a blog for those of us who live and work at the top end of the b2b funnel: Demand Generation, Lead Generation, Online Media, B2B Sales and Marketing, Marketing Automation, DRIP, Lead Nurturing, and Fun.

The first rule of b2b selling If it gets to the RFP stage, you lost.

According to a survey of B2B decision makers from MarketingSherpa, the first place on the web users go is search (64%), followed by directly to a known manufacturer (19%). The importance of proper placement in search is twofold; where your URL ranks in searches and if your URL is showing up for the right keyword searches.

I also recommend you provide your management with three B2B marketing budget options: minimum, target and stretch. These three budget levels reflect how much funding is required to meet your company's minimum, target and stretch sales revenue goals. You can explain that meeting the minimum sales goal will cost X dollars, meeting the target goal will cost Y dollars and meeting the stretch goal will cost Z dollars

B2B Branding: Why What Works for Starbucks Won't Work for You

n general, consumer-oriented companies tend to have simpler product offerings and value propositions.  As a result, they can more easily “brand-attach” their customers at the product level.  In contrast, B2B companies tend to have more complex products, services and value propositions.  In order to establish distinctive brands, they must separate their brand identity from the product or service and brand-attach their customers at a higher level,