“, we both agreed it’s a myth for any successful business owner who is active in growing their business to just work four hours a week.
Instead of being focused on the money first, have an abundance mindset. Seek to contribute to the world around you, your community, your team, your customers.
Educate First
Educational materials work better than hard sell. Learn more about content marketing at StartwithContent.com
First understand your audience pain points and think how you can solve their problem. Marcus Sheridan‘s book, They Ask, You Answer, is all about this.
Amy’s a publicity expert and share with me a few quick tips in HOW you can get publicity and get the media to cover your business.
- Have a story worth talking about (not just that you’ve opened up your business)
- Pitch to a specific targeted lists of interested media
- Reach out individually, not in a bcc’d email blast
- Don’t just send a press release and expect people to pick it up
- Ask yourself, why would someone care about this item you’re pitching
- Journalists are people too. They’re human.
- Amplify what media you do get. Share it on LinkedIn, via email and more.
Failure
Failure is something that many business owners have to deal with and I was curious how Amy deals with it?
She encourage us to fail quickly and move on. However to mitigate failure, don’t leave failure to chance.