Publisher's Synopsis
B2B Sales & Marketing faces an existential crisis. Most business owners and senior executives sense this intuitively. Many recognize it explicitly. Yet remarkably few have a clear strategy to adapt. Most B2B companies respond by increasing the intensity of their traditional direct sales approach - augmented by traditional marketing. And diminishing results and unclear ROI prompt them to scale back on the "marketing" and double down on the sales. But there's a problem - the way businesses buy has changed radically. And new variations on the traditional solutions merely achieve varying degrees of mediocrity. This book is intended for company founders, owners and senior execs who are disgusted with mediocrity. And it's intended to be read, digested, and acted upon. This is not an academic treatise. Nor is it a traditional 250 page business book full of typical bromides. Instead this is an "operations order" for your B2B marketing. The first half of the book is 'intel' - the intelligence on the current circumstances and considerations on the B2B battlefield. Trends and conditions are clearly outlined and carefully documented. And the circumstances your people will encounter are defined and explained. The second half is the 'battle plan.' Typical B2B companies can follow the sensible, manageable and attainable 13 step action plan - supported by worksheets and step-by-step to-dos. Companies looking for grand overviews of the business climate should honestly look elsewhere. But executives who ponder any of these questions will benefit: 1.Why can't my marketing department provide any clear ROI details? 2.What role should our website really play? 3.Why are our salespeople consistently less effective now than they used to be? 4.Why do we struggle to generate QUALIFIED leads? 5.Is social media really relevant to our business? 6.What is content marketing? 7.I don't understand the gobbledygook our marketing people toss around. I wonder if they really do? 8.How do successful companies do it? 9.Sales & Marketing have changed - but I can't quite figure out why? 10.We've got to grow...but how? For the owners of "regular" B2B companies these are fundamental questions - and the existential change in sales and marketing is indeed a crisis. But in crisis is opportunity. And this book provides the tools for business owners to seize that opportunity - that's why they should be pumped...and why, once they crack the code with this book, VPs of Sales & Marketing should be terrified! The bottom line is that buyers will find what they want. If you want to be part of that, you must adapt. Your sales rep is no longer brought into the purchasing process while it is less than 1/3 complete. Instead, today, your rep won't become involved until the process is nearly 3/4 done. At that point (s)he is negotiating terms...if you're lucky. More likely other companies that have adapted their marketing are having discussions that your folks will never have. The good news is that it's completely in your power to change. Without 'geek speak' this book lays out the challenges you face, the leverage you have and the tools and action steps required to seize the equalizing opportunity that is available. It's your business. You're brutally busy - we know. We've owned businesses and so we conceived and designed this book to be quick to read, easy to digest and feasible to implement. Put your business back on top of even today's brutal markets.
