One of the advantages of a long career in any discipline is the ability to look back and see lessons learned over many companies, initiatives and projects. This is why you want to hear your surgeon say that this is their 400th similar procedure, and not: I just graduated and this is my first procedure. […]
A B2B software client was facing declining quarter-over-quarter sales. Their answer was to hire two additional sales reps. Unfortunately, the new reps were expensive and did not get the revenue back on track. After an analysis of the competitive landscape, we diagnosed the issue as a packaging and delivery problem. The company was selling permanent […]
Failing to see the difference in value between a long-time customer and a fresh acquisition undermines brands on a regular basis. This tends to stem from viewing business decisions as isolated incidents, which is a flawed perspective — any given arrangement is just one link in a lengthy chain. The need to understand and […]
I’ve long observed that B2B marketers focus too much on lead generation, and not enough on current customer expansion and retention, which is, after all, where the bulk of profits lie. When asked, the typical B2B marketer will say that 80 to 85 percent of their effort goes to customer acquisition. This is a mistake. […]
Okay. I get that the title of this article is a little ambitious. However, there are things B2B marketers can do to achieve better alignment with their sales counterparts – leading to not only better results for the company, but also to better professional and personal relationships. It is all about achieving alignment, in terms […]
“Good questions outrank easy answers” – Paul Samuelson Asking the right questions is crucial to your ability to optimize or turnaround your B2B marketing and sales operations. But even if things are going well, it is a good idea to periodically test your assumptions. Competitors are not standing idle and technologies, channels and customer needs […]
At our company, my team and I have the pleasure of being involved in a lot of content creation, curation and propagation initiatives. Sometimes, a company is new to content marketing and sees the benefits of being a thought leader/branded authority but they aren’t sure how to get there. In other cases, the company has taken […]
Marketing influence is a timeless subject but the ways we capture and communicate are constantly evolving. I originally wrote about this subject in 2011 and updated the material for my 2015 book, Winning B2B Marketing . And whether you are a one-person consulting shop, work for a mega corporation, or anything in between, you need […]
One of the most important decisions to be made when designing a lead-to-revenue (L2R) strategy is the type of B2B marketing funnel model to support your revenue goals. There are lots of permutations but fundamentally, it comes down to a choice between two major flavors: wide or narrow funnel. I’ve talked to CEO’s who want […]
Millions of businesses use social media as a marketing tool to engage with others and promote their brands online. B2B companies are no different, and should be working hard on their social media strategies to boost profit margins and give clients the best possible experience. This very minute, around 30 million Facebook messages are being […]