B2B Marketing Confessions

An experienced sales and marketing professional outlines the best tactics, with a particular focus on new technologies, to generate sales leads.

Wall, a co-host and producer of the weekly podcast Marketing Over Coffee, delivers a brew of philosophy and practical tips on how to market and sell a product. The cold call is nearly dead, he says, since email/Web analytics and customer-relationship marketing tools can track and quantify consumer behavior and response, thus creating better leads. The book comprises four parts: Designing a product that will sell; fostering demand generation, i.e., marketing or spreading the word about the product; educating potential customers about the product; and nourishing and evaluating client relationships following initial capture. Most of what Wall describes has been covered elsewhere, a debt that he acknowledges with a range of useful references for further reading. Still, he offers a refreshing take on these subjects, mocking the sluggish bureaucracies of larger companies and stressing that startups and small businesses have critical advantages in competing on today’s new level playing field. He also offers sage advice: Focus on a few key metrics only instead of creating complex data dashboards. He concludes each section with a helpful summary and short list of action items. Wall does ramble a bit in certain areas, perhaps where he may have particular background or expertise, such as how to work trade shows and reduce the stress of being on the road. While he states up front that he won’t be using a case-study approach in this book, it’s still rather odd that he doesn’t provide more details about his past employers. The title is also unfortunate, given Wall’s advice applies to any product or service, in a B2B context or not, and he offers sensible game plans rather than “confessions.”  Regardless, this book lives up to the spirit of his podcast, offering a quick shot of key trends and information in a conversational tone.

A lively, accessible guide to today’s most effective sales and marketing techniques.