The CEO of a large international corporation was asked, “How do you select your professional advisors: lawyers, bankers, auditors etc? Is it their track record, industry expertise, technical know-how, product innovation?” The response was telling. “I take all that as a given. In a world where products and analyses are commoditised, I look for […]
There is a lot of industry buzz around the term “sales enablement.” This is terrific because the marketing department should always be concerned about how it can help the sales department achieve its revenue objectives. But truth be told, there is a lot of confusion about just what sales enablement is and how it benefits […]
I was talking to a former colleague yesterday and she made the claim that as a marketer, she had no control over the sales process and little or any impact on revenue. Regardless of whether this is true at her particular company, B2B marketers should (and do) have substantial impact on sales revenue. In fact, there […]
If there is one thing that aggravates the modern B2B company, it is the constantly lengthening sales cycle. Everyone, from CEO to sales VP to sales rep, suffers from this problem and wants to know what to do about it. The future of your company (and its stock price) may depend on getting revenue in […]
I’ve seen a number of blog posts and articles lately that use sports metaphors. It makes sense because sports is a common reference point for Americans. People who have no idea who their U.S. senator is or which ocean is on the west coast are more likely to be able to name the Super Bowl […]
The Pareto Principle as Applied to B2B Marketing According to our friends at Wikipedia, the Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule and the law of the vital few) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Pareto observed […]
When I reflect on the various talks and presentations I have done about B2B marketing and sales, perhaps my favorite is called How to Bridge the Gap Between Sales and Marketing. This is a subject that resonates with both the marketing and sales audiences, as well as CEOs and business owners. We may have some […]