Insights Blog

Times have changed. The power in a B2B transaction has shifted dramatically to the buyer. Gone are the good old days where if you had good sales people, you typically won the deal. Back then the salesperson drove the sale because she had the customer relationship, the information on how to solve the customer’s problem, pricing authority, and the ability to manage the sales cycle from lead to deal.

We recommend this short interview with Mike Kitz, an instructor at Notre Dame and the former CMO of OfficeMax: "Why Are Firms Failing To Transform Marketing?" He highlights the issues involved in marketing-led transformations and the challenges faced in becoming a change agent.

At EMM Group, we have seen this up-close at many organizations. While change is hard, growth is getting pretty hard in today’s world too. So many companies are realizing that if they want to get growing, they must get really good at the growth drivers like marketing and innovation. Any leader that embarks on such a journey may want to keep a few things in mind:

The Wall Street Journal reports July retail sales grew, but those gains were made primarily by the automative sector and gas. Inflation remained very low; in fact prices rose primarily because of higher energy prices. Pure retailers and merchants continue to struggle.

It’s amazing to me how the same thoughts and concepts seem to circle through the management world over and over again. Take innovation. There is so much buzz and hype about how innovation is the panacea of any company’s growth problems. If only every company could start behaving like Apple.