Chris Koch

JANUARY 22, 2010

This is the number of articles or blog posts that mention the product or service measured against the trend in sales. So if you buy that leap of logic, let’s say that blogs are another channel, like PR, in a marketing mix designed to familiarize customers and prospects with our companies and us. Lots of variables there.

Social Media 100

Social Media ROI Lead Ranking RSS 100

Chris Koch

MAY 15, 2012

As buyers do more searching, they are stretching the buying process earlier and earlier, to the point where they may not have a specific product or service in mind when they search. Most salespeople are still focused on selling specific products and services. How do I get these ideas in a form I can use with customers?

FAQ 100

FAQ Custom Publishing B2B Sales Work Management 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 7, 2012

I’m especially fond of the effect it has on my colleagues in SAP marketing: they understand that they no longer need to pitch products to get the attention of customers and prospects. That’s because customers and prospects actually come to the Forbes site and read our stuff. I give us a B- overall—not bad for a product company.

Disintermediation 100

Disintermediation B2B Marketing Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 13, 2010

The trajectory of Slater’s postings look a lot like the things that customers say about our complex B2B products and services, which have a much longer arc of relationship than B2C. Our customers aren’t going to do a United breaks guitars on us. Longtime customers look especially like Slater. What do you think?

Social Media 100

Social Media Media B2B SME 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 8, 2010

Companies that made commodity products would tell me with straight faces that even their financial processes were unique—GAAP be damned—and that they needed to customize their software to fit “our ways of doing things.” Recommend products and services that you haven’t thoroughly researched and you will most likely be out of a job.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 2, 2010

Let’s face it, even if it was possible to curl up in front of the fire with a glass of wine and our B2B products and services, no one would do it. Hey, it was the best thing we came up with at the meeting, so why wouldn’t customers like it, too!?). But for all of these things to hit, customers need to be able to connect them to people.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership B2B Marketing Marketing Budget Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 10, 2009

This depends on whether the products and services themselves are knowledge intensive. In industries where the product or service is very information intensive, such as research, management consulting, technology, aerospace, etc., Especially in B2B, products and services are becoming more complex and sales cycles are getting longer.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Work Management 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 17, 2009

It’s marketing 101: don’t hold your needs above those of your customers—and don’t defy the expectations that you set with them. But then Apple sent out confirmation emails to its customers listing a UPS tracking number link to track the progress of the shipment. Apple creates great products. So far, so good.

Marketing & Strategy 100

Marketing & Strategy Paid Search Agency Tagging Positioning 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 4, 2011

Publishers are left with a trickle of revenue and B2B companies discover just how uninterested a generic online audience is in their products and services. Though most respondents in our How Customers Choose research said the quality of their providers’ thought leadership was pretty good, nearly 40% said it could be better.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

This is the stage that occurs long before any discussion of products, services, or RFPs—indeed, it occurs before customers have even begun to think about a purchase. However, there is something important that happens at this stage: It is the point at which customers come to the realization of an important business need.

Social Media 100

Social Media Lead Generation B2B Thought Leadership Generation 100

Chris Koch

MAY 14, 2010

Our subject matter experts (SMEs) are talking to customers. We’re seeing companies use social media to bring customers into the product and service development processes to collaborate on new ideas and improvements. We’re seeing companies use social media for customer support. What do you think? Anything to add?

Organic Leads 100

Organic Leads Social Media Social Marketing Organization 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 11, 2014

The example I’m about to give focuses on the fact that if you think of sports fans as business customers, they are the most loyal in the world. Sports teams are looking to change this dynamic by embracing metrics that help them quantify the value of loyal customers beyond ticket purchases – and reward those customers for their loyalty.

Loyalty 100

Loyalty Eye-Tracking Mobile Marketing Stats 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

Consultant Fred Reichheld didn’t invent the concept of customer loyalty, but by identifying the marker for it, he changed how many companies approach managing customer loyalty. For example, IBM creates specific versions of its thought leadership materials for salespeople to use during their discussions with customers.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Loyalty Case Study 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

Consultant Fred Reichheld didn’t invent the concept of customer loyalty, but by identifying the marker for it, he changed how many companies approach managing customer loyalty. For example, IBM creates specific versions of its thought leadership materials for salespeople to use during their discussions with customers.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Loyalty Case Study 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

I’m hearing a lot from clients and researchers about how vast swaths of salespeople need to be eliminated as companies transition from selling products to services and solutions. But I think we start slicing the genetic material a little too thinly when we separate the product salespeople from the services salespeople. Do the research.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Consulting B2B Sales Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

I’m hearing a lot from clients and researchers about how vast swaths of salespeople need to be eliminated as companies transition from selling products to services and solutions. But I think we start slicing the genetic material a little too thinly when we separate the product salespeople from the services salespeople. Do the research.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services B2B Sales Consulting Marketing Automation 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 29, 2009

Even if we believe deeply in the power of social media, we all have that gnawing feeling deep in our guts that says that there’s little reason for a busy, intelligent person to want to receive frequent updates about our brands when those brands produce complex services and products with two-year sales cycles. The research confirms it.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management B2B Marketing B2B Thought Leadership Marketing Management 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

I heard a great definition from my former ITSMA colleague Jeff Sands the other day: Sales enablement is helping salespeople be more credible with customers. Marketers helped salespeople put words to the insanely complex products and services they were trying to sell. We all know how sales enablement got started in B2B.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Wiki Marketing Management Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 18, 2011

At the other end of the spectrum are the brochures that masquerade as idea marketing by making the offering descriptions longer and the production values higher. Marketers tell me that if they can get salespeople to even send the thing to prospects and customers they’re happy. We need to do much more than that.

Work Management 100

Work Management Thought Leadership Marketing Management Paper 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 18, 2012

As I interview SMEs around SAP and external influencers like analysts and customers, I want to be able to share the raw ideas in their earliest stages so that I can inform people and get their feedback. I’m excited about the prospect of not just presenting ideas to the SCN community but also in building ideas with this community.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Communities Transparency 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

Most of the marketers I talk to are trying to reach a few top executives in big organizations who make buying decisions about big, complex products and services. For these marketers, the pool of customers and prospects is small and many of them do not want to engage publicly in social media or are simply ignoring it altogether.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

Most of the marketers I talk to are trying to reach a few top executives in big organizations who make buying decisions about big, complex products and services. For these marketers, the pool of customers and prospects is small and many of them do not want to engage publicly in social media or are simply ignoring it altogether.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 21, 2009

Recently, I was asked by a former ITSMA client to help put together a plan for a thought leadership program for a B2B technology company that sells both products and services. Survey internal sales and marketing staff, customers, target markets, and influencers to determine what they are looking for.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing Paper 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 21, 2009

Recently, I was asked by a former ITSMA client to help put together a plan for a thought leadership program for a B2B technology company that sells both products and services. Survey internal sales and marketing staff, customers, target markets, and influencers to determine what they are looking for.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

First, let’s define what PR means from the perspective of the customer (i.e., a journalist) and the customer’s customer (i.e., Your customer hates and avoids you. These aren’t the people you want talking to influencers and customers. And customers never read the releases. As in dead. Don’t do it anymore.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 15, 2010

But a quick read of our magazine showed that we didn’t write about products. Today, more salespeople are able to have business and strategy discussions with customers and take the time to listen to their needs. The IT industry was on fire and the stuff was flying out the doors. Kind of a Fortune magazine for IT executives.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

JULY 24, 2009

using data to determine and predict customer buying patterns. That lets them be more productive in marketing, by focusing effort and budget on the good stuff, and it lets them reduce the time to a sale by giving salespeople better tools to work with. We know from our research that we in marketing don’t do much with analytics—i.e.,

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

JULY 24, 2009

using data to determine and predict customer buying patterns. That lets them be more productive in marketing, by focusing effort and budget on the good stuff, and it lets them reduce the time to a sale by giving salespeople better tools to work with. We know from our research that we in marketing don’t do much with analytics—i.e.,

Lead Qualification 100

Lead Qualification Marketing Automation Services Lead Ranking Lead Scoring 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 30, 2009

Most of ITSMA’s clients are B2B marketers from big technology companies that sell big, complex products, services, and solutions. Specifically, frustration over how to use social media to reach the C-suite. In fact, it’s hard for most of us to imagine these people using social media at all. CEOs Use Social Media More than Other Buyers.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Enterprise Management Media 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

Publishers (the good ones, anyway) gave some of the most prominent pages in their newspapers and magazines to advertisers in return for a lot of cash, access to a targeted group of customers, and editorial independence from advertiser influence. What’s the point? Association in action: Smarter Planet.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 7, 2011

A lot of B2C social media marketing can come out of the marketing group because consumers are looking for deals, product information, and peer reviews. You have to tweet ideas for solving customers’ problems. Marketers can handle all that stuff. But you can’t tweet a 50%-off coupon in B2B. Marketing can’t do that on its own.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Peer-to-peer 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 7, 2011

A lot of B2C social media marketing can come out of the marketing group because consumers are looking for deals, product information, and peer reviews. You have to tweet ideas for solving customers’ problems. Marketers can handle all that stuff. But you can’t tweet a 50%-off coupon in B2B. Marketing can’t do that on its own.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Peer-to-peer 100

Chris Koch

JULY 10, 2009

Since the vbook explains the need for reliable connectivity (Level 3’s product), if the user browsed through several sections, we could reliably consider them a warm lead. Level of interest (we’re here because we’re interested in learning about business issues, not your products). Phone (c’mon—it’s a new century).

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

But research by my colleague Stephanie Overby has found that the real workhorse driving increased customization of manufactured goods on the production line is the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Machine. CNC machines make it easier for companies to customize products; alterations are just a matter of reprogramming the software.

Startups 100

Startups High Quality Lead Cost Order 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 28, 2010

From Facebook to email to putting telephones on employees’ desks (remember, the telephone started as a “consumer” communication technology, too), companies think that every new wave is going to lead to gajillions in lost productivity. The ultimate risk in business is that your customers stop buying from you because they don’t trust you.

Planning 100

Planning Work Management Paid Search Agency B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 12, 2012

Connectedness equals productivity, as we discovered (eventually) with PCs and laptops in earlier times that began just as chaotically as mobile has. PCs and laptops have always been about the applications they enable rather than an overall experience that they create for users and customers. Far from it. Make mobility “fit the purpose.”

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Lock-In Marketing Management Paper 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 5, 2010

It may look better and read better than a brochure, but it’s still a brochure because it emphasizes our products and services over the needs of the people we are trying to reach. It presupposes that we have something to talk about besides our products and services. What a mouthful. It is not about positioning your offerings at all.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Gartner Planning 100