b2b marketing

All businesses seek “brand awareness” in order to position themselves prominently in a given category. Salespeople often complain about how poor the marketing department is at positioning the qualities of their products and services relative to competitors.

Marketing is on a mission to gain control of the Funnel – to effectively manage and predict demand, yet today’s research tells a different story. The story exposes prevailing tensions in every area amounting to a serious disconnect between the vision of what Marketing should be doing and what it is doing in reality.

Some companies defy convention to become great. Stories abound of businesses that excel through innovative solutions which meet needs that buyers did not even know existed. Think Microsoft or the Sony Walkman, for example.

If you are at all familiar with marketing automation, you will have heard the term "Revenue Performance Management" floating around quite a bit. But what exactly is it and why is it relevant to you?

Strategic decisions involve choice: deciding what to do and, importantly, what not to do. This leaves businesses facing a conundrum. CEOs and managers understand the power and importance of focus, but what should they focus on, and what should they ignore?

On the face of it, the strongest solution should always win the new business, regardless of how much the client likes you. However, it’s commonly accepted that personality factors can influence decisions in awarding new business. So to what degree does this happen - if you have the strongest solution, is that enough to get you over the line? Or are decision-makers swayed by how much they like the person behind the solution?

First and foremost, we have to understand that this is not a game of musical chairs. Those with seats do not want to give up theirs, and they are unwilling to let just anyone pull up a new chair next to them. Funnel Masters (an alumni of Funnel Academy graduates and other funnel zealots) met in an effort to uncover the answer to this question...  

Inbound marketing isn't a well-known phrase to Australian marketers (yet!), but 2012 sees B2B marketers quickly catching on to the inbound marketing revolution. Inbound marketing refers to the art & increasingly the science of attracting buyers to your site, (getting found) converting them to leads (nurturing) and figuring out what is and isn't working (analytics). 

New data reveals that many B2B marketers are committing a major marketing no-no by failing to measure and report return on marketing investments to senior executives.

The sales department wants the marketing department to provide more leads. But they want them to be “better qualified”. The real question is, “qualified according to whom?”