Category: Positioning

  • A checklist for scaling from SMBs to the Enterprise

    A checklist for scaling from SMBs to the Enterprise

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  • Your Customers Pay Your Salary (not your Employer)

    Your Customers Pay Your Salary (not your Employer)

    “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers” – Seth Godin The simplest ideas are the best. But they can also seem the most banal. Hidden in the Seth Godin quote above is, I believe, one of the key differences between a mature and immature organisation. Between a company that is ready…

  • To learn about the “Buyer Process” try buying something

    To learn about the “Buyer Process” try buying something

    I guess this is more a post about sales rather than marketing per se, but still – understanding buyer journeys and how you can help at different stages is an important part of the marketing role, particularly when the sales cycle is complex. I’ve read quite a lot about marketing funnels – how customers at…

  • You’re applying Marketing Theory, But You Don’t Even Know It

    You’re applying Marketing Theory, But You Don’t Even Know It

    I love this article from Helen Edwards – about the need to understand marketing theory but then the need to apply it to the real world. Theory without execution is just an indulgence, a wholly academic pursuit. But if you’re executing well against a poor strategy, you’re just peddling fast in the wrong direction. She provides some…

  • How Short Term Data Driven Decisions can be Dangerous in the Long Term

    Jeff Bezos’s letters to shareholders are, of course, famous for their insight, not only in to how Amazon functions, but also for their advice on how to run a certain type of business. One of my favourite excerpts, from the 2005 letter is: As our shareholders know, we have made a decision to continuously and significantly…

  • Value and Predictable Revenue Improvements

    I really like this very simple post about how to buy wine, when you don’t really know much about it (which is definitely me). Basically, select a price (say, £7.95), then select a wine at that price. That’s kind of it. And what Evan Davis is saying is “Statistically, give or take anomalies, most wines…

  • Why Product Managers Often Aren’t Great at Marketing

    Back when I was a developer, many years ago, I worked with a superb sales person – an ex-McKinsey sales person – who had been tasked with explaining to all us techies “What Sales Did”. Of course we already knew the answer – “Nothing, except get paid more than us, drive nicer cars, get more…

  • Book Review: Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout

    Another book review this week, this time Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Obviously this is a book that had been around a long time. And there are endless reviews, over the years with different opinions. However, what’s interesting from skimming through the Amazon reviews, is that there’s a real mix between people who…

  • Product Marketing, Product Management, Product Owner etc etc

    As mentioned a few posts ago, I attended the Agile 2012 conference a few weeks ago. As far as I can see, one of the products of this movement has been the advent of the “Product Owner” role in the scrum team. This is someone who, as far as I can gather, does some of…