Annoucing a new family member
Lydia getting some rest : )
Our first family photo with Lydia. A happy family of five!
I feel very grateful and blessed.

Lydia getting some rest : )
Our first family photo with Lydia. A happy family of five!
I feel very grateful and blessed.
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I had a great time doing my webinar on putting the human touch into lead generation sponsored by Citrix Online and we had almost 1600 people register. Wow!
In my presentation I emphasized how lead nurturing is about timing, consistency and relevance.
Today (which happens to be my 38th birthday) I got this email with a personal video from Gary Anderson, CEO of NetBriefings. I wanted to share this with you because I think it is a great example of lead nurturing by combining the human touch and timing in a personal way that connected with their business value proposition.
Brian, I heard it was your Birthday today! Here is my personal Birthday Video Greeting!
http://proclaim.netbriefings.com/flv/nb/nsux9/nbnsux9101573/
Have a Great Day!!!! You deserve it!!
Gary W. Anderson
The video is 29 seconds but it made my day and I must confess that it caused me to think about his company (which is the point). Please note: it's not a polished or pretty video but he put in some effort to be personal and that's what made it stand out. That said, I don't think this would work for everybody. Let me know what you think.
There are numerous tactics for generating leads these days — everything from the traditional email or phone call to the explosively popular social media craze. However, the real challenge is not necessarily in generating leads, but more in truly connecting with them. It doesn’t matter how many leads you generate if they aren’t willing to listen to what you have to say next.
You need to develop and then engage in memorable and relevant conversations with prospects. You need to position your company as a thought leader and solution provider that understands your prospect’s needs. You need that “human touch.”
During this one-hour, live webinar you will learn how to:
I’m teaming up with Citrix Online to bring this webinar to marketers of all levels. Whether you are a VP of Marketing, a VP or Director of Sales, or a Sales or Marketing Consultant, you’ll learn how to connect by sharing your expertise.
Craig Rosenberg recently created a list of the most influential people in B2B Demand Generation, and I’m honored to have been included. Many know Craig through his blog, Funnelholic, or through his company Tippit. Funnelholic is a very insightful and original B2B marketing blog written for those marketers who live and work at the top of the B2B funnel.
Others bloggers named to Craig’s 2008 Top of the Funnel List include Jon Miller, the author of Modern B2B Marketing blog, and Michael Stelzner, the author of Writing White Papers Blog and many other great resources. I feel privileged to be in such great company. Thanks Craig. Check out the Craig's 2008 Top of the Funnel List
To what extent can you substitute emails for telephone calls and face-to-face meetings when maintaining and developing relationships with clients and other key market contacts? The answer to this frequently-asked-question affects how you spend your precious business development time and money. Getting it right will improve your sales effectiveness. No wonder it’s so frequently asked. But what is the answer?
On September 22, four bloggers will post their answers simultaneously. They are:
We hope this attention to the issue generates conversation on the subject with all of our readers.
This morning I was talking to a marketing leader about his 2008 strategy and he brought up some concerns he had about the economy and its potential impact on him and others. Can you blame him?
In years past, marketing has been favorite target for cuts by CFOs and CEOs as they look to conserve cash and reinforce their balance sheets for tough times.
I’m less concerned about budget cuts and more interested in opportunities for him and other B2B marketers who choose to bring focus to their marketing efforts. We have to remember that regardless of the economy, sales people are still expected to perform. I seldom find sales quotas are lowered to fit the news headlines.
If you want to flourish regardless of the economic conditions, you need to look for ways to help your sales team execute and improve performance.
I’m convinced that one of the best ways to do that is to focus on lead generation. Yesterday, I read a Kate Maddox's article in BtoB Magazine, "IDC: Tougher times for tech marketing," which supports that other B2B marketers are doing just that.
Much like a savvy investor who buys when the market is down, smart marketers can capitalize on this opportunity (and beat competitors), by bringing focus and attention to their lead generation efforts.
Continue reading "Fear not! Think like a savvy investor with lead generation" »
I spoke yesterday at MarketingSherpa's Demand Generation Summit and I felt led to go off topic for a bit to address why I do, what I do. Personally, I've been pondering the idea of passion and what role it plays in our careers as marketers or leaders.
Read Mike Volpe's summary of my presentation at the the Small Business Hub Blog.
In my short aside, I ended up talking about things we marketers often don't talk about. Our heart. What drives us? What role does the heart play in our job as marketers?
How do we create relevance for ourselves, our colleagues, and those future customers we hope to reach and influence?
Can you market something without passion and still be successful? If so, why would you want to?
I've wondered how we can be passionate advocates to others outside our companies if we don't have close relationships and trust inside our companies?
To me, disharmony is the enemy of execution. I liked something Seth wrote a while back, "...just about every successful venture is based on an unoriginal idea, beautifully executed." I agree.
In this age of automation, depersonalization, scoring and measurement, I'm not seeing the "human touch" in B2B marketing. So how can we humanize the process and actually build relationships?
Ardath Albee, over at Marketing Interactions, tagged me for a meme "8 random things about me." Let me see... random…
Okay this is off the top of my head:
Well that's about as random as I could get. Ardath, thanks for the tag.
Continue reading "Off topic: Response to meme - 8 Random Things About Me" »
Fellow blogger Tom Pick, over at the The WebMarketCentral Blog tagged me to write something off topic, interesting, seasonal and non-work related this week. I liked Tom's off topic post (great pictures) chronicling his kid's deluxe tree house that began "innocently as a tree deck." I love learning history so I'll see if I can meet at least a few of the above conditions in my off-topic post.
In the past, I've written about giving away ideas. But lately I've been wondering about selling ideas. So yesterday – somewhere between family, food and fireworks – I had a chance to think a bit about the Fourth of July and how it came to be. I believe history provides us a valuable lesson on how to sell an idea.
While historians may debate about the controversies and motives behind the signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they all agree that it represented two fundamental ideas; freedom and liberty.
But before the declaration letter was drafted and signed those two revolutionary ideas had to be sold. Here’s a story you may not know… I’ll give you a hint: before there was “voice of the customer” there was “voice of the people.”
Bryan Eisenberg: Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? : Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing
Debbie Weil: The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right
Jeff Thull: Exceptional Selling: How the Best Connect and Win in High Stakes Sales
John Coe: The Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales & Marketing
John Jantsch: Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide
Kristin Zhivago: Rivers of Revenue: What to Do When the Money Stops Flowing
Michael A. Stelzner: Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged
Ruth P. Stevens: Trade Show & Event Marketing : Plan, Promote & Profit
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