Modern B2B demand generation is failing, seriously.
I never do book reviews, but it is interesting how many times I get asked: “What should I be reading about b2b marketing?” That is why I am writing today about Adam Needles’ book: Balancing the Demand Equation - it is worth passing along to everyone.
Asterisks:
1. Adam Needles is a friend but we have no commercial relationships with each other.
2. Would I write a frivolous blog post supporting friend’s work? No, not really. I really enjoyed it and decided to write about it, but am definetly a little uncomfortable because I don’t really shill. (some people may disagree, but I don’t)
Truthfully, there aren’t very many books out there for b2b marketing or b2b demand generation. I always and will continue to recommend Ardath Albee (I am an unabashed reader of all-things Albee), Jill Konrath (easy to read and fun) and Digital Body Language (not easy to read but a pre-cursor to the Adam’s book in many ways). Basically, I have been taking BART into work which means I get to read, and I really dug into Adam’s book. I am writing because I like it AND I think it’s important. Why? It’s a study in the creating a demand generation platform. No, not just technology, but a organizational process that delivers an always-on, highly efficient, highly effective b2b demand generation platform.
He uses a lot of data points, something that a lot of us in the blogosphere DON’T do (me included). That helps keep me interested. If what I am reading is just another one of us shouting about the buyer changing than I am not interested, but providing unique data points I like and this book does a good job of providing that. There are some real-world examples - another piece lacking in a lot of the b2b marketing blogosphere’s writing (me included) is examples. There are examples in here written from the view point of the practitioner. I enjoyed that, and frankly, wish Adam provided more.
The quote at the top of the post is from the book and I loved it. So there you have it, add another one to your list.
Written by Craig Rosenberg - The FunnelholicSign up to receive emails when new articles are posted
Looks like great book recommendations that I need to pick up. Just want to throw my $0.02 in in a general way. I feel that when you are dealing with Demand Generation, you’re always dealing with “Design Data”. From my short experience I see there is a generational gap. The dudes that think they’re “Mad Men”, the data guys that think it’s all about the technicals, and the lay-men/woman that doesn’t know how to work a SAAS tool and gives up on it after month 3 instead of hiring someone or a vendor to assist. This does not remove the blame from the usability of all the MAPs (Silverpop, Eloqua, etc).
Anyway, great blog, even if it’s a bit depressing (I KID)!
Hi Craig,
Thanks for the LUV! Check’s in the mail
But seriously, I agree with you. I thought Adams book raised a lot of points that marketers need to address. Great book! I also blogged about it here:
http://marketinginteractions.typepad.com/marketing_interactions/2011/09/balancing-the-demand-equation.html