Tony Zambito

MAY 7, 2021

More like the last step in an initiative to deliver a new or redesigned product to market. Looking for specific insights and buyer personas that are going to help them with a product launch. Agencies can bring specialized services that help companies to make headway on reaching more buyers creatively and efficiently.

Buyer Personas 220

Buyer Personas Allocation Paid Search Agency Advertising Agencies 220

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 26, 2020

What may look like perhaps a simplified statement has three very important questions and components for B2B companies to examine as they reset due to COVID-19. Employing a goal-oriented approach towards buyers enables B2B companies to achieve their own goals. Forward leaning B2B companies will embrace two areas of growing importance.

Marketing & Strategy 245

Marketing & Strategy Buyer Personas B2B Sales Interactive Marketing 245

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 11, 2022

As a former head of strategy and sales, I knew that the old way of sales and product management/marketing thinking was not working. I knew it then some twenty years ago with the first-ever buyer insights research and buyer persona development engagement with the Reed Elsevier portfolio of companies. Here we are twenty years later.

Buyer Personas 262

Buyer Personas Cross-Selling Act-On Research 262

Tony Zambito

APRIL 30, 2021

We have heard the terms “organizational DNA” or “company DNA” often in attempts to articulate what an organization’s culture may be like. Companies who place value on gathering buyer insights to help inform how to attract, help, and retain buyers are establishing how their company is hard wired towards the buyer.

Buyer Personas 176

Buyer Personas B2B Sales Organic Leads Profiling 176

Tony Zambito

FEBRUARY 15, 2022

I have seen several SaaS companies and startups get tripped up in this area. The market-level trust allows for gaining access to critical insights from new buyers, new markets, and new product development efforts. Buyer insights are not just handed over by buyers and customers. They are earned. Why do earned buyer insights matter?

B2B Marketing 147

B2B Marketing B2B Trust Marketing Marketing & Strategy 147

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 12, 2020

If B2B companies are not thinking about this, planning for this, and doing something about this – they will bound to be in big trouble. This transformative upending in B2B commerce has led to both buyers and B2B organizations viewing customer experience as a more important factor than product and price.

Buyer Personas 310

Buyer Personas B2B Amazon Fulfillment 310

Tony Zambito

MARCH 2, 2022

As of this writing, we are beginning to see some oil companies begin to respond. Additionally, we have seen major tech companies, like Apple, ban the sale of their products to and within Russia. In other words, if customers and shareholders demand ESG accountability, are corporations willing to make the sacrifice it will mean?

Order 147

Order Business Planning Demand 147

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 1, 2020

It seems that a company today should make that option available and it’s surprising how many don’t.” Expand The Scope Of Sales : Sales for the past few decades have been focused almost entirely on improving sales effectiveness, productivity, and processes at the individual seller level.

Buy 309

Buy B2B Buyer Personas Buyer's Journey 309

Tony Zambito

MARCH 12, 2017

B2B companies are faced with the most transformative era in business history. More so than in consumer oriented markets, B2B markets had a degree of predictability that companies often relied on. As companies become flat organizationally, we are seeing the rise of collaborative teams and units. Illustration by Gregory Cresnar.

Buyer Personas 251

Buyer Personas B2B Digital Transformation B2B Sales 251

Tony Zambito

MAY 17, 2021

Jon Miller, chief marketing and product officer of Demandbase is advocating for ABX. Here is how it sounds from an actual buyer interview with a VP, Marketing for a Global 1,000 company: “One of our big goals for this year is to increase our ABM function. And adopting a lifecycle viewpoint. Get more responses if you will.”.

Account Based Marketing 224

Account Based Marketing ABM Buyer Personas Intent Signal 224

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 23, 2018

Whether they be market-based, production-based, or operations-based decisions. More and more companies are moving accounting and finance operations to the digital cloud. Data : Buyers are increasingly reliant on and building predictive data operations to help with their decision-making.

Digital Transformation 184

Digital Transformation Buyer Personas Work Management Marketing Management 184

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 29, 2017

Relying on a status quo of traditional means such as focus groups, win/loss oriented interviews, surveys, and buyer interviews that are grounded in conventional yet outdated sales and product marketing concepts. Especially as related to the veiled covering of old sales and product marketing methods and presenting as an expert method.

Digital Transformation 100

Digital Transformation Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles B2B Thought Leadership 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 29, 2020

What we need companies to do is to not make it so hard to fill in the gaps on what we need and how to solve.” – Kim, Senior Director of Finance. Essentially putting the customer and the buyer at the center of the organization’s delivery of products and services.

Internet Marketing 207

Internet Marketing Fulfillment Interactive Marketing Customer Surveys 207

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 27, 2018

If B2B companies are not thinking about this, planning for this, and doing something about this – they will bound to be in big trouble. This transformative upending in B2B commerce has led to both buyers and B2B organizations viewing customer experience as a more important factor than product and price.

B2B 165

B2B Amazon Buyer Personas Fulfillment 165

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 22, 2017

In the past few years, the yellow cab companies have been unable to stem a rapid decline from the onslaught of Uber, Lyft, Juno, Via, and other ride platforms. New business models and customer behaviors mean companies must adapt or be another statistic in the next ten years. Today, many buyers are also users and power users.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Digital Transformation Enterprise Management Account Based Marketing 100

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 23, 2016

For instance, the rise of platforms such as Amazon and LinkedIn has significantly shifted the way customers interact with products and services. As the digital economy continues to evolve globally, we are seeing an unprecedented convergence of market-oriented behaviors associated with the usages and purchases of products or services.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy Work Management 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 8, 2015

How new buyers and repeat customers are interacting with organizations today is putting many companies on the spot to adapt. Companies can be lulled into a false belief that their customers preferred way of interacting has not changed much. Towing a company line of “our customers have always done it this way” mentality.

Buy 100

Buy Buyer Personas Acquisitions Correlation 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 18, 2012

This is how a VP of Sales in the software industry put it to me recently in my research: “Here is what it looks like…we are actually selling more of our product into our larger accounts than ever before….but…over 500 listed companies across the globe. A New Challenge And A New Frontier. begin to appear every 3, 6, 9, or 12 months.

SMB 100

SMB Enterprise Management SME Work Management 100

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 18, 2015

At the same time, we also saw the prominence of product management and product marketing rise in 1980’s and 1990’s. The jobs of product marketers were to market to customers the product lines of the organization. User-centered design is based on the personification of interactions with digital products and software.

Ideal Customer Profiles 100

Ideal Customer Profiles Profiling Buyer Personas Marketing Management 100

Tony Zambito

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

This is especially true for companies organized by product lines with overlapping customer segments. And, not enough communications occurring between product marketing for each. Trying to gain a sense of what fits for them and how does a product or set of solutions help them.

Buyer Personas 0

Buyer Personas Planning Paid Search Agency Content 0

Tony Zambito

MARCH 24, 2011

In the new buyer experience economy , it is less about the product or service and more about creating value through experience.    The quality and usage of a product or service will always matter.    Businesses producing inferior products or services will fall off the radar screen of buyers. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Fulfillment Design B2B Sales 100

Tony Zambito

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

If you are a CMO or a marketer and you find yourself having a sudden realization that perhaps you are not quite sure of the differences, you will be in a lot of good company. This is especially crucial as organizations continue to evolve in transforming their business model from product-centric to customer-centric models.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles Segmentation Profiling 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 12, 2011

.  Setting up avenues for B2B buyers to place reviews of your product or service can be powerful – and yes – frightening.    Collaboration : Opening avenues of engagements to collaborate on innovation and new product development is another step B2B companies can take today to allow buyers to opt-in on engaging. . 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Word of Mouth WOM Curation 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

  At the same time, we have seen companies who have done admirable innovation of truly unique experiences that cut across an entire organization’s functions.  As we look to the future, the C-suite will in effect become the producers and directors of the experience theatre a company builds. 

Trends 100

Trends Content Wikipedia Custom Publishing 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 30, 2012

Darren Pleasance, a Principal with McKinsey & Company, recently covered this topic in an excellent article entitled, Serious about SMB experience? Then how come they don’t know that I talked to someone in their company already?” . This applies to both inbound and outbound efforts.

SMB 100

SMB Advertising Channels Enterprise Management Work Management 100

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 7, 2010

During the previous decade, we’ve seen a growing acceptance for the use of buyer personas to help guide effective product, sales, and marketing planning.   Crafting user personas for the design of products require a significant degree of observational and ethnographic based research.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Lead Ranking User-Generated Content Barriers 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 13, 2011

  The digital revolution has ushered in a new age of how products or services reach people that were unimaginable just a short ten years ago.    The mandate being finding channels to push and distribute products or services out to buyers.  Image by davidking via Flickr.  

B2B Sales 100

B2B Sales Paid Search Agency Barriers Work Management 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 7, 2008

When I first found myself in sales, like many of you, I was put through "product training" courses by the dozen. We were tested on the ins and outs of a specific product. Contests were held to see who knew about the product intently and expertly. And merit was based on superior product knowledge.

Buying Cycle 100

Buying Cycle Comparison Buyer Personas Marketing Management 100

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 25, 2010

When designing a product or service, gaining insight and leveraging these types of goals can lead to a well designed product.   These types of goals are significant when the focus is on product usage and understanding the end result a user is attempting to achieve.   As noted in Buyer Persona 2.0-Part

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Lead Ranking Customer Satisfaction Correlation 100

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 19, 2010

.  That is, the usual forms of this is who we are, here is our product introduction, what features and benefits we have, and you can all guess the rest.    One buyer put it this way in an interview: “look if I call and reach a rep and they start out with something like here is my product, click, I hang up. 

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Trends Conversion Buyer Personas 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 2, 2011

  This may be especially true in a company where there is a long rich history and you have an established customer base.    Also, you hear consistently about the same top, 5, 10, or 20 customers and prospective buyers and how great are the customers the company has and how those prospective buyers are just ready to close.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Trade Show Buzz Social Networks 100

Tony Zambito

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

  Intelligent Engagement begins to define the buyer’s real-time and social experience with what a company has to offer.    By the term “offer”, I do not mean just a service or product they are marketing and selling.  Moving beyond content alone is becoming the prerequisite to enhancing the buyer experience. 

Wikipedia 100

Wikipedia Correlation Social Media B2B Sales 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 4, 2011

  They have helped companies to gain insights into market opportunities, find out why challenges exists, depict buying processes, and how to map critical sales and marketing strategies to the goals of buyers.    Initially, research was conducted on users to help inform product and/or service design. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Research Ideal Customer Profiles Demand Generation Agencies 100

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 26, 2015

These two are: CEOs and CMOs have a growing concern about the relevancy of their products and services in the digital economy. This enables companies to gain deep insights that cannot be attained through surveys, focus groups, or through the use of telephone-based win/loss analysis. Redefining The Meaning Of Buyer Understanding.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas B2B Paid Search Agency Ideal Customer Profiles 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 28, 2011

  Nearly 20% of those surveyed indicated they engaged in the buying behaviors of researching online product reviews and other buyer opinions.  Poor quality of the product or service. .  However, the impact of social media and the digital age is becoming evident in this study.  Unexpected charges or fees.

Studies 100

Studies Spending Social Media Amazon 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

.  Put more simply: The impact of a bad choice is happening much faster, more people as well as organizations are aware when they happen, there are fewer chances to recover, and more damage to individual as well as company reputation.      Follow @TonyZambito.

Purchase 100

Purchase Correlation Barriers Sales Qualified Leads 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 19, 2012

If your lead generation strategies and tactics are designed around the buyer, then conversion rates will rise and productivity amongst marketing and sales personnel involved will rise. Buyer Training : Like built-in appliances, organizations have routinely conducted product and sales training.

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Lead Ranking Tactics Buyer Personas 100