Insights Blog

When you’re intent on a goal and want to be able to plot the shortest and easiest course to reach it, obstacles in the way can be discouraging and frustrating. But, if you’re purposely maneuvering through an obstacle course, they become exhilarating challenges to attack and overcome.

In previous posts, we’ve discussed a number of drivers that lead to margin compression in a B2B context:

Staying on the theme of product differentiation that we introduced last week, there’s another aspect to the issue that also creates challenges for many B2B companies that have been working to protect their volume for years.

What would you guess is the question we ask our brand new clients that most often leaves them completely stumped?

What makes you different?

So often, we see consultants in our industry trying to sell snake oil to the masses. It’s unfortunate and it makes the job of legitimate marketing experts more difficult because it sets unreal expectations for many of our well-meaning clients.

The procurement department at every one of your client organizations has one basic job, when you boil it down:

Cut purchasing costs.

For the past seven years, the world has been stuck in a slow growth / no growth economy, yet some companies have managed to achieve successful and profitable growth without acquisitions. Why is this possible? How did they do it?

In a business environment where change happens faster than planning can account for and the “ready, fire, aim” mentality takes over more often than it should, the concept of change management often gets forgotten. But, without it, a company can end up moving very quickly, but getting nowhere.

Training is one of the key foundational requirements for building a successful, sustainable marketing excellence program. One which continuously improves and adds increasing value to the business. Without quality training, even your hardest working marketers – and marketing organizations - will be behind the curve and struggling to catch up. Equally important training reduces turnover by showing employees the organization cares and is willing to invest.

In our line of work we have encountered many members of corporate functions, particularly in corporate marketing roles. Many such roles are designed, profiled, staffed and measured on building marketing capabilities across their organization. The ones that end up having a substantial and sustained impact on their business tend to view and approach their role differently than just capability development. They tend to apply the principles and approach of product management to create, launch, manage and renew their marketing excellence product.

Here are some of the key differences in using a product management versus capability development approach: