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Neil Isford
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Recent Posts
What Is Marketing, Really? Why Founders and CEOs Must Lead the Most Misunderstood Function in the Business
This blog is part of Chief Outsiders’ Marketing Leadership for CEOs series, an ongoing examination of the critical dimensions of Marketing (the capital “M” is intentional, as you’ll see) that every CEO needs to understand.
The AI Training Economy: The Human Expertise Behind the Agent Revolution
Wed, Apr 22, 2026 — The challenge of training AI models on human expertise is not new. What is new is that three college dropouts just built a $10 billion business by productizing that exact problem at scale. Executive Takeaways The AI training economy is already here — and a $10 billion startup is proof. You can't have capable AI agents without well-trained models. Human expertise isn't being replaced; it's being harvested. Fast followers still have a window, but waiting another 18 months may mean competing on scale alone, not quality. Most organizations are underestimating the speed of this workforce transformation. The time to build AI fluency is now.
The Evolution of B2B Selling: Focus on Helping Customers Buy
Thu, Jan 15, 2026 — Many B2B companies are experiencing longer sales cycles, declining win rates, and increasingly unreliable forecasts—not because their sales teams are ineffective, but because their customers are struggling to buy. Executive Takeaways B2B buyers face overwhelming complexity, not a lack of information. Long sales cycles and no-decisions often reflect buyer indecision, not sales failure. Winning sellers focus on boosting buyer confidence, not pitching products. Helping customers buy is now the key to competitive differentiation.