I recently passed my 5 yr anniversary as a B2B marketing consultant in Silicon Valley and beyond.  In that time I’ve met some amazing CMOs and CEOs.  B2B Marketing is a never ending multi-layered multi-disciplinary challenge.  One , as I described to my daughters 4th...

Need feature benefit is the time tested sales and marketing technique that starts with a specific need, links a feature your product or service has to that need, and then proposes an expected benefit to be had.  This worked great 10 years ago in what I call the age of...

Market leadership is a very desirable position, there's no question about it.  However, new entrants are really faced with an uphill battle in establishing market leadership.  First of all, there is often an established category and leader. Second, in general, B2B...

As we saw in part 1 of this series, B2B Technology marketers are dealing with a new reality.  Information is abundant, Alternatives are Many and in response, Buyers are now fiercely independent and highly networked. Proving ROI means nothing except a check box, if you...

The second dimension of my Viewpoint is the articulation of a re-invented solution, which is covered in depth in this blog.  To quickly recap, this blog argued that you can re-invent your solution along 3 dimensions, Approach, Innovation and Mindset or AIM; show...

In this short series of blogs, I'll be applying my Viewpoint framework to explain why I think context, yes what I call Viewpoint, is so critical to Breakthrough, High Velocity B2B Marketing.   With deference to my friend and mentor Matt Church, who taught me not be...

Why do some companies, like FireEye, Zuora, and others raise their stories above the crowd, and get listened to and even obsessed over by prospects and customers alike?  I think it comes down to these simple, yet powerful three "cies": Consistency Veracity Ferocity...

I was in a client meeting yesterday, and a very interesting thing happened.  As we were reviewing website, the UE Web guy pulled up the Basecamp website.  After reviewing this site, which is pretty unique in its streamlined direct marketing approach, he said, "In many...

A quick Google of"Chief Content Officer" finds millions of entries, a wikipedia page and links to passionate blogs about the need for enterprises to have a CCO who can be the "corporate executive responsible for the digital media creation and multi-channel publication...

As I've blogged about here, marketers, especially high tech B2B marketers always overvalue value.  We tend to be enamored with the feature, function and benefits of our products and services.  And while I don't want to rehash the five reasons I've previously outlined,...

Salesforce, the granddady of them all in Cloud Computing, has shifted Viewpoints again. On August 31st of 2011, Salesforce announced the "Social Enterprise"  -" Our social enterprise vision fundamentally changes how companies collaborate, share and manage...

Introduction This is part 3 of a 3 part series on the mechanics of building Breakthrough Viewpoint.  This series is a "how to" guide to creating the 4 types of Breakthrough Viewpoints as described in this post - Trendspotting, Better Mousetrap, All Pain No Gain and...

Introduction: In part 1 of this blog series on Viewpoint, we explored the Y axis of the KJR Viewpoint framework, repeated below and discussed using the STEEP analysis method to label the Y-axis and defined point A, the "Trendspotting" Viewpoint.  In this blog, we will...

Introduction In my previous blog,  Standing out - 4 Types of Viewpoint That Can Get You Noticed I discussed how to find 4 spots on my Viewpoint Framework that can powerfully set you apart in the market and get you noticed.     The framework looks like this:  ...

(Ken's note: This blog is part of a series of blogs on Viewpoint.  After reading this introduction,  you may want to check out my step by step guide on developing your Viewpoint,  a 3 part series of blogs called - AIM STEEP to Build Breakthrough Viewpoint.) As I've...

I've been wondering a lot lately about the Technology Adoption Lifecycle and Geoffry Moore's classic Crossing the Chasm.   I believe that we are seeing the Chasm obliterated by technology and cultural changes.    I see three inter-related trends that are driving this...

When I talk about Viewpoint, the first question I usually get is, "well, who does this well?" The godfather of Viewpoint in the new era of cloud computing is clearly Salesforce.com.   As I have written here,  SalesForce.com's "The End of Software" created a unique and...

Sometimes the things we forget are as important as those we remember.  Well, here's 3 things I think we would all do to forget in our B2B go to market strategies... 1) Demo only when qualified - NO - Buyers come in MANY shapes and sizes, with MANY email addresses, and...

Jim Barksdale is a pretty quotable guy, work for him for a few years like I did at Netscape and you leave with a small library of "Barksdalisms" that just stick with you.  One of Jim's sayings was, "It ain't dogfood unless the dog comes off the porch to eat it..."....

Talking about his new book, “That Used to Be Us,” at a recent speech at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, best selling author Thomas Friedman said, “Average is over.  Everyone must define and develop their extra, that unique value add that justifies, in this...

When I used to go to London often and ride the Underground, the constant refrain seen was "Mind The Gap".   Mind the Gap or you could suffer some unmentionable and clearly gruesome fate.   As Online software service providers of all flavors try to create high velocity...