Return of an Old Friend: Customer Lifetime Value in B-to-B
One way or another, everything comes back to the numbers, but sometimes we look right past the numbers that matter most. With so much of marketing’s focus on winning new customers, it’s easy to forget...
View ArticleSeven Factors for Enterprise Account Success
We’re hearing from many companies that want to engage marketing to support enterprise accounts (usually more than 1,000 employees, but guidelines can be company-defined) or strategic accounts, but...
View ArticleBack to School Time: Three B-to-B Marketing Ideas
A pencil manufacturer used to imprint its product with this quote: “Every idea is a link in the chain of progress.” Every year, millions of school-age children – with freshly sharpened pencils in every...
View ArticleCMOs See New and Changing B-to-B Marketing Roles
Earlier this year SiriusDecisions tapped into its CMO and marketing leader network for a snapshot of the b-to-b marketing roles they had either created or eliminated in the past year. Social media,...
View ArticleIs Listening to Customers Enough?
Many companies claim that they are customer-centric, but few are really good at it. Often the problem is with the types of listening techniques we use to develop our customer understanding. In today’s...
View ArticleCustomer Marketing: Have We Forgotten Our Manners?
It seems we in b-to-b may have taken the concept of making marketing accountable for revenue a little too far. It’s not that I miss the “bad old days” when it was okay for marketing to not be...
View ArticleAccount-Based Marketers: Five Make-or-Break Skills
Delivering impact in account-based marketing (ABM) takes a different set of skills compared with traditional, broad-based marketing. Sadly, marketers are often placed in ABM roles without tools or...
View ArticleMake 2013 the Year of Realistic Thinking
Sometimes, it’s just not that easy. Why do we dislike hearing that truth so much? “Too Simple,” a recent blog post by best-selling author Seth Godin, got me thinking about the impact that...
View ArticleIt’s Not All About Buying: In Defense of Customer Marketing
In all this talk about the funnel (or waterfall) being dead, I’ve noticed an unsettling misunderstanding: How is it acceptable to tack on a single stage to the buying cycle, call it “the customer...
View Article“We’re Not Making Our Number”: How Marketing Can Help Close a Gap
“We’re not making our number.” These words strike fear into the heart of business leaders, but especially those in sales and marketing. Unfortunately, marketing’s response can be a disjointed and...
View ArticleCustomer Relationship Nurturing: What You’re Missing
One of the biggest complaints customers make about marketing messages is that they’re all about selling something. If you’re thinking, “But that’s what I’m supposed to do – send messages to create...
View ArticleCustomer Marketing Is Back (Did It Ever Really Leave?)
One of the fastest-growing topic areas within the account-based marketing service at SiriusDecisions is customer marketing. From startups to venerable blue chip organizations, b-to-b companies of all...
View ArticleHow Managers Can Encourage Customer-Focused Behavior
Market-oriented. Customer-focused. User-centric. These are terms you’ve likely used or heard others use at your company. And for good reason – there is plenty of evidence that a customer-driven...
View ArticleCustomer Experience Is the New Demand Creation
If you knew the one thing that would make the biggest difference in closing deals, you would use it, right? As it turns out, very few companies do. Let’s change that. In a recent post, my colleague...
View ArticleB-to-B Sales and Marketing Haikus: Account-Based Marketing
Here’s another installment of haikus dedicated to b-to-b sales and marketing. This edition takes its inspiration from account-based marketing, which identifies the insights, integrated marketing...
View ArticleThe LA Dodgers’ Attempt at “Voice of the Customer” Strikes Out
Recently, I saw a tweet from my second favorite baseball team, the Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers). They wanted my feedback! As a SiriusDecisions analyst focusing on the customer experience (among...
View ArticleWhat Great Customer Advocacy Programs Do That You Don’t (Yet)
Old haircare product commercials had it right when it comes to customer advocacy. Remember the words of Vidal Sassoon from 1976: “If you don’t look good, we don’t look good.” Now remember the famous...
View ArticleFive Tips for Shorter, More Impactful Advocacy Assets
Once upon a time, when the world seemed to spin a bit more slowly and there were significantly fewer distractions, marketers were able to create tome-like customer case studies that went to great...
View ArticleCustomer Awards Program: How to Avoid the “John Travolta Moment”
Idina Menzel, the talented Broadway (Rent) and TV (Glee) star, was about to receive her biggest accolade ever at last week’s 86th Academy Awards ceremony – winning an Oscar for her song “Let It Go”...
View ArticleWhy No One’s Reading Your Email Newsletter
Bombarded by an endless stream of messages every day, decisionmakers at b-to-b companies often see a vendor’s email newsletter as useless inbox clutter and immediately delete the message without...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....