Jim Burns
Michael Brenner
Wayland, MA, United States
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Past articles by Jim:
The Evolution of Content Quality Criteria
This post was originally published on this site For too many organizations I meet, content quality is assumed. Or, it’s delegated to those creating the content. Defined and documented content quality criteria don’t exist. They aren’t part of a service agreement with content creation teams. When content quality criteria do exist it’s typically defined at … → Read More
Sales Content for Knowledge and Sales Performance Support
This article is a deeper consideration of some of the questions and answers raised in my article, Marketing and Sales Content — Differences that Matter. A category of sales content I highlighted is Sales Knowledge and Performance Support. Outside of onboarding, periodic training, and informal sharing, this is an area that is largely left up to individuals. … → Read More
Marketing and Sales Content – Differences That Matter
What IS the difference between marketing and sales content? This is a good question to ask across your organization. The answers will reveal people’s thinking and understanding about “content” in general. Notice how clear, specific, consistent and actionable the responses are. Or not. Why does this matter? Effective sales content is a strategic imperative when … → Read More
How to Uplevel Your Content Operations
At some point B2B executives realize that adding resources and technology to the traditional content operations process produces only marginal improvements. Digital era content requirements are rising exponentially. They will not be addressed with the current process. This will become even more evident when marketing begins to adequately support B2B sales content requirements, as well as … → Read More
Micro-Content: The Most Important Content Type You Don’t Manage
Micro-content isn’t widely understood or consciously used. When it is, it’s usually by marketing for social media content. But micro-content may be the most important content type you have, and you probably don’t manage it. Micro-content is simply what the words imply. The term is credited to user experience expert Jakob Nielsen: “micro content is a small group … → Read More
Content Creation: Modular vs. Structured & Traditional
As content marketing practices mature, organizations look for new ways to gain advantages and improve content performance. One of the most elusive tactics is to optimize content for audience and situation relevance. Numerous studies have shown business outcomes improve significantly when content delivers highly targeted, useful and relevant insights to audiences. Yet marketers currently struggle… → Read More
The Epidemic in B2B Sales Prospecting
Many B2B selling organizations hit a wall in their new customer acquisition and revenue growth rates. This is the result of a critical underlying cause they unaware of, and do not fully appreciate even when they become aware. Sales pipeline quality, volume and conversion rates are both symptom and impact of this condition. This condition is especially evident in companies that are engaged in a… → Read More
Situation-Ready Content, On-Purpose, By Design?
I’m done talking about “content.” The word is too conceptual to have any useful meaning. In my world, words matter. To work, words must convey common meaning. I believe the word “content” and how it’s used actually causes problems. This is undoubtedly a contributor to quality problems experienced with marketing and especially selling content. Sales tells marketing, “we need better content.”… → Read More
Top 3 Causes Of Poor Or Missing Content [Video]
In this digital era, content is a primary driver of sales and marketing performance. Poor or missing content is an under-appreciated reason B2B selling organizations experience lower than projected new customer acquisition and revenue growth results. High selling costs are both a symptom and additional casualty. In addition to adverse business impact, companies experience content costs … → Read More
Change your content process to leverage accelerate and scale
When it comes to customer facing content, much is written about creative techniques, tools and infrastructure. But there is little thinking or discussion about content process change. By changing your content process for strategy and operations you can leverage resources and assets, accelerate production time to real-time, and scale outputs without compromise. My thinking is … → Read More
Why You Need a B2B Sales Content Strategy
If you sell the way you did 10 years ago, you don’t need a sales content strategy. There’s little strategy required to tell people about your company, products, features — just don’t forget those benefit statements! But if you’ve truly adopted a customer-centered sales philosophy you know you have new requirements. The new realities of … → Read More
Capture Sales “Situational Fluency” for Effective B2B Sales Coaching
In the B2B selling world there is near universal appreciation for the value of sales coaching. Research indicates significant impact on forecasted deal win rates, revenue growth and other selling metrics. Research from The Sales Management Association show sales people believe it’s the most important, least supported sales resource. The Sales Management Association The constraints are equally… → Read More
Is “Last Idea In, First Content Out” Killing Your Content Strategy?
We had just completed ten intense weeks creating a business level content strategy for a client. This kind of work produces many work products. Two relate to this story. We carefully defined the client’s marketing and sales use case requirements. And for actionable next steps, a carefully considered and prioritized list of content that was required … → Read More
Marketing Professionals Constrained by Content Strategy and Operations [Research]
Don’t be distracted by the hyperbole associated with this important Accenture report on the state of content. “Marketers are drowning” in a “tidal wave of content,” are phrases from the press release and early articles that have picked this up. This is intended to create resonance and attract attention. As it should. Volume of content is … → Read More
The Missing Ingredient for Sales Coaching
There is a generally high desire for sales coaching in B2B selling. Most managers and reps know it’s important. Done well, coaching can make a significant difference to rep and manager performance and success. Financially, everyone has a lot at stake. But sales coaching is seldom done. Consistently. Or well. Why is that? What’s missing? … → Read More
Understanding the True Cost of Content in B2B Organizations
There’s a familiar expression used to describe some people. They “know the cost of everything, but the value of nothing.” When it customs to B2B marketing and selling content, it appears most organizations don’t know either. The rhetoric of “data driven decisions” has become a business imperative and key B2B competency. In addition to being … → Read More
Reframing Content ROI and the Case for B2B Content
Despite a plethora of articles recommending methods to determine content ROI, this continues to be a hot and confusing topic for many B2B marketers. Why is this? There are different purposes and uses for ROI. Content performance, at an asset or campaign level, is typically the way marketers think of content ROI. While difficult to measure, marketers … → Read More
Elevate B2B Content Strategy to Business Level Execution
This post speaks to why B2B organizations should elevate content strategy from siloed functions to the business level, with executive accountability. This is about content that addresses external audiences we generally refer to as “customers”. B2B CEOs, CFOs and Sales leaders have a lot at stake in getting this right. But first let’s acknowledge a … → Read More
How To Design Your B2B Sales Conversations
To paraphrase David Packard, sales conversations are too important to leave to sales people. B2B sales conversations for key touch points should be designed. This optimizes conversation effectiveness and simplifies selling. It provides a common baseline that makes feedback and continuous improvement possible. How have you designed the sales conversations for your key touch points? … → Read More
How To Create Customer Content In Multiple Languages
The requirement to deliver customer content in multiple languages is further evidence of how new realities are introducing new requirements that demand new approaches. It’s also an example of how new requirements raise the importance of the ability to scale content operations. Content in multiple languages isn’t new. Technical publications, websites and marketing collateral have … → Read More