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Were you at Forrester B2B Summit last week in Austin? Over 2000 marketers convened last week at the conference – and the excitement was palpable. Was it the research? New technologies unveiled? I think the BIG news of the conference was just how… normal… things seemed overall!

Play this song by Austin’s own Black Pumas as we listen to what other people say this week.

#forrb2bsummit learnings

It was great to connect in person with colleagues and see first-hand new research and tech. But the excitement wasn’t all because of 2000 marketers eager to use their corporate expense accounts again – there were some interesting marketing and technology insights from the conference too:

Increased Prioritization of Customer Obsession. Mapping your organization to the 5 levels of customer obsession – customer naïve, customer aware, customer engaged, customer committed, and customer-obsessed.

The Power of Automation & AI. Three key opportunities for technology and humans to work together: support technology, CX, and improved performance.

The Power of Purpose. Just like B2C, B2B customers bring personal awareness and preference to the buying process.

Smarter Demand, Scaleable ABM. The number of B2B leaders who desire demand and ABM to be fully aligned – sharing people, processes, and tools – has increased from 54% in 2020 to 82% in 2022.

At last year’s summit, we learned that the number of interactions required to make buying decisions significantly increased from 17 (2019) to 27 (2021), indicating a new level of attention and due diligence for purchases during the pandemic. Additionally, more stakeholders and influencers are taking control of the decision-making process, resulting in 60% of purchases today having 4 or more people involved (compared with just 47% in 2017).

This year’s summit didn’t provide updated stats, but I think it’s safe to assume they’re consistent, and we still wanna know our customers better to effectively market in today’s buying environment!

Piano Lessons Delay Dementia

Remember those painful piano lessons you had as a kid? Well, maybe it’s time to get it together and pick them back up in your golden years…

There’s already proof that learning a musical instrument is associated with the brain’s ability to change and adapt, and that music can help protect our brains against cognitive decline with age. A new study has investigated how 6 months of piano training can affect the brain compared to simply listening to and learning about music, in healthy older adults who have had no formal musical training.

This is a topic near and dear to me, so seeing these positive results gives hope. And if it is to you as well, maybe it’s something to consider to help some loved ones and watch them shine.

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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