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I can take the cold. I’ve lived in Canada all my life, and even if I don’t like it, I should be used to the winter weather. What I can’t get used to is the darkness –  dark when you wake up, dark at the end of the workday. And you don’t realize how much you miss the sunshine until you have an oh-so-rare, bright, sunny day.

Give this song by the Black Keys a listen with me as we shine a little light on what the experts are saying this week.

HubSpot Data Shines a Light

The data from HubSpot has me a little perplexed. Closed deals are up significantly over January 2021, but created deals are much lower! Sales emails and conversations are way up over last January, as is contact growth.

So why are deals created so low? All of the sales focus was on closing deals? But closed deals were down over Q4 2021 – which I would usually expect in the beginning of the year, when typically activity is all about NEW opportunities. So where are they?

How will Q1 turn out this year? No one really knows where it goes from here but I do know I’ll be looking closely at the numbers to see how activity levels change over the next few months.

Timbiebs!

Have you ever had a Timbit? For the Canadians out there, these little donut holes have been ingrained in our lives and culture. And in November of 2021, Tim Hortons rolled out some special new flavours designed with Canadian pop music star Justin Bieber. These ‘Timbiebs’ caused quite a stir and people went wild for them… and all the Timbiebs swag.

According to Tim Hortons, this co-marketing campaign was one of the most successful traffic-driving initiatives in recent memory – resulting in unprecedented social engagement, merchandise sales, and increased appeal with younger guests.

How does this apply to B2B? Is there another brand you can partner with to expand your reach or increase awareness? Sometimes teaming up with just the right brand can grow your customer base, and the most unlikely of partnerships can help you go to places you used to go to reclaim some new or past customers and see the faces that you used to know.

What are some examples you can share?

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello.

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat