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He’s making a list

He’s checking it twice

He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice

‘Tis the season! This is the last you’ll hear from me in 2023 – and I wish you all the best for the holidays, and a rockin’ 2024! As always, I want to hear from you – feel free to reach out – and let’s all finish the year strong and start January off with a bang!

Give this holiday standard by Brian Setzer a listen and enjoy the naughty and nice lists below… HO HO HO!

You-Know-Who is Comin’ to Town

This week’s song is a very cool version of the classic “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” – by the Brian Setzer Orchestra. There have been so many good versions of this over the years, that I thought I’d share a list of them for you – no matter what your musical style, one of these should make you happy!

• Bruce Springsteen
• Michael Bublé
• Jackson 5
• Burl Ives
• Pentatonix
• Alan Jackson

And while we’re at it, let’s take a look at some naughty and nice lists for 2023!

Naughty Lists

Want to know what NOT to buy that special someone on your list?? Here’s a list of the worst tech of 2023 – the ‘anti-gift’ guide!

Seen any good movies lately? When you’re cuddling up at home over the holidays, you may want to avoid these…

Nice Lists

Check out the top tech trends of 2023 – would you agree?

It was a great year for live music – check out the top-grossing tours!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello – Happy New Year!

Looking forward,
Rick

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

The post Your B2B Naughty and Nice Lists appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

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What scares you? What challenges or obstacles from your professional life occupy your dreams (or haunt your nightmares)?

Hopefully handing over the reins for this week’s blog post won’t keep Rick up at night…

I’m Marlene Keay, and I’ve worked with Rick at Virtual Causeway for 16 years, managing hundreds of lead generation campaigns that help our clients’ sales and marketing teams achieve success!

Give this Freddy-inspired song by Dokken a listen as we share some tricks that help our team and clients sleep soundly and treat you to what the experts are saying this week.

Meeting No-Shows – The Stuff of Nightmares

Those prospects that have committed to meet with you – they look like a great lead on paper – persona, ICP, need, and pain. You’ve done your homework and are all set. You’re a pro, so you join a few minutes early and then… wait… and wait. What happened? Where are they? What do you do now?

With so many virtual meeting platforms used every day our computers just can’t seem to keep up. Use this as an opportunity to serve your potential customer and give them a call directly. We suggest waiting 5-7 minutes and then reaching out by phone.

Here are our top tips for scheduling meetings so that maybe tonight they won’t be gone:

• Schedule calls as soon as possible, preferably within 5 business days.
• Follow up if the prospect hasn’t accepted your invite within 24 hours of sending.
• Call the prospect rather than having them join a conference bridge.
• Send a reminder a few hours before the scheduled meeting time.
• Use a strong, direct, prospect-centric title in your calendar invite – not “follow-up” or “check-in.”
• Sell the meeting, not the product! Focus on the value of investing their time in meeting with you, not more product features. For example, “My colleague Don will join this call and he is an expert in companies going through similar challenges as you.”
• Avoid scheduling calls during high no-show rate times like Monday AM and Friday PM. Track your own data as there may be differences based on the industry and the role (such as avoiding meetings with finance roles at month-end).
• Develop a process for rescheduling “ghosted” meetings. In my experience, you’ll be able to reschedule 50-75% of the no-shows.

What do you think? What strategies have you found work to make your meetings stick? If you have some ideas, come my way and let me know – I’d love to hear them!

How to Scare a B2B Marketer

According to this article from MarketingWeek, the number that strikes fear into the hearts of B2B CMOs is… 16%.

The LinkedIn Customer Insights Team recently analyzed the sales and marketing overlap of 7,046 companies, and found that the average overlap between marketing and sales reach is only 16%. That means in most companies each department is talking to a different buyer.

So how do you break the spell? When sales and marketing overlap, performance booms. The data shows that buyers are much more likely to respond to sellers if they’ve been exposed to marketing within the last 30 days. In fact, on average, they’re 19% more likely to accept a LinkedIn connection request and 15% more likely to open an InMail message from sales.

Don’t leave your sales and marketing teams standing in the night alone. The LinkedIn analysis found that high alignment can increase marketing-generated revenue by 208%, increase customer retention by 36%, and reduce sales and marketing expenses. Now those numbers will help you sleep well tonight!

Horror Movie Songs to Give You a Fright

Do you have your Halloween playlist ready? Horror movies and heavy music just go together so well, don’t they? So get your speaker ready to play these horror movie songs guaranteed to scare you (and the neighbours) this Halloween!

And don’t hesitate to call me (Marlene!) to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Marlene

Marlene Keay, Senior Project Manager, Client Services | marlenek@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/marlenekeay

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Can we build it up?

With Halloween only a week away, there’s a race to close out Q4 strong. While the pressure to meet year-end goals can be intense, it’s also a time to reflect on the progress made throughout the year and rally the team for a final push. Keeping a positive and motivated mindset is essential to tackle the challenges that come with closing out the year.

Give this song by Rival Sons a listen and see what the experts are saying this week.

The Power of Video & Animation

Last week we talked about the power of the human voice in the buyer’s journey – what about video? Simply put, being able to tell and show at the same time helps your audience understand better and stick around to hear more of your message. Seems like the perfect balance between that human voice and digital touch, right?

Our friends at Flikli explain that we absorb 80% of the information we see in visuals (as opposed to only 20% from reading). When you couple this innate preference for visuals with the dynamic, colourful nature of animated videos, it’s no surprise that they attract and hold attention more effectively than textual content: human beings are predominantly visual creatures.

So what other characteristics does video have that increase engagement?

• Simplicity: processing ease and enjoyment
• Emotion: creating connection and driving action
• Narrative: storytelling for memory enhancement
• Novelty: tapping into curiosity

Next time you’re looking for a compelling and interesting tactic for your marketing, maybe it’s time to try video or animation. It’s unique, spans both the human and digital channels and hopefully works for your money and earns its keep!

The Power of (Cloned) Voice???

There’s a new bootleg war – and it involves human voices!

The Recording Industry Association of America recently released its annual Notorious Markets List, which it submits to the US Trade Representative in hopes that the American government will do something about it. It names countries that are either ignoring the theft of music or not doing enough to combat it.

This year, the list cites a new problem: voice clones.

The year 2023 saw an eruption of unauthorized AI vocal clone services that infringe not only the rights of the artists whose voices are being cloned but also the rights of those that own the sound recordings in each underlying musical track. This has led to an explosion of unauthorized derivative works of our members’ sound recordings which harm sound recording artists and copyright owners.

Only one site is mentioned by name: a cloning service designed by a 20-year-old computer science student in the UK. Voicify.ai features vocal models of artists like Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Elvis Presley, Bruno Mars, Eminem, Harry Styles, Adele, Ed Sheeran and many others – and even goes beyond the music industry to include the likes of Obama, Trump, and Biden! Within seconds, anyone can have any one of these people say or sing anything you’d like.

Is this illegal? It’s unclear. The law has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to artificial intelligence.

What do you think? With pressure and time, some countries will likely introduce legislation around this… but maybe not everywhere. How might that affect the B2B landscape?

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello. Or even better, have one of the above artists or celebrities say hello on your behalf!

Looking forward,
Rick

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

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A friend of mine is a HUGE fan, of many things, but mostly movies and music – especially the stars and musicians. And he always has a knack for bumping into famous people on the street – I love when he shares pictures of his latest impromptu meet-and-greet. We jokingly call him ‘Superfan Graham’ – and it is the PERFECT nickname for him!

I’ve compared B2B customers and leads to fans before, and I’m doing it again today… because ultimately, I believe that’s what they are!

Give this song by the Band (RIP Robbie Robertson) a listen as we see what the experts are saying this week.

Finding Your B2B Fans

Would you consider your largest customer a ‘fan’? Do you even understand who your biggest fans are?

One challenge remains common for businesses of any size, sector, or location: building a successful sales strategy. If your sales team is struggling to connect with your customers, an ideal customer profile (ICP) just might be the missing ingredient. Our friends from breadcrumbs.io show how having an ICP is crucial for businesses and provide a guide to building one, if you haven’t already.

If you do it right, you’ll reap the benefits:

1. Shortened sales cycle
2. Personalized marketing
3. Increased customer lifetime value (CLV)
4. Improved account-based marketing

Maybe you already have an established ICP. But things change fast! If you’re not seeing these benefits, use this guide to revisit it (spoiler: ‘Review and Revise’ is the last step). You may find something you missed!

Connecting with Your Superfans

I recently read about ‘superfans’ and have seen data from the likes of Luminate and Goldman Sachs looking at the percentage of fans who qualify for that specific term. Something grates on me about institutions attempting to quantify the term, as if to identify a new market segment and tell everyone we need to focus on that now.

The reality, of course, is that these fans have always been there! If you’re only now learning about superfans and why you should focus on them more, well, you’re really, really late to the party. The best fan relationship is one in which an artist/brand is making serious money and the fans themselves are absolutely happy to be spending their money on that artist or brand.

People spending money on you and your work is not inherently a gouge. It can be (Taylor Swift’s eight Folklore album covers???), but the best practitioners effectively see fans throwing money at them and loving every second of it. This, to me anyway, is just entrepreneurialism, or good business, and might be something we’re not seeing enough of in music.

Some 14 years later, I’d argue Mike Masnick’s equation about the fan relationship and monetizing it still rings true:

connect with fans + reason to buy = $$$

Wow – sounds a lot like B2B, doesn’t it?

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

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Summer’s here!

Wow – can you believe we’re halfway through the year already? Feels like just yesterday we were working through our 2023 sales and marketing plans! Are you sailing into the summer with confidence, or are you constantly under pressure?

Give this song by Queen (and David Bowie) a listen as we hear what the experts are saying this week.

Stats/Trends – Knowing what this world is about

Q2 is almost wrapped. How are your sales and marketing activities trending?

As you know, I started this weekly email/blog during the pandemic to share stats, successes, and trends during turbulent times. I feel like it’s been too long since I’ve shared some actionable and tactical sales and marketing stats from my sources.

So here are some quick data points that you may find useful:

• The most effective channel for RDR (Revenue Development Rep) to engage a B2B buyer? Phone – 53%. Email – 36%. InMail, Social Media, and Website Chat all under 5%. Text (SMS) still under 1%.
• B2B buyer’s journey continues to stretch out. More than half of B2B purchases take longer than four months, and buyers engage in an average of 17 interaction types. Compared to just a year ago, 67% of B2B marketers say buyers are taking longer to commit to a purchase!
• Only 53% of sales professionals said that their organization’s sales tech stack aids productivity and positively impacts results. WOW! That’s a depressing statistic – with all the marketing and sales tech out there, how is this possible?

(Thanks to #forrb2bsummit and my awesome colleagues here at Virtual Causeway for sharing their data.)

Do these surprise you? What are you finding in your organization? Longer buying cycles, more buyer interactions, under-appreciated tech stacks… That’s a lot of pressure on people – how are you coping?

More Catalog Sales – Never rains but it pours

I’ve been closely following artists as they’ve sold their song catalogues over the past few years – seems like a way for many (aging?) artists to capitalize on the revenue potential of their songs as their touring and recording years dwindle.

Looks like Queen is in talks to sell their catalogue for the largest sum yet! As of now, Bruce Springsteen is the leader, having sold his song catalogue for around $500 million last year. If the rumours are true, Queen could sell their catalogue for over $1 billion!

Are these valuations getting ridiculous, or is there really that much value in their catalogues? In B2B, we see company valuations (especially in tech) that sometimes make us shake our heads, but if someone is willing to pay…

Many artists and bands might be feeling pressure pushin’ down to sell their catalogues. But with this price tag? Seems like a pretty easy choice!

Want to see the whole list of artists who have sold all or some of their catalogue? Here’s the running list compiled by fellow Canadian Alan Cross.

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

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As marketers, we need to have thick skin. Social media comments, clients, co-workers, vendors – lots of potential for stress. As a B2B pro, you need to roll with it, right?

Or maybe you don’t give a damn ’bout your reputation…

Give this song by Joan Jett a listen as we see what the experts are saying this week.

Are you a B2B rock star?

If you haven’t seen this Super Bowl Ad from Workday – check it out. I couldn’t stop laughing when I first saw it! Over the years, I’ve seen so many in B2B refer to themselves or their colleagues as ‘rock stars.’ Just google ‘B2B rock stars’ and you’ll see what I mean.

My favourite line is from Gary Clark Jr. as he rips a solo: “Hey Liz in HR – Can you do this?”

Great cameos from Ozzy, Paul Stanley (KISS), Billy Idol and Joan Jett!

And speaking of rock stars and workplace woes…

Touring the US is getting harder

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is raising fees for US touring visas… by more than 250%!

The “P visa” allows acts into the US long enough to complete a tour. The current cost is US$460, but the DHS wants to bump that to $1,615. And if you want an “O visa,” which allows for a longer stay, it’ll be $1,655. The new fees include a $600 surcharge that will go to the government’s asylum program. The increases will apply to all foreign acts who, by the way, are also taxed 30% of what they make in the US!

How would YOUR customers react to a 250% price increase? I’m guessing a move like that would please no one, and send more than a few customers packing.

H-1B headaches

It might not relate to touring, but other visa-related headaches in the US are causing B2B problems! Our good friends at Waterloo EDC discuss the issues here.

If you’re not familiar, the H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, such as IT, finance or engineering. Employers apply for H-1B visas on behalf of candidates who, if approved, can then stay in the country for three years and apply for an additional three-year extension after that.

It seems like a win-win scenario for both parties. Companies can access great talent from across the world and qualified candidates get the opportunity to live and work in the US. But due to immense demand, there’s a hard cap on the number of visas available each year. They’re granted by lottery each spring and the acceptance rates are declining!

Seems like you need to be a rock star to get an H-1B visa nowadays. So if you’re not afraid of any deviation, then maybe it’s time to look at moving… I hear Canada is nice this time of year!

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

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Welcome to 2023! Apparently, this is the year of the Rabbit (if you pay attention to these things). I’ve never been one to put much stock in these classifications – I think we all need to build our own luck. Maybe it’s the immigrant parent’s work ethic – but I firmly believe hard work, diligence, and common sense can help you succeed.

What are you doing to help your organization succeed in 2023?

Give this song by Jefferson Airplane a listen with me as we see what’s up this week and kick off the new year!

Feed your head! Resources to help you…

Interested in a look back at 2022? Or are you looking ahead to 2023? Maybe you’re just after something to get you pumped up and motivated for the New Year. Whatever it is, I’ve got you covered with these quick resources.

• FUNNEL REBOOT I had the pleasure of being part of a “Funnel Reboot” podcast last year – check out this awesome 2022 recap – some amazing episodes and brilliant contributors.
• 2023 TECH TRENDS FOR MARKETERS Great overview from Marketingprofs. Big surprise – AI continues to be top of marketers’ list of emerging tech!
• NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION If hitting the gym is a resolution of yours – what’s the best music to work out to?

Hopefully, these can help you kick-start your year… and instead of chasing rabbits, you can make your own luck!

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

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I was at a restaurant the other day and someone at the table needed some ketchup. So they said to the waiter – whose job it is to help you get the things you need to enjoy your meal – “Oh sorry, could I get some ketchup please? Thanks, sorry for asking.”

Does that make any sense? Maybe it’s a function of my Canadian heritage – but we sometimes offer all apologies too readily!

Give this song by Nirvana a listen with me – you won’t be sorry!

Advancing the conversation

So why is it that we apologize too quickly and too often? Perhaps it’s a cultural phenomenon. Or a quick way to avoid conflict? Whatever the reason, let’s make sure we’re advancing the conversation!

When your teams are moving prospects through their buyer’s journey, the goal should always be to advance at each stage in the process. Think of your recent B2B interactions – if there was a service failure, did they apologize? Did they use that as a way to move the conversation forward and come to a mutually beneficial conclusion?

Here’s what Seth Godin has to say about it:

If you often find yourself saying “sorry” in a way that doesn’t advance the conversation, it might be interesting to substitute “thank you” instead.

So, “I’m sorry this came out of the kitchen after your other dishes,” becomes, “Thank you for waiting so patiently.”

And, “I’m sorry we got disconnected,” becomes, “Thank you for calling back.”

It’s a subtle shift, from separation to connection.

Separation vs. connection is an important distinction in B2B marketing! It could mean the difference between a deal won and a deal lost. So if you’re tempted to apologize when you needn’t, ask yourself, “What else could I say? What else could I write?” Make it about them by channeling the spirit of Thanksgiving into all those interactions!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello! And THANK YOU for taking the time!

Looking forward,
Rick

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

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Well, it’s been a wild ride in the media the last few days with all eyes gazing across the Atlantic. When there is so much going on, and such a frenzy, it’s tough to deal with all the noise! Sometimes I just think it’s best to sit silently and listen to our thoughts…

Give this song by the Tragically Hip a listen with me as we see what the experts are saying this week.

B2B – Ahead by a Century?

Apparently, this is the B2B Century, and marketers will be the ones to lead it. What do you think – reality or illusions of someday?

There is no denying that the marketing industry obsesses over B2C brands, with every fizzy drink logo refresh or cereal promo getting covered in breathless detail. But what about B2B?

B2B is half of the global economy: 50% of the UK FTSE 350 firms are purely B2B, as are nearly 40% of all businesses in Great Britain. In the United States, an astonishing 72% of businesses are primarily B2B, and B2B sales add up to over $9 Trillion a year!

The biggest B2B categories are already bigger and faster-growing than the biggest consumer packaged goods categories:

• Cloud computing, a $791B business, has an expected annual growth rate of 17.9%. (Compare that with the $434B soft drink business, with expected growth of only 4.7%.)
• Amazon’s B2B business grew to $25B in five years – half the time it took its B2C business to grow that big.
• Out of 10 successful tech IPOs last year, nine were pure-play B2B businesses.

As marketers, this is our life. B2C may not be going anywhere, but B2B sure is our future – am I right?

Constant Noise Gettin’ You Down?

We’re bombarded by audio all day. Some studies say that the world is louder today than it’s ever been in human history, with noise doubling or even tripling every 30 years or so. This means that silence – true silence – is in increasingly short supply.

Neuroscientists, psychologists, and other specialists confirm that noise is bad for our overall health and our brains in particular. Noise that we can’t control causes stress. Stress leads to increased adrenaline, blood pressure, and anxiety. Not good.

As someone who likes to play (and listen to) loud music, this worries me. Can periods of silence help? Perhaps. Trying to hear something when there’s nothing to hear stimulates the auditory cortex, the part of the brain dedicated to perceiving and analyzing sound, which creates “positive stress” and improves cognition.

In short, the exercise of listening to silence is good for the brain. The takeaway for B2B? Maybe instead of adding to the noise, we can find ways to sit silently and stand out to our prospects.

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello – I will enjoy it, even if it disturbs my silence!

Looking forward,
Rick

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

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I’ve been on a kick since I was at #forrb2bsummit in Austin. I’ve been inspired – in many ways. Re-evaluating our marketing tech stack; implementing some new strategies with our clients; sharing some of the benchmarks provided. And of course, listening to music from some cool bands from Austin…

Give this song by another of Austin’s own – Spoon – a listen as we see what the experts are saying this week.

Tech, Entertainment, and Breakup Fees

As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, I’m a big fan of tech and B2B intersecting with music/entertainment. I love looking at business lessons learned from various industries.

I think we’re all caught up (or maybe fed up) with the Twitter/Elon Musk news these days – and how about the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial? Musk stands to lose $1 billion in a ‘breakup fee’ if he walks away from his Twitter deal – and with this deal on hold, perhaps everyone is staying on their side after all. And in the meantime, there’s new evidence regarding Musk’s involvement in a mysterious donation to the ACLU on behalf of Heard.

Famous-sounding words (and people) make your head feel light… They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity. What do you think – are you part of ‘they’?

Fun Musical Updates

Some quick updates from Alan Cross to keep you hanging around:

A Spinal Tap sequel is coming. It’s been forty years since the original movie came out. But the key question: Who will be the drummer?

Supermassive Black Hole. The big astronomy news this week was the release of the first-ever photo of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. But what does the singer of Muse think about this?

Pink Floyd looking to sell their catalogue. Looks like Pink Floyd, one of the most successful acts in the history of recorded music, is looking to join the list of artists that have sold their catalogues. Could the current high-water mark of $550 million (Bruce Springsteen) be surpassed?

Maybe finding a lesson we can apply to B2B from a photo of a black hole is a bit of a stretch. But when it comes to business strategy… Bet you got it all planned, right? Well, maybe not quite – things are always changing. What ideas can you get from these musical updates? I’d love to hear them!

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

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