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Breakthrough Marketing
I've never really liked the old 'Painkiller vs. Vitamin' selling metaphor. And I've been repeatly drawn to this topic, maybe because I hear this old meme so often. It's too simplistic and often becomes an excuse for sales teams when they miss their numbers, with the...
My son Owen is a high school club volleyball player. While he isn't near the tallest, at almost 5 ft 10in and still growing, he definitely is the giant of our house. And his height DEFINITELY comes from Mom's size. Owen plays setter. Setter is, as I have learned, the...
It's a conversation as old as the hills in the B2B marketing world: VP of Sales to CMO - "We need a painkiller, our product is a vitamin" CMO to VP of Products - "Sales says we need a painkiller" VP of Products to CEO - "But our customers can't live without it" CEO to...
A client of mine recently launched their new Category initiative. They are both a technical and customer innovator in a hot, but crowded market, like pretty much all B2B technology innovators are. Their CEO views their #CategoryMeme as one of of their "Secret weapons"...
Spreading your #categoryMeme is the third step in our Penetrate, Replicate, Spread framework, and takes off right where Replicate ends, with Enablement, then goes to Embedding and Incentivizing #CategoryMeme spread. We discussed enablement of #CategoryMeme replication...
In order for a #CategoryMeme to spread, the third step of our Penetrate, Replicate, Spread framework, first, it must replicate itself, and do so as Brodie says, "faithfully". What does this mean? Our prospects and other market participants must be able to easily...
In my last post, I discussed the 3 steps to Category Success, borrowing from the work of Richard Brodie. These steps were: Penetration – The Category must enter the mind of market participantsFaithful Replication – The participants must be able to mirror and replicate...
When you write a business book, especially one where you set up the problem with market trends, you always worry that the trends you have identified are temporary or will end soon, making your books relevance plummet. To combat this, you really need to try to pick...
Before DancingCats, TidePods, BucketChallenges and other "memes" took over the internet, a branch of social science called Memetics was actually built around the idea of Memes. The term Meme was coined more than 40 years ago in the landmark book by Richard Dawkins...
Sometimes, you just have to net it out! After nearly 14 years as a GTM messaging advisor, this is one of those times. The other week, a client looked at my Messaging Hierarchy and asked, “what are the message deliverables out of this project?” a question I get a lot. And then I realized I had never mapped deliverables to my 4 M Model of “Method, Money, Magic, Mythos”
A few years ago, after completing an engagement with Lee Hecht Harrison in working on the narrative for the launch of what became known as their "Active Placement" service, their then CRO Kevin Gagan said to me: "Ken, when we started, we thought the strategy should...
Having written last on the "5 DIY B2B Messaging Mistakes" I've decided to address another challenge, hiring "Messaging Help", that consultant, agency or firm that's gonna help you get it right. And while I admit I have a biased view here, in the sense that I am a...
Messaging, after product and funding, is arguably the third key thing to get right for early stage B2B start-up success. Yet just the other day, a friend of mine who is a well respected Venture Capitalist said to me, "You know Ken, most of our early stage company...
View this on demand webinar and learn how companies like FireEye, SkyHigh and FastSpring leveraged my storytelling framework to establish and grow market and category leadership.
Get Out and Engage! - Why You Need Both Customer Empathy AND Intimacy to Drive Aligned Engagement Do you know what keeps your customers up at night? What gets them excited in the morning? Have you walked in their shoes? Do you seek to understand before being...
In my post of November 4th, I outlined the Five Messaging Habits of Highly Successful B2B Brands, in this post I'll take on 5 Bad Habits to Break. We all have bad habits, both in our personal and professional lives. Over the years, I've noticed 5 Messaging Habits that...
View the recording of my 5 Habits Webinar here Market Leaders do it better! When you are a follower, it feels like you are pushing a boulder uphill while your rival leader is like a snowball rolling down. So what are some of the messaging habits that Market Leaders...
Much is made by many including myself of getting your go to market narrative and value messaging nailed. SO IMPORTANT. Without a great story and value messaging, you can NEVER reach and leverage Message-Market Fit and achieve and grow market leadership. Aligning your...
One of the first questions that always comes up in EVERY messaging project I am part of is, "well who should be on the team". This may seem obvious, but the make-up of the team may be the number one determinate of the success of the project. So before we blurt out an...
It's become cliche' to talk these days about Customer Success. As companies scale beyond the first 50-100 customers, they often shift from a simple support mindset to a customer success one. They implement technology, appoint a VP or Director of Customer...
I recently read Yossi Klein Halevi's "Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor" a book I highly recommend for those interested in learning more about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. It offers hope and a path to a possible peace. BUT don't worry, this post is NOT about...
Many of us just don't know when to stop. We have product messaging overload. We are so proud of our babies and the myriad of features and amazing benefits we can talk, or write forever. But what we say doesn't stick! SO STOP. Your listener only can remember so many...
When I do workshops with clients to build their compelling go to market story, we always start the pre-session survey with what seems like a simple question : "What are the 1 or 2 big picture problems you help customers solve?" But it ends up really smart teams,...
I recently read an article in the Harvard Business Review called "The B2B Elements of Value" by Almquist, Cleghorn and Sherer, 3 Bain and Company consultants from San Francisco. It's a long somewhat complex article with one big take away for me, B2B buyers are people...
I whipped out a quick animation of Prospect Value Journeys. Audio to come soon