Stevens consults on customer acquisition and retention, teaches marketing at Columbia Business School and blogs at HBR.org. . An Interview with Ruth P. Stevens and Bernice Grossman. am pleased to welcome Ruth P.  Stevens and Bernice Grossman, two well recognized B2B direct marketing experts.    Ruth P. Bernice Grossman created DMRS Group an independent marketing database consultancy. Ruth & Bernice…thanks for joining me today.    The B2B community has found a lot of value in the research   that your organizations have conducted in database marketing. The user generated, i.e, MORE >>

Finally, the marketing team may value market intelligence that is gathered during the course of Lead Generation for market assessment and segementation: competitive landscape, use of custom solutions, engagement of third parties such as consultants, systems integrators or service bureaus etc. Which to consider: lead generation or appointment setting? Answer: both. Both approaches are highly effective for building sales pipelines. There are eight criteria that you can use to determine which teleprospecting method will be most appropriate but let's start by contrasting the two methods. MORE >>

B2B marketers who target customers and prospects with the same Batch & Blast email risk reducing returns and compromising customer relationships. MORE >>

The large tech company needs marketing specialists while small tech requires generalists with expertise in customer acquisition. Would you rather be called a generalist    or a jack-of-all-trades ? Or would it be preferable to be called a Full-Stack Marketer ? recent post in Geekwire by Marcelo Calbucci talks about the unique skills of a Full-Stack Marketer for tech start-ups. The head of marketing at Uberflip followed with his perspective on  Uberflip’s blog. believe that the term Full-Stack Marketer as appealing as it is, falls short in defining the marketer at a tech start-up. MORE >>

Segmentation requires an in-depth understanding of customers generated through analysis and research.   For those interested in segmentation, yet resource or budget challenged, I would like to share an alternative approach to segmentation that focuses on analysis: Customer List – create a list of all of your customers, both active and dormant. Win / Loss Report – compile a list of all lost customers. Attributes & Metrics – list the metrics that define high value customers such as revenue, volume, profitability, frequency and recency of purchase.  MORE >>