The All-Star Cast of Thought Leader Interviews

Over the month of May and early June, I had a chance to interview some of the sharpest minds in business to business and business to consumer marketing and sales. Before we share the list of experts, let’s examine some key conclusions — the marketing take-ways, if you will.

1. Planning is imperative.  Need a deep understanding of value, targets and personas. Too many CEOs expect instant results. Results come from careful planning and research. This takes time.
2. Data is critical. Brian Kardon, Chief Marketing Officer of Eloqua, said “In God We Trust. All others bring data.” This was borne out when e-mail marketing experts like Joel Book of ExactTarget, John Rizzi of e-Dialog and Ben Rothman of Acxiom all talked about reacting to what people do online and personalizing your communications.  This rifle-focus approach takes data.
3. A service mentality — the best companies help buyers do their jobs and improve their lives. Scott’s Miracle Grow shares specific personalized lawn tips. American Airlines shares interesting travel destinations. What are they not doing? They are not selling!

These luminaries included:

• Kevin Temple of Enterprise-Selling
• Trish Bertuzzi, the Bridge Group
• Sharon Drew Morgen, expert in Buying Facilitation
• Paul Dunay, Buzz Marketing for Technology
• Jon Miller, VP Marketing and Co-Founder, Marketo
• Brian Kardon, Chief Marketing Officer, Eloqua
• John Rizzi, Chief Executive Officer, e-Dialog
• Ben Rothfeld, Jedi Knight of email, Acxiom
• Joel Book,Principal, Marketing Research & Education Group, ExactTarget
• Eric Goldman, Managing Partner of Gossamar, Inbound Marketing Expert
• Blake Cahill, SVP, Marketing at Visible Technologies
• Craig Rosenberg, The Funnelholic

We’d like to thank each and every one of those men and women for sharing their expertise with us.  Much appreciated!

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Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple.” He’s also the author of two highly acclaimed white papers, How to Find New Customers and Definitive Guide to Making Quota, as well the e-book, Prospect Driven Marketing (and he’s about to start on his third white paper) and holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of Notre Dame.

Find New Customers helps business develop and implement programs to drive more sales leads by improving the way they find and acquire new customers using best practices in lead generation.