In business to business markets, I am often asked which is best to focus on, advertising or personal (relationship) selling.
Before I answer the question, let’s look at what functions each perform and then draw a conclusion.
Assuming your enterprise has a direct sales force, it performs many functions such as; relationships, promoting your company, finding customers, [...]

Are your Marketing expenses 2.5 times higher than Engineering/Development expenses? Ralph Grabowski has data that says they should be. Some suggestions to follow.

A marketing person has many tools at his disposal for generating awareness and supporting the selling effort.  While there are numerous marketing communication tools, there are also numerous mixes for these tools. The following is a list of some of the more common tools along with examples of their use and some considerations. One important [...]

Everyone is constantly trying ways to lower the cost of operations while at the same time generating additional revenues.  One key area of focus in today’s enterprise is the call or contact center.  Here is where your existing and potential new customers “meet” or interface with your company.  The contact center provides a channel for [...]

As a marketing consultant, it is critical that we be aware of changing trends, market disruptions and technological impacts so that we can integrate them into the potential messages, value propositions and benefits of our marketing campaigns. The 2010 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium that I attended is a good example of some of the changes [...]

 
The most common response I hear when I ask a sales person how he or she did for the quarter or the year; is something about their quota. i.e., “I made quota” or “I’m at 70% of quota, but with two big deals hanging fire.”  While quota should always be part of a performance evaluation, [...]

A post, using Goldman Sachs’ recent problems, that illustrates the danger of advertising slogans and how CMOs must be cognizant of the potential risks.

Suggestions for the CMO on using April data to forecast the year, using the information derived to make mid-course corrections, if needed.

Forecasting has always intrigued me.  Whether it is predicting the stock market’s next move, betting on a horse race or if will it rain or shine  tomorrow; all have some form of tools and information to “assist” in predicting the future.
As for business, all sales executives, managers, and field sales personnel are involved with forecasting. [...]

The expression “You get what you pay for” actually has a deep and comprehensive meaning in the B2B marketing world. The following is a B2B marketer’s guide on what needs to be considered when pricing a product or service.
 1-     Understand the goals and go to market (GTM) strategy for the enterprise and /or the SBU [...]