“Business leaders need to truly value and EMPOWER their staff.”
Michael Haynes is an SME Business Growth Specialist. He is the founder of his consulting firm, Listen Innovate Grow.
His focus and passion are empowering CEOs of Small and Medium-sized service-based companies to acquire larger business (B2B) clients and achieve the growth they seek through a combination of strategic marketing, BUSINESS innovation and sales.
Michael has over 25 years’ experience working with companies across a range of industries including Professional Services, Financial Services, IT, Telecommunications, and Transportation. Michael is based in Sydney Australia and works with companies globally.
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Michael Haynes: My name is Michael Haynes. I am an SME Business Growth Specialist. I am the Founder and Director of my consulting company, Listen Innovate Grow.
My focus and passion are empowering the CEOs and leadership teams of service-based Small and Medium Companies to acquire and retain business clients to achieve the growth and impact they seek using a combination of Strategic Marketing, Business Innovation, and B2B Sales. I am based in Sydney Australia and work with clients globally.
When I am not working some of my interests and passion include cooking, watching athletics (I am a MASSIVE fan!), and travelling (yes I am very eager to getting back planes for those long haul flights to connect with friends, family, colleagues as well as engage in new experiences in new places!)
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Michael Haynes: For companies selling products, services and solutions to other businesses that is operating in a Business-to-Business (B2B) context, it is critical that you are taking a BUYER-driven approach. The world of B2B has been changing over the past couple of years (and has been further exacerbated by the pandemic). For each of your clients and prospects, it is critical that your company has a current and in-depth understanding of :
- Who the buyers (ie. both the decision-makers and those influencing the decision..akas “The Buying Group”)
- What are their priorities
- How do they buy?
Gaining insights into these questions can be attained through “Listening” to B2B buyers using a variety of methods. (And I don’t mean by using surveys either!!) Some effective methods to engage buyers include workshops, customer advisory boards, establishing B2B peer to peer groups/online communities.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Michael Haynes: B2B buyers/decision-makers have been bombarded with lots of content particularly online over the past couple of years.
B2B buyers seek “A-I-R” …Advice, Insights, and Recommendations in order to help them with the following 4 challenges:
- Identifying new growth opportunities
- Solutions to problems
- Developing the “roadmap” to meeting their priorities and objectives
- Gaining access to peers, partners and/or experts that can help them achieve their objectives
Therefore companies should focus their Marketing and Sales efforts to making sense of all of the noise(i.e. the vast amount of content and points of view) and provide their clients and prospects with the “A-I-R” to help them “connect the dots” and address the 4 challenges mentioned.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Michael Haynes: I know operate almost 100% virtually…everything from initial client discussions through to conducting strategy workshops and presentations.
I am also engaging in a lot more collaboration and co-creation with both other professional service providers to both create buyer-driven content aimed at providing “A-I-R” via roundtables and workshops as well as to provide complementary services.
Collaboration and co-creation with other product and service providers as well as your clients are two strategies all Small and Medium companies should give strong consideration to.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Michael Haynes: Be very careful about what online marketing approaches you adopt for your business. Depending on who your target audience (and in B2B we must think about the Buying Group) some approaches may be less than optimal. For instance, Google Ads may not be suitable for some highly complex solutions.
Be visible where your buyers seek for information. For those of us in B2B, we should be also thinking about the relevant industry and professional associations, online communities including Peer Advisory groups and Mastermind groups.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Michael Haynes: 2022 will continue to see a lot of online and hybrid activity in the form of roundtables, conferences/summits and B2B communities.
There is a very strong desire for business owners and leaders to engage and connect with their peers and experts to share experiences, gain insights, advice, and support to help them navigate in what still are somewhat volatile and uncertain times…so this will be highly sought after through both online and in-person.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Michael Haynes: 8 Hours.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Michael Haynes: Wherever possible I do try to convey stories during meetings, workshops, and presentations to help “bring to life” and “make real” the concepts I am trying to convey. When talking to clients I will often use stories to help convey how other clients have worked through a challenge or objective to achieve the impact they desired.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Michael Haynes: From speaking with SME leaders, a big challenge appears to be how to identify growth opportunities and the ones they should focus on.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Michael Haynes: I am always trying to learn to broaden my skills and knowledge so I can better serve my clients.
My key areas of interest include Business Innovation (i.e understanding new ways of making new introductions and/or improvements to drive company performance) and B2B Customer Insight and Engagement (i.e how to both better understand and also engage with business customers).
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Michael Haynes: Business leaders need to truly value and EMPOWER their staff. Employees want to have the opportunities to improve their skills and knowledge ..through undertaking courses but more importantly, being able to put those skills and knowledge into business initiatives that will be executed and they are to witness some real outcomes as opposed to their work just ending up in some PowerPoint “deck” that gets presented once and then gets shelved.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Michael Haynes: I have been told that my business superpower is the ability to take disparate sources of industry, market, and customer insights and provide the “So What? What Does It Mean for the Business? I want to continue to hone and expand this skill set based on the latest and emerging approaches available.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Michael Haynes: Success in 2022 means making significant improvements/in-roads both with my own skill development as well as helping my clients make some big leaps (i.e. progress) within their businesses. On a personal level, it also means ensuring that I give attention and focus to friends and loved ones closest to me.
This interview was originally published on ValiantCEO.
