Scale: An OX7 Partners podcast

Dave Heywood
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Ten minutes a week on growth, and everything that gets in the way. A weekly podcast for people building and growing B2B businesses. Dave Heywood examines the decisions, assumptions and awkward realities behind growth, from marketing and sales to technology, investment, cash and the systems that hold it all together. Practical thinking, real examples and something useful to take back into your business.

  1. 2d ago

    Can you afford to keep winning?

    Winning more work should be good news. But when the costs of delivering it start racking up long before the cash arrives, a string of perfectly good deals can put a growing business under some pretty serious pressure. Dave Heywood looks at: Why individually good deals can collectively create a cash problem, and why agreed payment terms can mean you’re financing your customersWhy closed-won isn’t really the finish line, and what happens when sales, delivery and finance aren’t looking at the same pictureHow to look at the next 90 days of your pipeline and work out whether you can actually afford to win it all

    Can you afford to keep winning?

  2. Oct 1

    Is AI earning its keep yet?

    AI can make us faster. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s making the business more productive. Rework, checking and correction can eat into the gains, while every new model release seems to start the hype cycle all over again. Dave Heywood looks at: Why speed isn’t the same thing as productivity, and how to work out whether AI is actually improving the outcome What happens to the capacity AI creates, and why your business strategy should come before your AI strategy Where competitive advantage comes from when you and your competitors have access to broadly the same technology

    Is AI earning its keep yet?

  3. Sep 24

    How spending less, can cost you more

    Getting a product or services launched doesn’t mean you’ve invested enough to make it work. Temporary fixes become permanent, buying becomes harder than it should be, and sales and marketing are left trying to make up the difference. Dave Heywood looks at: How underestimating what an idea needs can undermine the money you’ve already invested Why the customer journey matters when deciding what to build, fund and maintain How to give an opportunity a proper chance, decide what you’re prepared to lose and know when to stop

    How spending less, can cost you more

  4. Sep 17

    Who are you really selling to?

    We’ve got more information about buyers than ever. But that doesn’t mean we can see everyone influencing the decision. And the pursuit of ever tighter targeting risks overlooking the wider network surrounding the people you’re trying to reach. Dave Heywood looks at: Why the buying group doesn’t tell you the whole story How people outside your target accounts can influence the deals you win and lose Why tighter targeting can come at the expense of the wider halo around your market How to map what you can, target what you know and amplify into the networks that influence them

    Who are you really selling to?

  5. Sep 10

    “We need to cut costs.” What are they actually telling you?

    When a customer tells you they need to cut costs, it’s easy to hear one thing: we need you to be cheaper. But price is only one reason why a customer might be questioning what they spend with you. They might genuinely have less money. They might not see enough value. Something else might have become more important. Or they might simply lack confidence that you can deliver what you’re promising. And each of those demands a very different response. In this episode, Dave Heywood looks at: Why cost pressure doesn’t automatically mean price pressure How discounting and over-servicing can transfer your customer’s cost problem onto your own business Why making the future value of an investment easier to see can help customers build and defend the case internally How to make your offer more affordable without simply giving your margin away

  6. Sep 3

    Are generational stereotypes failing us?

    We group millions of people together based on when they were born, assign them a set of characteristics, and call it segmentation. But how much does knowing someone’s generation really tell us about what they value, how they behave or why they buy? And even where genuine generational differences exist, are they actually relevant to the decision we’re trying to influence? In this episode, Dave Heywood looks at: Why generational differences can be much harder to prove than the headlines suggestHow the pursuit of looking younger and fresher can become a substitute for understanding what actually matters to your marketWhy the most obvious differences between customers aren’t necessarily the ones that determine choiceThree questions to test whether your market segmentation is actually useful

  7. Aug 27

    Can you grow without hiring?

    More revenue. More customers. More people. That’s growth, right? But when headcount and costs keep rising alongside revenue, it’s worth asking whether hiring is really the thing that unlocks the next stage of growth, or whether it’s masking a constraint somewhere else in the business. In this episode, Dave Heywood looks at: Why being busy isn’t the same as genuinely being at capacityA four-part test for deciding whether another hire is really the answerWhy 20% more cost for 20% more revenue isn’t necessarily a problem, provided there’s a credible path to future growthThe ultimate question to ask before approving your next hire

  8. Aug 20

    Content is cheap, but your expertise isn't

    Anyone can create content now. Not everyone has something worth saying. As AI makes competent content quicker, cheaper and easier to produce, genuine expertise and original perspective become increasingly difficult to replicate. Dave Heywood explores why the answer isn’t another content arms race, or turning everyone in the business into a creator, but finding better ways to get the expertise already inside your organisation out into the world. In this episode:• Why AI has raised the floor for content, but not necessarily the ceiling• Why putting a human face on corporate content doesn’t automatically make it human• What research into B2B buyers tells us about the value of genuine expertise• Why marketing teams should think more like internal media houses than content factories• How to use AI to scale your experts, rather than impersonate them

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About

Ten minutes a week on growth, and everything that gets in the way. A weekly podcast for people building and growing B2B businesses. Dave Heywood examines the decisions, assumptions and awkward realities behind growth, from marketing and sales to technology, investment, cash and the systems that hold it all together. Practical thinking, real examples and something useful to take back into your business.

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