B2B Reads: Avoid Pitfalls, Sell More By Saying Less, & Best 4-Letter Words

In addition to our Sunday App of the Week feature, we also summarize some of our favorite B2B sales & marketing posts from around the web each week. We’ll miss a ton of great stuff, so if you found something you think is worth sharing please add it to the comments below.

Five Ways to Avoid the Pitfalls of Binary Decisions
Which decisions, with what stakes, and on what timeline—these are just a few of the contextual factors most of us would want to consider before answering. Thank you for the great read, Eric McNulty.

Do You and Your Customers Have A Real Deal?
We and our customers wasted huge amounts of time and resources on deals that are not and may have never been “real,” though both we and the customer thought they were. Here are four conditions that we and our customers must meet to maximize the probability that the buying effort is real and can end successfully. Thank you, David Brock, for the great read.

How To Sell More By Saying Less
Today, there are far too many variables for customers to focus on individual features and benefits. Learn a unique storytelling framework that will help you leverage the power of stories. Thank you for the great read, Michael Stelzner.

B2B and B2C Boundaries Are Blurring
From a marketer’s perspective, many of the same principles, objectives and strategies now apply equally. And b-to-b is rapidly catching up in terms of customer focus, creative innovation and digital savviness. Thank you for the great read, Joseph Taiano.

What To Do When A Too-Heavy Workload Is Stressing You Out
Managing stress at work is difficult even in the best of times. Here are a few strategies if your too-heavy workload is stressing you out. Thank you, Rashan Dixon, for the great read.

Don’t Let Power Corrupt You
Although power is essential to taking charge and driving change, it makes leaders vulnerable to two traps that can not only erode their own effectiveness but also undermine their teams. Thank you, Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro, for the great read.

The 5 Best Four-Letter Words Leaders Can Practice Today
Remarkable success begins simply. Fools make simple things complicated. Complexity leads to confusion. Confusion produces anxiety. Anxiety creates insecurity. Insecurity leads to stagnation. Thank you for the great read, Dan Rockwell.

Using Plain Language Questions To Enable More Effective Change
Effective change is ultimately about engaging people, working with and through others to achieve change success. But when working collaboratively with others, using jargon and buzzwords creates unnecessary barriers. Thank you, Lisa Kempton, for the great read.

The Sea We Swim In: How Stories Work in a Data-Driven World
The brain is a pattern-seeking organ, and stories are all about providing patterns. They help us orient ourselves in the world in ways we may barely register. Thank you for the great read, Frank Rose.

10 Tough Questions to Evaluate Your Target Account List
In a far-gone era, when demand generation was “direct marketing,” it was often said that for any campaign to be successful, the list was paramount.  Do everything else right (message, offer, creative, etc.), the experts told us, and, if you’re sending to the wrong people, it’s all for nought. Fast-forward 20 years to a world of Account-Based Marketing (ABM), and little has changed. Thank you for the great read, Howard Sewell.