Christopher Ryan
B2B Marketers: How to Win the Trust of Your CEO
As a chief marketing officer (CMO) or senior B2B marketing professional, there are few things as satisfying as earning and maintaining the trust of your CEO, and for that matter, the rest of the executive team. Conversely, if you do not have this trust,...
Become a B2B Revenue Marketer or Get Left Behind!
A couple of decades ago, I was speaking at B2B marketing and sales conferences on the topic of: Bridging the Marketing and Sales Gap. My subtitle was Marketing is from Mars and Sales is from Venus, which I paraphrased from the extremely popular book...
To Connect with Elusive B2B Prospects, Turn Marketing and Sales into “Sherpas” for the...
I recently participated in a LinkedIn comment thread posing the question of whether B2B or B2C marketing was more fun. Naturally, this sparked a spirited dialogue. As a long-time B2B marketer, I have immensely enjoyed my profession, but it has its challenges. You have...
Launching a Winning B2B Content Marketing Strategy
In my fractional CMO practice, I have to recommend content marketing strategies for my B2B clients. There are times when the best strategy is to pursue an aggressive content practice (including thought leadership), and times when the best approach is t...
How to Choose and Implement a Successful B2B Pricing Strategy
In my March column for CustomerThink, titled "Pricing to Win in B2B: The Mindset to Achieve More Revenue and Profit," I discussed the mindset attributes needed to achieve solid pricing results: courage, differentiation, and relationships. Assuming you are now equipped with this ninja pricing...
Pay-to-Play Marketing Opportunities: Should You Play or Pass?
I just received an email with the subject line: Re: Featuring Fusion Marketing Partners as a top Sales Tech Services Company. The body text opened with: This email is a reminder that we have shortlisted to feature Fusion Marketing Partners in our upcom...
Pricing to Win in B2B: The Mindset to Achieve More Revenue and Profit
The key to a good pricing strategy is to structure your pricing model for short-term profitability and revenue while simultaneously building long-term relationships. This is a tough balancing act but achievable if your mindset is based on courage, differentiation and relationships. These three attributes...
Why a Compelling Digital Presence Speeds B2B Revenue Success
By digital presence, I am referring to everything a prospect, customer, partner or any interested party can find out about you and your company online. This includes your website, social media postings, press releases, articles, etc. It also includes w...
End of Year B2B Marketing Planning: How to Make it Count
Most of can agree that 2020 has been an unusual and troublesome year. A few industries have benefited (online retailers, work from home technologies, video streamers) and some have been hurt badly (in-person entertainment, commercial real estate, gyms,...
How Digital Strategies Can Support B2B Revenue KPIs
Last month, I had the opportunity to share thoughts on a webinar about how digital strategies contribute to organizational objectives with Michael Spinosa, President of Unleashed Technologies. As a fractional CMO, this subject is vitally important to me and my clients and should be...
Bravery: An Underrated Virtue for Chief Marketing Officers
My last CustomerThink column was B2B Marketing’s Role in Driving Revenue With Integrity. I’m not surprised that it received a ton of views because the subject of integrity resonates with both marketers and the CEOs they work for. The same is true for another...
How to Build Company Value in a Down Economy
Six months after the storm hit, the pandemic continues to affect businesses and personal lives, with lots of debates about whose fault it is, and what is to be done. The economy seems to keep many companies stuck in the doldrums, waiting fo...
B2B Marketing’s Role in Driving Revenue With Integrity
It is critical for everyone on the revenue-generation side of the business (including you folks in the marketing department!) to understand their vital role in generating revenue and profit while doing so in a way that protects valuable company integrity. When the CEO and...
It’s All About Revenue: Six Ideas to Power Your B2B Sales Engine
My friend and noted entrepreneur and teacher Steve Imke, posted an article titled, A recession is a great time to start a new business. I agree with this completely because I started my company, FusionMarketingPartners.com, in 2009, during the so-calle...
6 Lessons B2B Companies Can Learn from Amazon
Let me start out confessing that I have a love/hate relationship with Amazon. I bet a lot of you reading this suffer from the same malady. Amazon is like the giant squid threatening to swallow up Tokyo – seemingly unstoppable. They gobble up entire...
Nine Requirements of Powerful Thought Leadership
During this period of business uncertainty due to the COVID pandemic, I have spoken and written about the need to do the tough but valuable work to help you and your company come out of the other side stronger and in a better position vs…
B2B Marketing Options – When to DIY and When to Outsource
As the CEO of a B2B marketing and revenue growth outsource provider, you would think that I would always suggest outsourcing as the best way to handle your marketing. However, as with much else in life, the answer to the question of Should I outsource…
The Upside of Marketing in a Down Economy
Yes, it’s tough out there. As I write this, we are all faced with the specter of the invisible coronavirus bug attacking our health, threatening our own lives and that of our family and friends, and doing serious, and potentially long-term damage to ou...
How to Maximize the Value of Customer Discovery Calls
As I write this, the world is dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. Chances are, your customers are facing their own share of uncertainty and perhaps, a vastly reduced workload. This presents an opportunity to get them on the phone and have a conversation that...
Nine Ways to Grow Your B2B Business in Challenging Times
I am certainly not the only one who can say that the last couple of weeks have been among the most interesting of my career. While the origin of the expression “May you live in interesting times” is unknown (often attributed to the Chinese), there…