CIO Priority for OPEX Relief by Reducing Spend on
CIO Priority for driving Growth by Increasing Spend on
How a Sponsoring Executive of Action Centric (Fire) Persona and Calm and Stable Persona (Earth) will engage with others.
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Sponsoring Executive
An executive sponsor is a person in the management or an executive team responsible for driving the outcome of a proposed solution to resolve a business problem. In business-to-business sales, an executive sponsor can be on either side, at the buyer's or the seller's end.
At the buyer's end, it is primarily someone who has a keen interest in resolving a business problem or is a decision-maker and strongly influences the outcome of a sales transaction.
At the seller's end, it is primarily someone keen on growing the business by investing capital and resources.
Following are the key responsibilities of an executive sponsor at the buyer's end:
• Prepare and own the business case
• Engage and work with other sponsors and stakeholders in positioning and selling the business case internally and externally with suppliers
• Recommend or assist in the go-to-market approach
• Govern the communication with stakeholders
• Govern the risks and the outcome of the business case
Let us explore how a sponsoring executive at the buyer's end engages with the internal and external stakeholders by applying the elemental attributes learned in previous sections.
Fire – Action
Sponsoring Executive
• Business Case Preparation
o they are seeking a futuristic and innovative roadmap or a solution, preferably for short and mid-term
o a lot of data points are provided for analysis and problem definition
o budget allocation will be generous and is eager to allocate work
• Go to Market Approach
o fond of an audience and connecting with higher authorities means they employ a top-down strategy
o being time-consuming, a mechanism like RFP is least appealing
o they reach out to innovative and agile (swift in delivery) suppliers, or internal teams for selling the business case
• Positioning
o growth-oriented – being passionate for innovation and driven by future trends with the intent of growing the business, their initiatives are positioned as growth-oriented
• Engagement
o being open and honest, they interact with honesty and transparency, loses cool if the opposite side is not transparent
o the sharpness of fire is reflected in their sharpshooting style of conversation, and they have no hidden agenda
o they are competitive and use charm to impress upon stakeholders
• Communication
o timely, quick and action-oriented
o they lack depth in conversation, like to take control of the conversation
o they use data-driven insights and visuals to communicate
• Governance
o they exert pressure on stakeholders by repeatedly chasing activity progress
o they seek action and quick wins
o they are tolerant and considerate but will have failures or lapses in execution provided the information for the root cause is shared transparently
The book is on promotion for a limited time only.
Excerpt from my upcoming book at amazon.com - "Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus - Elements of Nature Meet B2B Sales"
Source: How to build Profit Centric Marketing
This transformation will need the third generation of martech platforms: the first generation was about point solutions and the second generation was about full-stack platforms. The third generation will be about platforms that are Web3 powered and enable the tokenisation that marketers need to make XR (and therefore profit-centric marketing) a reality.
- What businesses need is a framework for profit-centric marketing, with profit creators
- This can only come from existing customers using 5R –
- combining retention,
- repetition,
- referrals,
- reactivation (as opposed to reacquisition)
- and replenishment (targeted new acquisition)
- This 5R focus needs the 4P framework:
- pipes,
- partitioning,
- properties,
- and prospecting
Bridging the gap: How and why product management differs from company to company
Companies, like many in New York, that are introducing solutions to mature industries tend to be sales-driven, so product teams are informed by what customers will readily buy and are measured based on output and revenue. Companies, like many in the Bay Area, that are creating new categories are generally vision-driven, so product teams are more cross-functional and iterative, and are measured based on validated learnings and outcomes. The two models on each end of the spectrum manage risk differently and, with regard to startups, offer a varied range of results. Predicated on introducing solutions to previously unarticulated problems (e.g. Snapchat), Bay Area startups and product managers are tasked with launching moonshots. Failure is more frequent and expensive but success is exponential in size.How Marketing can assist in Maximising Growth
Fortunately, there's a good rule of thumb called the "70-20-10 rule" that business leaders can use to address the current vs. future aspect of the resource allocation challenge. The 70-20-10 rule has been used for a variety of business purposes. For example, Google has reportedly used it to manage the innovation process, and Coca Cola has reportedly used a version of the rule to guide marketing investment decisions. The marketing version of the 70-20-10 rule says that about 70% of your marketing resources should be devoted to capabilities and programs with a proven track record of acceptable performance. These will include marketing channels, techniques, and technologies that your company is currently using successfully. The 70-20-10 rule does not mean that companies should simply "keep on doing what we're already doing." It means that marketers should evaluate how well their "bread and butter" programs are performing and continue to invest in those that are delivering acceptable results.Why your customers want to buy is as important as what they want to buy
In complex, discretionary B2B buying environments it’s just as important - often more important - to understand why your prospective customer has embarked on their buying journey. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that no matter how perfect your salespeople’s understanding of their prospect’s needs is, and no matter how good a job your salespeople have done in influencing those needs in your favour, if you don’t understand why your customers are buying, you’re flying blind.Replacing the Sales Funnel with the Sales Flywheel
One of my favorite business school professors used to say, “If you want to build a great company, your product has got to be ten times better than the competition.” Today, that advice feels out of date. If you want to build a great company in 2018, your customer experience has to be ten times lighter than the competition. It used to be what you sell that really matters, now it’s how you sell that really matters Unlike some changes in business philosophy, the flywheel is not an all-or-nothing proposition, Any tactical change to reduce friction, or organizational alignment of forces that optimize for customer delight, will have a measurable impact on customer experience. Early successes will breed increasing support for a full flywheel approach.
Inflation Impact on IT - Levers to Address
Trouble with Thought Leadership
“B2B marketing leaders tend to get trapped inside a sales cycle in the way they execute,” says Bruce. “That’s not the kind of thinking that’s going to generate brand equity and certainly not thought leadership. [Thought leadership] is a long-term strategic investment and journey that you need to go on as a business.”Thought Leadership Doesn't Work
When we asked B2B buyers what they think about the content they receive from vendors, over 60% of respondents to Forrester’s 2021 Content Preferences Survey gave these unflattering opinions. Buyers are drowning in a sea of sameness. They fail to find any value in the content they receive, because much of it is myopically focused on the vendor and its products and services — not on the cares and concerns of the recipient.Why Commercial Insight instead of Thought Leradership
“Rarely will thought leadership alone cause customers to change their views or prompt immediate action,” says David Anderson, practice leader at Gartner. “Instead, sales leaders must arm reps with commercial insight to push beyond presenting a new idea to actually undermine an existing one.” Commercial insight is typically developed by combining information, such as facts, data, industry trends, experiences and observations with customer needs, like business growth, increasing profits and reducing attrition, to create a unique conclusion. Organizations that effectively deploy insights to deliver effective messages increase the likelihood of closing high-margin deals and improving long-term customer loyalty.”
Why Economies of Scope vs Economies of Scale for NBN
