“It worked really well, until it didn’t”
Thu, Mar 9, 2023 |
Over dinner with Ted, the retired founder/CEO of a successful company in the electric power sector, I heard an interesting story with a widely applicable lesson.
Beyond the Elevator Speech: Messaging that Truly Leverages Your Employee Brand Advocates
Wed, Oct 19, 2022 — Who is the most important brand ambassador at your company? Is it you, the CEO, whose job it is to motivate, inspire, and exude confidence in your company, its products, and its services? How about your business development team, whose sole purpose is to funnel new client lifeblood into your veins and arteries? Or is it the marketers, who toil to define and develop your brand and make it ready for prime time?
B2B Brand Positioning: How to Claim Your Company’s Land of Opportunity
Wed, Sep 14, 2022 — For more than 100 years, scientists and philosophers have been asserting that if a tree falls in a forest, and no one is there to hear it, then it does not make a sound. The lesson for marketers is resounding: If your brand is not resonating in its preferred landscape, it is likely that your most desired buyers will never be there to hear what you have to say.
Got a Big B2B Deal On the Line? Three Questions to Ask
Mon, Oct 23, 2017 — Consider this situation: A large enterprise service firm – we will call them “Steady Company” - spent two years cultivating a Fortune 500 prospect. Their selling approach was professional, persistent, and “by the book.” They asked penetrating questions to fully understand their prospect’s needs. They had a “top-to-top” of the key players from both sides. They identified decision makers at each level, and crafted detailed execution plans to support their bid. They understood the competitive bidder’s relative advantages and disadvantages.
A Best Marketing Practice: Cultivating “Lead” Customer Relationships for Breakthrough Products and Services
Thu, Aug 3, 2017 — It’s been many years since I learned what a “lead” customer is and how to build lead customer relationships to build confidence and reduce risks of new product or service launches. The concept of a lead customer, or lead user, is probably one of the most beneficial best practices I’ve used in marketing and product management roles. Want to design and launch a breakthrough product? The lead customer approach is absolutely a winner. The lead user methodology was originally developed by Dr. Eric von Hippel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and first described in the July 1986 issue of Management Science. You can read a revised version of the original article here.
What B2B E-commerce can Learn from Consumer Retail
Tue, Apr 25, 2017 — The world of consumer retail is in the midst of rapid transformation. Traffic in brick-and-mortar stores is decreasing. Consumers are moving away from shopping malls. Traditional advertising—whether via direct mail, TV ads or newspaper and magazine ads—is losing its relevance.
Is Instant Messaging the New B2B?
Wed, Mar 15, 2017 — Do you talk to your customers every day? As frequently as you instant-message your friends? I was talking with a CEO recently, and I asked him how good his company’s communication is with his customers. He said it was great, and always had been great. The customer places an order, they ship the order, and then they send an invoice. Job completed. Everything works. Reliable, and on time.
Optimizing the Marketing Organization
Tue, Mar 14, 2017 — Hiring, outsourcing and leadership considerations In my previous post, we explored the question, “What should my marketing organizational roadmap look like?” In this installment, I’d like to discuss three additional questions that often surface as CEOs build their marketing organizations.
How to Build Your Marketing Team for Growth
Tue, Mar 7, 2017 — A marketing organizational roadmap for B2B venture CEOs After slogging through the early startup phase and acquiring the first handful of customers through relationships, sheer selling tenacity and perseverance, many founding CEOs at B2B ventures ask me: “To scale my company, I know I need a marketing team. But I don’t know where to start and what path to follow. Can you help?”
Insights, Integration, and Impact: A CEO’s Guide to Hitting Targets Every Time
Mon, Oct 24, 2016 — Is it possible to hit our growth targets every time? American sharpshooter Annie Oakley, also known as “Little Sure Shot,” would say it is. In fact, legend has it that the famous markswoman was known to consistently slice a playing card perfectly in half with a single bullet – and as a child, she was so reliably successful at game hunting, that she used her skills to pay her parents’ mortgage in full.