marketing

Build and Amplify Your Reputation

Understanding and shaping perception is the first step to building a successful reputation, and to be an effective marketer, you must do everything in your power to build, control, and stimulate it. It is particularly important for technology startups to cultivate a positive perception - you want to be perceived as successful before you are actually successful. Success can be communicated in three ways: inferred, referred, and proven.

Every CMO Should Try To Sell

About 17 years ago, I was a software sales guy. I had been a product manager for a product that did not exist. We had just gotten a new CEO and he told me to go and create the PRD (Product Requirements Document) for a web-enabled version of our property management and central reservation system. I completed this assignment and the product was ultimately developed ...

Losing Sleep Over B2B Tech Conversion Rates

Ask any VP of Sales or CEO to explain their pipeline conversion rates. Often, they will jump right to the win rate: “We win at least 50 percent of the opportunities we get!” Not so fast. We want to know the conversion rates (plural).

Many of the qualified opportunities that turn into closed deals quickly come from referrals. These, by definition, are very late stage opportunities in the pipeline. Your conversion rate for these types of opportunities probably needs to be at least 50 percent - otherwise, you do not have a scalable business.