FEATURED ARTICLES
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.
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Becoming A More Empathetic Listener
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.
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Pushing A B2B Buyer Through A Funnel With Product And Service Explanations Doesn’t Result In Sales!
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.
TRAILBLAZER INTERVIEWS
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What Is Good Thought Leadership?
Annie Dunleavy, SVP & US Head of Content Strategy, Edleman Business Marketing talks about what makes good thought leadership content that engages target audiences.
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Interview With Annie Dunleavy, Senior VP, US Head Of Content Strategy, Edelman Business Marketing
Annie Dunleavy, Senior Vice President and US Head of Content Strategy, Edelman Business Marketing, shares findings and insights from the 2024 Thought Leadership Impact Study done by Edelman in collaboration with LinkedIn.
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Interview With Elliot Berger, Board Member At Orientation Marketing And Former CMO At Catalent
Elliot Berger, former CMO at Catalent, talks about Novo Holdings' purchase of Catalent, life sciences opportunities, media buying and more.
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Elliott Berger, Former CMO At Catalent On Media Buying
Media buying is one of Elliott Berger's favorite subjects. What he has to say may surprise you.
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Interview With Nicholas Read, Author Of Selling To The C-Suite
Nic Read joins Trailblazer Interviews to discuss the motivations and research behind his best-selling book on B2B sales and also his views on the state of the sales profession.
GUEST CONTRIBUTORS
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When creating your customer persona there are two main camps that organizations fall into. Those that have customers and those do not have customers or at least very few. If you fall into the group with customers that is great, but it still does not mean you are finished, in fact it could be the recipe for disaster.
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Business-to-business sales professionals are no strangers to innovation. The last decade has seen a shift to Zoom meetings, the rise of hyperscale data vendors, and modern RevOps. The days of smiling and dialing and wining and dining aren’t over, per se, but things are markedly different. Enter the next disruptor: artificial intelligence and ChatGPT in particular.
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Today it seems that every business is engaged in some sort of content marketing initiative, which means that in addition to pitching products or services via traditional marketing methods, companies also are producing content to help inform, educate and even entertain their audiences. But because there’s some confusion about what content marketing actually is, many businesses aren’t as effective as they could be in their content marketing efforts.
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Customer-Centered Content Marketing - Part 2
It is important to understand that potential buyers are on a journey to solve problems, not necessarily buy something. If you want to be considered as a solution provider, you must be a helpful participant in their problem-solving journey, the entire journey.
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Customer-Centered Content Marketing Part 1
Here is the problem that many of us have. We define the B2B buyer’s journey in three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. And we define awareness as when a buyer becomes aware of us and our solutions. We then develop content strategies focused on our own products and services which is what buyers seek in the late stages of their journey. We miss the opportunity to build trust with buyers when it is most critical. What we need is a content-marketing strategy that is aligned with the real buyer's journey.
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The Real Buyer's Journey
The single force that has disrupted the way B2B solution providers market and sell is also the most critical to business success, buyers. As buyers discovered and embraced on-demand, digital content to help them solve problems, not make purchasing decisions, they pushed long-held B2B marketing traditions aside, rendering them obsolete.
FYB METHOD
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Life Science Connect, the parent company of Follow Your Buyer, has had a front row seat for the past several decades for the evolutionary transformation of the buyer's journey. Here is what we learned!
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The single force that has disrupted the way B2B solution providers market and sell is also the most critical to business success, buyers. As buyers discovered and embraced on-demand, digital content to help them solve problems, not make purchasing decisions, they pushed long-held B2B marketing traditions aside, rendering them obsolete.
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Here is the problem that many of us have. We define the B2B buyer’s journey in three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. And we define awareness as when a buyer becomes aware of us and our solutions. We then develop content strategies focused on our own products and services which is what buyers seek in the late stages of their journey. We miss the opportunity to build trust with buyers when it is most critical. What we need is a content-marketing strategy that is aligned with the real buyer's journey.
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It is important to understand that potential buyers are on a journey to solve problems, not necessarily buy something. If you want to be considered as a solution provider, you must be a helpful participant in their problem-solving journey, the entire journey.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
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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.
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS & REVIEWS
At the top of our list of valuable, must-read books for B2B leaders, marketers, and sales professionals is “Selling to the C-Suite” by Nicholas A.C. Read and Stephen J. Bistritz. Here’s why we recommend it.
Selling To The C-Suite, Not Your Typical Sales Formula Book
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
- 04.29.24 -- Thought for the Week – The Value Of Becoming A More Empathetic Listener
- 03.25.24 -- Thought for the Week – Nurture your inner malcontent!
- 03.18.24 -- Thought for the Week – You nailed it!
- 03.11.24 -- Thought for the Week – Does your reach exceed your grasp?
- 03.06.24 -- Insights from Elliott Berger, Former Chief Marketing Officer at Calatent