Blog

The Center of the Universe for B2B Prospecting

Every champion of a product or service believes in their heart that their target is the CEO. They need to find a way into CEOs’ consciousness. That the illumination of their message will pierce the maelstrom like a lightning bolt and all, from there, will be smooth sailing. Scales will fall from eyes and money…

Great product, great promotion, and… great problems

Instigation: Applied Biosystems develops and manufactures the range of scientific instrumentation used by DNA researchers. One of their lower-priced devices to read DNA, the 2400, was used primarily in university research labs. Its features and reliability outpace all competitors, yet it was steadily, and inexplicably, losing marketshare. To resuscitate sales, AB decided on a promotion.…

If You Build It, They Will NOT Come… Until You Know Who “They” Are

Instigation: IBM has enjoyed a remarkable reputation, especially in mid-range computing, but were surprised to hit rough territory when they introduced a new office solution for physician practices. Expectations were high because this new offering was much more than an upgrade. In fact, it addressed both clinical and financial requirements in ways that outpaced the…

Putting Insights to Work: Getting PROSPECTS to Sell Other Prospects

Instigation: While this software giant is dominant on the desktop, its offerings were still considered weaklings in vertical markets like healthcare. These industries have been dominated by established vertical competitors with many years of experience and large, dedicated sales forces. With a small budget and big perceptual obstacles, Microsoft asked B2P to help attract and…

Shifting Focus from Products to PROSPECTS

Instigation: This ‘challenger’ mining company in Africa was up against major suppliers around the world. Their core product was a low-margin commodity, and they were losing economies of scale to larger producers. They were looking to build their volume to gain scale as well as expand into new areas... that had even stronger competition! Internally…

Creative Questions Energize a Quiet Commodity Industry

Instigation: This long-established supplier of office products to small businesses had just been acquired. The newly merged company was anxious to explore options to increase growth within the current customer base, particularly in its top vertical segments, but years of prior attempts by Deluxe to increase volume through new products and services or new marketing…

Being Right Can Be So Wrong

Instigation: Asigra has been quietly providing data backup and recovery software for decades. Positioned as the “cloud backup expert”, Asigra serves more than 550,000 sites throughout the world with single-minded devotion. Content to devote all their energy to supporting their channel partners, they are one of the most accomplished companies you’ve never heard of. By…

The Power of Product, Process, and … People

Instigation: Once a dominant manufacturer of those ubiquitous hospital IV pumps, Baxter was steadily losing market share to competitors with more advanced products. To reverse their fortunes, they developed a competitive new line but, being late with the new technology, they knew they had to get the marketing exactly right or their opportunity to reestablish…

Tradeshift

Instigation: Tradeshift is a B2B start-up offering a free invoicing platform and a growing web-based business network. Like many start-ups, its vision was grander than its reality. It quickly found itself in a sea of small companies offering commoditized e-invoicing services. Frustrating to employee and founder alike was the challenge of navigating between here and…

Free Personas: Worth Every Penny

The most valuable part of any research is the insight. That nugget of truth that expands your understanding and guides strategy and messaging. Digging for insights isn’t easy—you have to go beyond the surface and get some dirt under your nails. And gasp! you may even have to talk with people outside your organization to…

Why Marketing Automation Fails And Three Ways To Fix It

When both my girls lived at home I had a wonderful idea – let’s have a family calendar. We’re all bumping knees – I didn’t know you had a swim meet; your aunt’s birthday is next week; yes, Mom’s working Saturday. This would be a window into the week and a sketch of the month…

The Network Of Me And What It Can Do For You

Come, take a walk with me and let’s talk about sales. In fact, I’d like us to put on our prospect hats because the experience is unique. It’s really important to our discussion.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors (Even If They’re Sales And Marketing)

The river between sales and marketing runs cold and deep. We can see each other’s camp on the opposite bank, just out of range. That we all work for the same corporation is often the irritant, yet I have seen how much success is generated when there is cooperation. Let me tell you how. “Good…

Good Persona vs. Bad Persona

The overwhelming majority of people working on any given b2b marketing campaign have never seen, met or spoken to a customer, and certainly not a prospect. They work from reports and results. They are separated, a gap to a chasm, from the often-conflicted humanity of the people that make the decisions. This separates your campaign…

Customer relationships: Three lessons, Two Words and One Silver Bullet.

I’m a student of customer relationships and I’ve learned three important things. First, I’ve learned that the foundation of any long-lasting customer relationship comes down to two words: trust and respect. I’ve got to feel the love, that you’ve got my back. There’s plenty of other stuff, but at the core, there’s trust and respect,…