Author Archive

What does Big Data mean for marketing?

Yes, Big Data is currently at the peak of a Gartner hype cycle.  Like many new trends in information technology with ambiguous names and all-encompassing abstractions, it became a focus for cult-like adoration and a salvation for data oppression.  Is every data-intensive challenge a Big Data problem?  Maybe not.  Let’s move beyond the hype to [...]


Successful Demand Generation Requires New Marketing Roles

In recent years we’ve noticed a sea change in the skills, knowledge and roles required to be successful in marketing.  Increased CMO turnover indicates unprecedented pressure to generate results.  That pressure, coupled with massive changes in technology and customer behavior, demands a mastery of several new knowledge domains.  CMOs will need assistance from experts and [...]


Old CMOs, New CMOs and Broken Marketing Organizations – Part 2 of CMO Series

This is the second of two posts about CMOs and the challenges they face.  In first post, we reviewed our thoughts about how CMOs obtain their jobs; and we posed a question about how to approach that first day in the office.  In this post, we’ll try to answer that question, especially in the context [...]


SMBs vs. Large Enterprises: Differences in Demand Generation

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are the engine of the current economic recovery in the U.S. As a segment they are growing faster than large enterprises, which means we are seeing commensurate growth in the number of computerized solutions for that segment. Despite that trend, most marketing solution vendors aspire to be purveyors to big [...]


Is Your Funnel Sick? – Part 3 of Funnel Series

This is the third (and last) in a series of blog entries about sick sales funnels.  In the first installment, I reviewed symptoms that may indicate the presence of illness. In the second, I discussed questions and issues that could point to a diagnosis.  In this installment, I’ll prescribe cures to make the patient fit [...]


Is Your Funnel Sick? – Part 2 of Funnel Series

This is the second in a series of blog entries about sick sales funnels.  In the first installment, I reviewed symptoms that may indicate the presence of illness.  I cited a hypothetical example of a B-to-B marketing effort to Fortune 100 companies that yielded zero sales. What went wrong in that example?  These questions may [...]


5 Important Skills for B2B Marketing in a Digital World

In the 20th century, traditional marketing typically meant that vendors searched for customers.  In the 21st century, a technology revolution (e.g., the Internet, dramatic increases in computing power) has reversed those roles.  Customers search for products, services and vendors before companies can reach them.  Technology has also enabled something that’s incredibly useful:  All parts of [...]


Old CMOs, New CMOs and Broken Marketing Organizations – Part 1 of CMO Series

This is the first in a series of posts about CMOs and the challenges they face. Our team recently spent time pondering common threads pertaining to broken marketing departments, CMOs who fix (or try to fix) them, and how executives in other functions perceive their performance.  Some blog posts and articles from GigaOM, Tippingpoint Labs, [...]


Is Your Funnel Sick? – Part 1 of Funnel Series

This is the first in a series of blog postings about sick sales funnels, a notion that IDC popularized in 2011. I’ll explore this malady by explaining how to recognize warning signs, perform a diagnosis, and treat underlying causes. We view a funnel as a sales process owned jointly by sales and marketing. Both organizations [...]


Joining the Cloud family to enable Sales effectiveness

Dear Readers, I write today’s post with a feeling of pride and excitement. I’m proud that LeadFormix is now part of CallidusCloud, the leader in sales effectiveness and cloud computing. I’m excited about LeadFormix’s prospects for the future, given the close synergies Callidus Software and LeadFormix share. CallidusCloud delivers a comprehensive SaaS suite designed to [...]


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