Recent sudden policy changes related to tariffs and immigration are helping to exacerbate the widespread economic uncertainty that US businesses are currently weathering. With talks of a recession on the horizon and increased market volatility, many of today’s business leaders at organizations of all sizes have opted for a “wait and see” approach in their tactical operations and overall strategy. These business leaders are curtailing spending on everything from hiring and marketing to R&D and CAPEX to hold onto more cash for whatever may be coming next. The result is a survival-minded collective pause nationwide while they try to assess the lay of the land and wait out today’s unpredictability.
And while this cautiousness is understandable, it’s also counterproductive for long-term growth because a tactical pause of this kind can be a revenue strategy-killer. So, to answer our own question, no – your revenue plan cannot withstand a short-term pause!
The last annual prediction article we wrote was at the end of 2019. We offered up a multitude of well thought-out ideas on what might be coming next in the world of B2B revenue generation for 2020. …And we all know what happened next! Everything we thought we knew changed and everyone’s speculations about what was to come got turned on their head. (Although, strangely enough, our predictions did mention the possible use of masks in the future, albeit for very different reasons.) After that experience, we were a little hesitant as a team to offer up our industry predictions for the coming year once more. But 2025 is the year when we’ve decided to get back at it and give you our annual predictions again!
Think about the last obstacle your company overcame. Now think about the last opportunity your company seized effectively. What do they have in common?
The answer could be any number of things really, but I would bet that one key similarity is how decision-making was approached in both scenarios.
Whether it’s making decisions to meet challenges or capitalizing on new prospects, asking the right questions plays an integral role – who you talk to, what you ask, how and when you ask, what the communication loop looks like as the topic is discussed, and what the outcome is after asking.
Questions play a vital role in every facet of an organization. Whether it’s marketing, sales, forecasting, finance, product research and development, operations, or overall strategic planning, questions are the cornerstone of running a successful business. Let’s discuss why and what you can do to improve your question asking to be a better leader!
A recent Forbes article discussing how B2B buyers have changed over the last several years offered advice on how B2B sales tactics need to shift to pursue what it called “stealthy buyers and hidden influencers.” And while it gave an accurate assessment of what the B2B buying landscape currently looks like, it implied that relationship management may not be as important as it once was because the buying process is less one-on-one between buyers and sellers these days. To understand how the article’s author, Randy Illig, came to that conclusion, you need to first understand what has changed in B2B selling and how those changes have altered the buying relationship itself and the resources needed to support it.
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:
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.