Buyer-centric go-to-market strategy (with a little help from Geoffrey Moore)

This article is something of an essay on my current thinking about buyer-centric go-to-market strategy and has been shaped by a recent conversation with strategy luminary Geoffrey Moore. Why buyer-centric go-to-market strategy? And why now? As a high-school drop-out, I was in a customer service role from 1980 and earned my first sales role in 1983. I was lucky enough to start my career in sales at a company with a deep commitment to soft-skills training, and to work for managers committed to nurturing any skills they'd helped me acquire. I did very well. Not through any READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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Here’s why the buyer’s journey isn’t dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TtNWA3IjvM   Earlier this month, our co-founder Hugh was interviewed on the Pathmonk Presents podcast by host and design/UX expert Lukas Haensch. The Pathmonk podcast is a fast and effective show to sharpen your growth marketing skills. Hugh was interviewed to cast more light on recent statements purporting that the buyer's journey is dead. And as an expert on marketing and sales funnels, it was clear that Hugh could help bring more clarity as he discussed why this statement is categorically untrue. From here, we get an unfiltered view of Hugh's expertise on buyer-centric thinking, the READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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A Leaders guide to crossing the chasm post-Covid

Back in 2016, I wrote and shared an article that looked at how you should consider market maturity as an input to setting effective go-to-market strategy. The article was originally triggered by a conversation with the owner of a prospect (later a customer of align.me)  Justin Annesley the Managing Director of local printing company  Inkifingus. Justin was struggling with accelerating his SME print business revenue during a period where traditional printers like his needed to transition from long-run print to shorter run, digitally enabled solutions. Many of his traditional buyers were moving away from him to lower READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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Why saying “no” to an opportunity can get you 13% more sales

I want to talk to the topic of sales effectiveness and, in particular, argue why walking away from a bad deal early is a good idea. I could come at this conversation from multiple angles. I could explain why employee satisfaction would be higher if we walked away from bad deals. I could talk about why your market reputation is enhanced by walking away from bad deals. I could mount countless other legitimate arguments. But on this occasion, I want to mount my argument by looking only at the numbers - in particular, resource numbers. I'm going READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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5 tools you should be using for sales & marketing

They say a good tool improves the way you work, but a great tool improves the way you think. In the digital era, this has never been truer. Within the exciting world of sales and marketing, there is no shortage of tools, and the rate of which these tools are evolving is both intimidating and inspiring. It’s impossible to have them all and keep up – regardless of resources or budget. And it’s also completely unnecessary. If you can find the few that will have the most impact and add the most value, you’ll be setting yourself READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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Why simplification is hard [video]

I’ve always liked the idea that to get from simplistic to simple you have to wade through complex. In other words, simplification is not about dumbing something down, but rather it is about paring it back. To achieve this, you firstly need all the glorious detail to be able to hunt and find the bare essence. There's more to this, as we’ve found in one of our experiments. Let me show you a lesson we learnt about simplification from our customers. This may help you to simplify your own business. I’ll also share 6 steps to simplification READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog, Tactics|
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Sales funnel management – which of these mistakes hurt the most?

Which of these 10 mistakes in sales funnel management could hurt you the most? What can you do about them and how can you improve? [av_video src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lqj_aMB_CW4' format='16-9' width='16' height='9' av_uid='av-4bcezr'] The consensus view is that there are 10 common flaws in sales funnel management: Not segmenting their list of buyer and prospects properly. They often do not end their follow-up communications with potential customers with a ‘call to action’. No balance between lead generation / lead management Centering the sales funnel management on the seller instead of the buyer Involving salesperson too early in READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog, Evergreen, Velocity|
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What colleges should be teaching Marketing majors

Marketing, like  most things in life, is completely different than it was 10 years ago. We are moving to a more social and more personalized web, which means that customers desire a more customized, relevant experience. Unfortunately, most universities and colleges are still preaching ye olde marketing curriculum. Recently, Lauren Carlson, producer at CRMSoftware.TV, sat down with some current marketing gurus to discuss what skills are really needed for success today. Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot Eric Holmen, Silverpop Adam Steinberg, Silverpop The discussion was very interesting. One point that was brought up was in regards to success in READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog, Skills, Strategy, Velocity|
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Do marketers have the right stuff to be revenue marketers?

In the past few months a cool new term has appeared on my radar. That term is, “revenue marketer”. Wish I had thought of it first. It defines a new level of marketing professional. While I’m energized by the term, sadly, I’m concerned that too many B2B marketers don’t have the right perspective and skills to play in this new league. My latest exposure to the term was at an event in Austin hosted by Marketo, a marketing automation platform vendor. Speaking at the event was Debbie Qaqish , Chief Revenue Marketing Officer of  The Pedowitz Group, READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog, Sales, Skills, Strategy, Velocity|
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B2B marketing that reaches executives

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... Is there a failsafe way to engage executives as prospects in B2B marketing strategies? We talked about selling to crazy-busy people when we reviewed Jill Konrath’s presentation titled to that effect, but it’s definitely a topic that B2B marketing professionals are drawn too. This is why I’m confident that Adrian Ott’s presentation will be a welcome addition to the DemandCon agenda. So what will Adrian have to say about the matter? Adrian has promised to cover the “new rules for engaging today’s 24-Hour Executive”: How much time executive decision-makers READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog, Strategy, Velocity|
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