CMOs, how do we make a difference when the available pool of paying customers has shrunk?
In a B2B company of not-unlimited means, it is easy to spend a lot of money on marketing without seeing value for the spend. Here are 4 spends that are limited, scalable, and accountable. Each can drive [...]

In a world of limited time, finite means, and pressure for results, what not to do?
When marketing is under-resourced, it tends to stop listening to the customer (if it ever did), because listening requires a cessation of action. What happens next? Recycling whatever you said and did in the last campaign. Talking to all [...]

The real beauty of Kevin’s article When will CMO heads roll? isn’t the observation that corporate marketing budgets are broken and that change is amazingly slow in coming.
That’s an easy target.
What I like is his description of who is changing.
He describes an actual target market that a marketer can begin to get [...]

Which of these is true for your company? How are you going to fix it?

Your customers are focused on their own issues — and don’t see you as relevant to those concerns. Are you talking to the wrong people or companies? Are you trying to sell too broadly? Do you simply need to better [...]

As a matter of fact, and especially in the B2B world, people CAN buy a product or service from you – and not know you exist. And in any B2B sale I can think of, and also many consumer purchases, awareness is not enough.

Widget makers have it easy. Plaster photos on the website. We.Are.Selling.This.Thing.  It.Looks.Like.This.  (Do you want it painted in Autumn Glory, Technicolor Stainless, or Urban Soot?)
For those of us who sell things whose souls cannot be captured in a photograph, it’s not quite so literal.
Here are six reasons why your erstwhile customer can’t figure out what [...]

People ask this all the time. (Which is fantastic, by the way!)
“Why Invisible Marketing? Isn’t marketing about getting visibility?”
Well, here’s how I think about it.
I have enjoyed, talked about, and experienced deep emotional connections with super-cool Superbowl ads for products I’ve never bought and companies with whom I won’t do business.
But I earn a living [...]

Book report time. This one is good summertime reading – lightweight, and short.
The Elevator Summary: A witty lampoon highlighting the jargon, obfuscation, and paint-by-numbers habits which cloud business communication and impede selling.
Standout Moments: The chapter “You’ve Been Templatized.” A favorite nugget:  “Business idiots are the sheep that use any shortcut available to automate their voice, [...]