Business Growth Strategies For CEOs: Top CMOs On Marketing Strategy Implementations

Neil Isford

An experienced B2B SaaS executive with a track record in growing sales and revenue, Neil builds high performance go-to-market teams across a broad spectrum of companies (from startups to multinationals). Leveraging technical and leadership expertise developed at IBM, he effectively delivers new business sales growth and integrates acquisitions to scale firms. With expertise in AI, data, analytics, security, and professional services, he helps clients apply technology to generate business value.

Your Buyers Have Already Shortlisted You—Or They Haven't

Wed, Sep 2, 2026 | Posted by Sabrina Donley

Executive Takeaways

95% of B2B buyers purchase from the vendors on their initial shortlist, formed before any formal buying process begins.
That shortlist is increasingly built inside AI platforms your analytics can't see.
AI referral traffic is roughly 1% of total website traffic, yet 15% or more of conversions appear to originate from AI-influenced research, a gap standard attribution misses entirely.
If you're not on the Day One list, spend alone won't fix it.

Part 3 of our four-part series on the evolving AI search landscape and what B2B leaders need to know to stay competitive.

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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.

Growth Insights for CEOs

Neil Isford

Recent Posts

Your Buyers Have Already Shortlisted You—Or They Haven't

Recent Posts

The AI Training Economy: The Human Expertise Behind the Agent Revolution

The Evolution of B2B Selling: Focus on Helping Customers Buy

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