Thoughts for the Week

  1. Could Generative AI Be An Over-The-Horizon Storm For B2B Marketers? 5/3/2024

    Generative AI, in the form of ChatGPT and other technologies that retrieve information and help create content using prompts, has B2B marketers excited and at the same time fearful that it might make them obsolete. 

  2. Becoming A More Empathetic Listener 4/29/2024

    B2B sales experts regularly speak of empathy as an important trait for B2B sales professionals, perhaps the most important trait. It is the gateway for sellers to build meaningful trust with prospects and customers. There are tons of information, tips, and best practices on how to project empathy, but they miss the point. Our goal as B2B salespeople is to be empathetic, not just display.

  3. Pushing A B2B Buyer Through A Funnel With Product And Service Explanations Doesn't Result In Sales! 4/22/2024

    Yes, you read that right. B2B solution providers, and me for many years, spoke about pushing prospects through a sales funnel with persuading messages about our products and services. But that doesn’t work. Sure, sales will come in, but this creates a false understanding of how buyers make purchasing decisions, and we end up with a false sense of confidence in our own persuasive skills.

  4. How Do You Describe Your Brand's Soul? 4/15/2024

    The time I received an email from Howard Schultz while working in a coffee shop.

  5. IT'S TOO LOUD IN HERE! 4/8/2024

    The internet is a noisy place. Imagine if each piece of content was a rock band playing simultaneously but not in synch, and not even the same song. Our online scrolling would deliver just a lot of loud noise. Well, that’s what it is! Not audible noise, but mental noise and some of us are contributing to it.

  6. Celebrate All The Wins! 4/5/2024

    There is only one winner in a basketball game, but each game is packed with scoring and what seems like a continuous celebration of incremental wins. Teams celebrate baskets, 3-pointers, slam dunks, foul shots, blocked shots, steals, turn-overs, disrupted plays and more. The over 100 points scored per game offers a lot of opportunities to celebrate. It keeps the energy level high and provides the fuel needed to play hard the entire game. Do you do the same?

  7. Nurture Your Inner Malcontent! 3/24/2024

    We all have a bit of malcontent in us, not a bad thing, and tapping into that inner self can be valuable.

  8. You Nailed It! 3/18/2024

    Have you ever heard the saying, if the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem (or opportunity) as a nail? It was made famous by Abraham Maslow, yes, the same Maslow that gave us the hierarchy of needs and it refers to being over reliant on a familiar tool. It has many applications in life and business.

  9. The Handoff – Transitioning Leads From Marketing To Sales 3/11/2024

    The key to successful track and field relay teams is the interdependent relationship of the four runners. The teams that efficiently transfer the baton from one to another have a better chance of winning. They spend many hours practicing and perfecting just the hand-off and make it look much easier than it is. And great marketing and sales teams that possess the same interdependence win more business.

  10. How's Your Interoperability Between Marketing And Sales? 3/11/2024

    The common goal of B2B sales and marketing is revenue generation, but the painful truth is that the lack of a seamless flow of actionable information between marketing and sales is more common than we wish to recognize, and it is killing our businesses.