I love lead scoring. When done right, it lets you think like a customer.
The problem is that it’s just too easy for marketers to think inside the box, instead of like customers.
Lead scoring programs are rather complex to set up. Certainly more so than a garden-variety email campaign. They require weighted averages, multiple decision criteria, [...]

Process improvement is a sophisticated science (and art) in the real world where stuff gets moved (logistics), stored (materials management), built (JIT, Six Sigma, Lean, Agile), and so on.
Most marketing people don’t think about what they do in terms of process improvement.
These two disciplines should talk to each other.
If you’re a B2B [...]

You won’t find a foolproof, set-it-and-forget-it solution to marketing automation, salesforce automation, revenue generation. Make better processes by understanding the limits of process.

It’s probably data quality — labor intensive, behind the scenes stuff.
Good data is like jet fuel. The plane is beautiful and lovingly engineered, and it’s the part that the users actually see. But that gorgeously branded vehicle isn’t going anywhere without some liquid nourishment under the hood.
Kudos to by Ben Bradley at Macon [...]

To get anything done in a B2B complex sale, you’re not just Selling to The Senior Executive Wo/Man.
That’s why it’s complex.
It’s tempting, especially for salespeople, to depend on just a single contact, champion, or coach inside the client company. Giving in to this temptation? Watch for l-o-n-n-n-g sales cycles, clients who [...]

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 [...]

Three things we now expect every January on the internet:
– New year predictions.
– New year resolutions.
– Reviews of past years’ abandoned resolutions and failed predictions.
Why?
Humans crave the power to know and control the future. We also are creatures of habit & don’t change gracefully — not even to adapt [...]

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.