B2B Reads: Gen Z’s Favorite Brands, The Project Economy Is Here, & The Meat Of The Brand

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.

Leadership Kindness
Strong leadership will be essential as companies learn from the past, confront urgent issues head on and plan for the future. Thank you, Lili Powell, for the great read.

The Dangers Of Strategy Myopia
The reason growth is threatened, slowed, or stopped is not because the market is saturated. It is because there has been a failure of management. Thank you for the great read, Steve McKee.

Why Roblox, Patagonia, Ethereum & Disney Are Among Gen Z’s Favorite Brands
Gen Zers are increasingly drawn to values-based communities – and that the brands who are garnering the most affinity among young people are those that engage with these communities in authentic, humanistic ways. Thank you for the great read, Kendra Clark.

It’s All in Your Head: How to Shift Your Mindset for Serious Success
Regardless of how skilled you may be or how awesome a product or service is, it’s your mindset that will make or break a business. Thank you for the great read, Krista Mashore. 

With Workers Largely at Home, B-to-B Marketers Devise New Ways to Find Customers
The pandemic shift to working from home means decision makers aren’t at the office when the business-to-business catalogs arrive, especially at the height of lockdown. So now marketers are needing to get creative  to devise new ways to engage new customers. Thank you, Tara Weiss, for the great read.

5 Advanced Selling Skills (& the Techniques to Nail Them)
Exceptional salespeople don’t separate themselves from the pack by doing what everyone else is doing and hoping for the best. They go above and beyond, and you can’t do that if you lean exclusively on conventional sales skills. Thank you for the great read, Jay Fuchs.

4 Ways Managers Screw-up One-to-One’s
Let people know it’s their meeting, not your meeting. Listening and letting them do most of the talking shows they matter. Thank you for the great read, Dan Rockwell.

The Project Economy Has Arrived
Quietly but powerfully, projects have displaced operations as the economic engine of our times. Driving both short-term performance and long-term value creation for companies across the globe. Thank you, Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, for the great read.

The Meat Of The Brand That B2B Marketers Always Forget
Business-to-business (B2B) sales can be tricky, but not if you envision your brand like a sandwich. Make sure to focus on the often forgotten middle part of your brand where all of the tasty connections are. Thank you for the great read, Scott Gillum.

14 Emerging B2B Marketing Trends That Will Stand The Test Of Time
Trends in B2B marketing have always evolved and changed to better reflect the market’s behavior. Here, 14 Forbes Agency Council members share their thoughts and predictions on which of these trends will endure beyond this particular moment in history to stand the test of time, and why. Thank you for the great read, Forbes Expert Panel.