Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 1, 2018

When I first pioneered the concept of buyer insights research and developing buyer personas seventeen plus years ago, the “sales funnel” was something you could count on not changing that drastically over a few years. Back in 1994, there was a book by Bradley Gale entitled Managing Customer Value. It was ahead of its time.

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Buyer Personas Lead Ranking Digital Marketing Funnels Urgency Marketing 174

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 12, 2010

.  As B2B businesses seek to achieve post-recession revenue growth, they also must confront the issue of how to rethink long standing conventional practices in sales they know must change to meet this challenge head on.    Sales management has become defined primarily by implementing and enforcing methodology and processes. 

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B2B Sales Buyer Personas Multi-Channel B2B 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 2, 2022

On the other hand, it has meant engaging in an uneasy, even squeamish, relationship with countries and economies that do not prescribe to important values related to human rights and freedom. An important insight is many corporations lead with Environmental when talking about ESG.

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Order Business Planning Demand 147

Tony Zambito

MARCH 6, 2017

Approximately forty years ago, 83% of the market value of the S&P 500 were tied to tangible assets – physical products. Intangible assets, such as copyrights, patents, training, procedures, data, digital innovations, and intellectual property, now comprise 84% of the market value of the S&P 500. Take, for example, Nike.

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Digital Transformation Buyer Personas Lead Ranking B2B 253

Tony Zambito

MARCH 23, 2011

The good old days, for some sales and marketing people, were the days huddling up for the big presentation.    Everyone working on their portion of the sales pitch to be sure they are in tune and in the right key – just like an American Idol contest.  Image by TheeErin via Flickr.

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Peer-to-peer Network Marketing Buy Education 100

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 20, 2015

Documentation Leads To Effectiveness. The implication here is buyer personas should not be an art gallery but a dynamic part of marketing, sales, and service operations. Communicating The Value. The survey indicated a top challenge was getting the organization as a whole to value personas. A Step In The Right Direction.

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Buyer Personas Research Studies Demand Generation Agencies 100

Tony Zambito

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

Recently, I published two articles related to 5 ways buyer behaviors are affecting B2B sales , and 5 ways they are affecting B2B marketing. Without question, changing buyer behaviors are also impacting how we think about Demand Generation or as it has been conventionally called – lead generation. And labels can be a dangerous thing.

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Demand Generation Lead Ranking Demand Generation 100

Tony Zambito

JUNE 6, 2017

This growth in the volume of data has spawned numerous types of data analytics services provided for marketing and sales management to deal with the ever-increasing volume of data. In B2C, this has significant value. The future then perhaps leading to Thick Buyer Insights. Insular We Have Become.

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Marketing AI Paid Search Agency Buyer Personas Companies 214

Tony Zambito

MARCH 6, 2016

Myths Hurting B2B Marketing And Sales. Unknowingly, B2B executives can make important decisions relative to marketing and sales strategies based upon mythical assumptions. Myth 4: Buyers receive and clearly understand existing marketing and sales messaging. Yet many marketing and sales strategies operate on this assumption.

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Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles B2B 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.    I am not sure this is a good thing for both buyer persona development and for sales or marketing in general. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Research Ideal Customer Profiles Demand Generation Agencies 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

  Previously, I had written about Buyer Perceived Values (BPV)© and the need to understand how buyers prioritize values.    Gaining deep understanding of complex perceived values and risks provides a window into the mind of the buyer as well as the business culture of an organization.  Related articles.

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Tony Zambito

JANUARY 29, 2017

Although many organizations are recognizing this strategic necessity, many are either not devoting enough resources, putting the majority of their spending in inadequate traditional methods, or have not enabled insights to achieve a valued seat in strategy. One that leads to organic growth in existing and new markets.

Digital Transformation 100

Digital Transformation Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles B2B Thought Leadership 100

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 3, 2016

Nearly 60% indicated they were frustrated their buyer personas were based on typical product management and sales intelligence factors and did not result in the expected deeper understanding – this is the same result from the previous year. The remaining is split between sales enablement and corporate strategy. Reflective Commentary.

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Buyer Personas Correlation Effectiveness Ideal Customer Profiles 100

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 4, 2010

  An important attribute that B2B CEO’s will need to possess to lead organizations in Buyer Experience Innovation is ecosystem thinking.    The roles of sales and marketing with respect to engagement are best defined when shaped by how they contribute to the overall buyer experience. 

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Buyer Personas Marketing Automation Services Buying Cycle Lead Ranking 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 10, 2011

  Have they provided the right level of training to marketing and sales on how to adapt to the social buyer persona?    Establishing a new social buyer persona footprint is critical to marketing, sales, and service readiness for the social buyer.  The Link Between Lead Nurturing and Buyer Experience Marketing.

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Buyer Personas Organization Buying Cycle Buyer's Journey 100

Tony Zambito

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

The value of customer segmentation is it can tell you where to point your marketing and messaging. This can include the use of tracking from sales automation and marketing automation to keep honing in on the profile of buyers most likely to engage. These became commonplace practices in sales well before digital capabilities.

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Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles Segmentation Profiling 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 21, 2010

Optimizing revenue growth is by far the toughest assignment for sales and marketing today.    Buyer Silo View : An underlying theme in the sales and marketing alignment debate has been the problematic issue of silo thinking each area can engage in.  Image by jackanapes via Flickr.

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Tony Zambito

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

  For many B2B CEO’s, they are witnessing the conventional strategies associated with sales and marketing being dismissed and tossed aside by buyers at an alarming rate.  Alignment : The issue of sales and marketing alignment has been written about extensively over the past few years. 

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Buyer Personas Buying Cycle B2B Lead Ranking 100

Tony Zambito

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

  This rethinking raises questions as well as the dialogue today on the effectiveness of the traditional functions of sales, marketing, support, and customer service.     Viewing what each function is capable of in isolation and missing the harmonizing around the buyer experience. 

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Buyer Personas Marketing Automation Services Buyer's Journey 100

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 27, 2010

One of the macro trends Lauren highlights is that buyers want content of real value.    It has been written about often over the past year that sales are not able to engage until further down the buyer journey and marketing has a tough job of “warming up” the buyer for sales engagement. 

Trends 100

Trends Peer-to-peer Buyer Personas Marketing Automation Services 100

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 25, 2010

.  Paul Greenberg , a prolific speaker and leading thinker on Social CRM and author of CRM at the Speed of Light has written and spoken often on the notion that customers and buyers are not expecting just a product but are expecting experiences. 

Design 100

Design Buyer Personas B2B Thought Leadership Multi-Channel 100

Tony Zambito

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

  This rethinking raises questions as well as the dialogue today on the effectiveness of the traditional functions of sales, marketing, support, and customer service.     Viewing what each function is capable of in isolation and missing the harmonizing around the buyer experience. 

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Buyer Personas Buyer's Journey Digital Marketing Funnels 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 8, 2015

Leading the organization to restructure important content towards instilling confidence in goals being reached versus a constant reminder of fear. Identify key interactions : experience and journey mapping can help companies gain insights into which types of interactions buyers’ value. Aligning With Goals. Related articles.

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Buy Buyer Personas Acquisitions Correlation 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 18, 2011

  This phenomenon is causing turmoil in the rank and file infrastructure of B2B Marketing and B2B Sales.  .  The degree of interactions amongst buyers, both at a group and individual level, is most likely at the highest levels in the history of B2B selling and buying. 

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Peer-to-peer Buyer Personas B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 16, 2010

.   In collaborating with Kevin Hooper, VP of EMG at HP, we’ve been able to work with an innovator and pioneer in the use of buyer persona strategy development that provides insights for the creation of sales and buyer enablement strategies.   The press release can be found at: [link].

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Buyer Personas Marketing & Strategy Enterprise Management Buying Cycle 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 7, 2010

  What has been ingrained in organizations is to “save the good stuff” for the sales call or the marketing campaign.   For some, a very counterintuitive notion when one comes up through the ranks with the rule of not showing your best hand until you get in front of the customer.   Tags: Strategy.

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Transparency Buyer Personas Correlation Deliverability 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

This is the first of a series of articles planned on looking at buyer trends that will influence marketing and sales in the near and foreseeable future.    We’ve learned in the past few years about the value as well as the role content can play in the early stages of buying processes.  Image via Wikipedia.

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Trends Content Wikipedia Custom Publishing 100

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 25, 2010

  When it comes to finding the disruptive edge in B2B sales and marketing, understanding and leveraging buyer goals is paramount. When designing a product or service, gaining insight and leveraging these types of goals can lead to a well designed product. In this segment of the Buyer Persona 2.0

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Buyer Personas Lead Ranking Customer Satisfaction Correlation 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

  Buyer Interaction Modeling : For every stage in the buyer’s journey, interactions that correlate to a buyer’s journey lead to successful buyer experience design.  .  In this series, I have presented the Seven Principles of Buyer Experience Journey Mapping and the Seven Stages of the Buyer Experience Journey as primers. 

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Design Buyer Personas B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 13, 2011

  Pine and Gilmore can be characterized as oracles for they offered the premise that we were entering an experience economy where value was created by staging memorable experiences for customers.    The old school of compartmentalizing processes into sales, marketing, and service is in serious need of an extreme makeover. 

B2B Sales 100

B2B Sales Paid Search Agency Barriers Work Management 100

Tony Zambito

JULY 18, 2011

  Primarily, like most definitions in business, the term was adopted as well as co-opted to put a new label on practices that have been around for a few decades in marketing and sales.    The science of goal orientation leads to discovering the often hidden and unarticulated roots of “why” people buy. 

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Buyer Personas Lead Ranking Ideal Customer Profiles Opt-out 100

Tony Zambito

JULY 6, 2011

As an individual with a background in marketing and sales, I began to think of how this could be a process to help make informed decisions not just about users but also buyers.    They amount to glorified buyer profiles that do not possess revealing insights that shape marketing or sales strategy. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Peer-to-peer Ideal Customer Profiles Psychographics 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 2, 2008

I recently read and listened to on Brian Carroll's blog, B2B Lead Generation Blog , an interesting Podcast about the new role of sales as expert content filters. Brian brings up the notion that today's role for sales people has changed due to the advent of the Internet. What is the role of sales professionals in the future?

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Buyer Personas Buying Cycle Knowledge Base Internet Marketing 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.   Or, we have witnessed the debate whether marketing should talk to sales when crafting buyer personas.   What then is meant by gathering Buyer Insight ? .

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Buyer Personas Lead Ranking User-Generated Content Barriers 100

Tony Zambito

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

.   Where this can become problematic in gaining senior leadership adoption of buyer personas is when these leaders have risen through the ranks and are experienced with profiling.   This can provide tremendous insight and background for sales and marketing teams on how to align their own processes with that of the buyer.

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Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles Profiling Lead Ranking 100

Tony Zambito

AUGUST 2, 2011

.  Getting at how and why buyers buy is an anthropological inspired behavioral and cultural research effort and not a market or sales research question.    Conventional market research and sales research or probing methods do not provide insight into these all important determinants. 

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Buyer Personas Viral Marketing Ideal Customer Profiles B2B Sales 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 17, 2011

In the world of marketing and sales, we are seeing the need for contextual understanding due to a very relevant fact: the context we understood for many years about buyer behavior has drastically changed due to social technologies.  Older   Why is Context Important Now?   Related articles.

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Buyer Personas Buying Cycle Buyer's Journey Demand Generation Agencies 100