With so much emphasis on big data and AI, today’s leadership conversations seem to be largely focused on metrics. And while B2B KPIs are certainly valuable to track and analyze, when organizations are facing challenges are they really the best indicator of what’s wrong and how to fix it?

The abundance of data available these days makes it tempting to rely solely (or at least primarily) on the data, but the most experienced leaders will tell you that data can’t necessarily tell the whole story, or the right story.

When it comes to diagnosing a problem or turning an organization around people are just as important as data because they can contribute:

• Institutional knowledge
• First-hand experience
• Insight into perceptions and attitudes
• Logic and reasoning

Let’s take a closer look at the benefit that human capital can provide when trying to overcome a challenge or understand and fix an issue to move an organization forward.

Have you done your annual planning yet? If not, don’t worry. There’s still time!

Typically, in companies where their fiscal year aligns with the calendar year, annual planning will begin in October for the year ahead. However, it’s certainly not unheard of to still be planning for the year ahead into Q1, or even later. Sure, if you get to the end of Q3 and don’t have a plan put together yet, it’s probably best to just move on and start planning for the following year! But otherwise, planning will still offer significant benefits even if you start it late. Going through the steps involved in the planning process is valuable in and of itself, independent of the actual plan you put together. All the different types of data you need to gather to create a plan will give insight into how well your company is performing and what the industry is looking like overall. This broader perspective is extremely valuable to have regardless of when you get the plan put together because it will equip you to make the ongoing tweaks and shifts needed now to be set up for success later. For these reasons, planning helps organizations run more smoothly and improves their ability to grow over time.

But how should leadership navigate the nuances of B2B business planning?

Have you ever read a business article that talks about “the power of storytelling”? If you have, you probably felt like it was a little shallow that researchers and analysts tout the benefits of storytelling across everything from gaining followers to increasing sales to cultivating brand loyalists. I mean, of course telling a compelling story can potentially improve sales and marketing functions, but is it really necessary at the core of the organization itself?

A recent Harvard Business Review article titled Storytelling That Drives Bold Change flipped the entire idea of storytelling in business on its head! The article claims that storytelling is far more than a “nice to have” sales/marketing approach. It makes the case that storytelling is a fundamental leadership need across all organizations. The executive summary explains,

“When tackling urgent organizational problems, leaders usually work hard to identify underlying causes, tap a wide range of knowledge, and experiment with solutions. But once they’ve mapped out a plan, there’s one more crucial step they must take: crafting a story so compelling that it will harness their organizations’ energy and direct it toward change.”

Frances Frei and Anne Morriss highlight the fact that organizational problems don’t just need a proposed fix, they need a proposal that will win people over. The narrative that leaders craft is just as important to the organization’s ability to overcome challenges as the plan itself.

Thank you for joining us for this informative Q&A. Today we are discussing how B2B sales has changed over the years, and how it hasn’t!

In this interview Elizabeth Harris, a CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) with more than 20 years of B2B leadership experience, will share with us how the industry is shifting as well as what has remained foundationally the same in B2B sales and marketing. Her insights will help you to understand what that means for the future as well as your revenue strategy today. Let’s get started!

Undoubtedly, you have heard the famous phrase, “You can’t improve what you don’t measure.” And yet, inherent in this quote is the misconception that the reverse is true as well – that if you measure it, you will also be able to improve it. This errant belief can cause leadership to overemphasize measuring a wide array of disparate metrics. The result is “measurement paralysis”, where true KPIs (key performance indicators) get drowned out by a cacophony of tracking and analysis.

So, how can you determine which numbers are the best metrics to track? We have put together a guide to B2B KPIs to help you better understand what to look at and how to identify KPI gaps.

While new B2B sales trends have emerged over the past two years, it’s safe to say that we have now moved past “pivots” and temporary adaptations to what can only be described as a B2B sales revolution. An entirely new era of B2B sales has taken shape and is continuing to evolve, transforming everything from go-to-market strategies to strategic revenue planning at B2B organizations across the globe.

Buyers’ priorities and preferences have changed requiring that sales strategies adapt to keep pace. Understanding this, well-informed B2B companies are rethinking who they sell to, how they sell, and where they sell. The sales planning changes that have resulted both internally and externally are a clear indication that there is a new face to B2B sales these days. How will that fact shape what you do next?

Globalization has given B2B companies access to a seemingly endless list of suppliers and buyers, lowering prices and shortening delivery times. That is, until a disruption is introduced into the global network that ripples through the system.

Some disruptions have a more limited scope (only affecting certain industries or regions), while others have a more widespread effect. The pandemic has been the widest reaching business disruption of our time, and it is not going to be resolved anytime soon.

In fact, over the last few months “supply chain” has quickly become the new trending topic that everyone is talking about. However, most B2B companies have been dealing with supply chain woes for almost two years now. And with no end in sight, they are feeling the pressure to get even more strategic with how they approach supply chain disruptions.

So, how should you handle today’s ongoing supply chain disruptions… and tomorrow’s?

The Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) role has been a staple for almost two decades in high tech manufacturing environments. But does it also apply to traditional manufacturers? Short answer: yes. Slightly longer answer: it depends. Let’s find out why and if it makes sense for your manufacturing company.

Manufacturing, in particular, has a distinctly different approach to revenue than retail or professional services. The distinct lens that the CEO of a manufacturing company looks at revenue through shapes everything from the metrics they track to the operational initiatives they support.