Ellen Lind
Principal Editor, Product Lead
Author Insights
Blog
Finding The SaaS Goldilocks Zone: Value-Based Pricing That’s Just Right
B2B organizations are increasingly striving to develop a value-based approach to pricing software-as-a-service and subscription offerings, assuming all customers are looking for the same value because they share a requirement for the same type of offering. But every customer has a different idea of what price is “just right.”
Blog
Investigating the Upside Down: Balancing Organizational and Customer Value in B2B Measurement
- Despite striving toward customer-centricity, too many B2B sales and marketing functions have not evolved the ways in which they measure achievement
- Internally focused systems of measurement do not provide sufficient insight on how organizations generate value for buyers and customers
- In their Summit 2020 session, Ross Graber and Anthony McPartlin shared a vision for balancing measurement between organizational and customer value
Blog
Dogs and Cats CAN Live Together: How to Make the Right Post-Acquisition Branding Decisions
- B2B marketing leaders in today’s highly acquisitive environment must be prepared with a plan to take action on day one after an acquisition
- From a logical brand integration strategy to a thoughtful approach to communicating with internal and external stakeholders, marketing plays a critical role in successful integrations
- In a Summit 2020 session, Julie Ogilvie shared a strategic decision-making framework for when and how to integrate acquired brands and a process for ongoing communication with internal and external audiences
Blog
Buyers Come in Many Flavors: What Our Buying Study Shows About Buying Behaviors
- One of the most popular topics across the SiriusDecisions client base is insights and guidance on understanding buyers’ needs
- SiriusDecisions’ biennial B2B Buying Study gathers data on buyer preferences across different global regions, industries and buyer personas
- In their Summit Europe 2019 session, Angela Leech and Paul Ferron shared EMEA-focused insights from this year’s study that organizations can leverage to inform sales, marketing and channel decisions at the regional level
Blog
Revenue Enablement: B2B’s New LBD
- Though sales enablement is making progress via competency-driven support for sales reps, other customer-facing personas receive less formal enablement
- B2B organizations vary widely in their approaches to enabling customer-facing associates, which can significantly affect the consistency of outcomes, scalability and measurement of impact
- In his Summit Europe 2019 session, Peter Ostrow shared how organizations can optimize their revenue engine by using the SiriusDecisions Revenue Enablement Framework
Blog
All Customers Are Asking … Is for a Little Respect (and Relevance)
- B2B companies are investing heavily in customer insights and personalization technologies to better engage with customers
- Massive amounts of customer data aren’t helping companies understand customer behavior because they’re looking for out-of-date, siloed behavior patterns
- SiriusDecisions’ Respect and Relevance Continuum provides a five-step process to help companies focus their customer interaction strategies on customer needs
Blog
The Cat’s Out of the Bag: Satisfied Customers Become Loyal Advocates
- Although the B2C and B2B post-sale journeys differ, the basics of a positive customer experience are the same
- Organizations that place a great deal of importance on customer engagement are far more likely to gain and maintain loyal customer advocates
- SiriusDecisions Command Center® data shows that in organizations with a robust reference program, references make an impact on at least 50 percent of revenue
Blog
The Brand Experience Navigator – A GPS for Reaching Your Best Brand and Customer Experience
- A great brand captures the essence of what an organization stands for in an authentic way that’s relevant and differentiated for its key audiences
- For many organizations, however, the brand becomes muddled because employees don’t know or don’t care about it – leading to inconsistent and frustrating customer experiences
- At Summit 2018, Julie Ogilvie and Lisa Nakano showed how to use the SiriusDecisions Brand Experience Navigator to build an integrated customer, employee and brand experience
Blog
Summit 2018 Preview: Nurture in the Context of the Demand Unit Waterfall™
- Summit is the premier event for B2B sales, marketing and product leaders to learn best practices for driving greater alignment and topline revenue growth
- At this year’s Summit, Erin Bohlin and Laura Cross will present a keynote focused on nurture in a Demand Unit Waterfall world
- This session outlines how to rethink the concept of nurture to plan and deploy the right mix of interactions and content throughout the decisionmaking process
Blog
Marketplace Essentials: Q&A With Rachel Merkin
- Brainshark, a sponsor of SiriusDecisions events, is a provider of sales enablement and readiness software
- This spring, Ellen Lind asked Brainshark’s senior marketing program manager, Rachel Merkin, some events-related questions
- Rachel and her team make sure that even sales reps who weren’t at the event have the tools to speak intelligently about it in followups with delegates
Blog
Summit Europe 2017 Highlights: Building a Localization-Informed B2B Content Engine
- Three out of four B2B organizations lack a formalized approach to defining and running their global content engines, causing them to underperform
- At SiriusDecisions Summit Europe 2017, Christine Polewarczyk and Julian Archer shared how to build a strong, successful global B2B content engine
- Leverage the SiriusDecisions Content Model and the SiriusDecisions Localization Model to help devise an efficient content localization strategy
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Summit Europe 2017 Highlights: Unlocking the Strategic Potential of Sales Operations
- At SiriusDecisions Summit Europe 2017, Dana Therrien shared sales operations insights from the Command Center® and 2018 planning assumptions
- Dana categorized these insights into the seven accountabilities of the SiriusDecisions Sales Operations Accountabilities Sunburst
- Sales operations leaders should create and update a roadmap for investment in enhanced strategic accountabilities like data science
Blog
Summit Europe 2017 Preview: Q&A With Meta Karagianni
- Summit Europe is the premier destination for Eurocentric B2B research and innovation
- For a preview of what this event will offer, Ellen Lind interviewed Meta Karagianni, service director for SiriusDecisions
- Among many other topics, Summit Europe attendees will learn how sales and marketing can work together to align with what buyers want
Blog
Summit Europe 2017 Preview: Q&A With Isabel Montesdeoca
- Summit Europe is the premier destination for Eurocentric B2B research and innovation
- For a preview of what this event will offer, Ellen Lind interviewed Isabel Montesdeoca, director of EMEA research at SiriusDecisions
- Among many other topics, Summit Europe attendees will discover how new data privacy regulations will drive marketers to adopt better marketing practices
Blog
Summit Europe 2017 Preview: Q&A With Julian Archer
- Summit Europe is the premier destination for Eurocentric B2B research and innovation
- For a preview of what this event will offer, Ellen Lind interviewed Julian Archer, a senior research director at SiriusDecisions
- Among many other topics, Summit Europe attendees will learn how to improve localization processes for better content localization performance on a global scale
Blog
Marketplace Essentials: Q&A With Amanda Wynne
- SAVO, a sponsor of SiriusDecisions events, is a Chicago-based pioneer in sales enablement software
- This spring, Ellen Lind asked SAVO’s senior director of marketing, Amanda Wynne, some events-related questions
- Amanda and her team get their reps excited during event booth duty with fun giveaways that customers love
Blog
Marketplace Essentials: Q&A With Heather Foeh
- LookBookHQ, a sponsor of SiriusDecisions’ Summit, builds software that accelerates B2B purchase decisions
- Before 2017’s Summit, Ellen Lind asked LookBookHQ’s VP of customer experience, Heather Foeh, about events and customer advocacy
- Heather and her team leverage events to build relationships with customer advocates by soliciting their feedback on new products
Blog
The Customer Engagement Model: The Secret to a Long-Lasting Relationship
- On the main stage at SiriusDecisions Summit 2017, Lisa Nakano and Megan Heuer introduced the Customer Engagement Model
- The model has three main components: drivers, indicators and scores
- The essential drivers of customer engagement that affect post-sale business goals are growth, advocacy, retention and engagement
Blog
Six Components of a Highly Effective Sales Machine
- On the main stage at SiriusDecisions Summit 2017, Mark Levinson and Phil Harrell introduced the Sales Operating Model
- The model has four roles at its core: sales leadership, sales operations, sales enablement and channel sales
- Each role plays a key part in the six standards sales organizations should implement and utilize to drive operational excellence
Blog
Marketplace Essentials: Q&A With David Buffaloe
- Zift Solutions, a sponsor of SiriusDecisions’ events, offers Channel as a Service (CHaaS)
- After the 2017 Sales Leadership Exchange, Ellen Lind asked Zift’s VP of marketing, David Buffaloe, some event-related questions
- David and his team leverage events to expand relationships with customers by reaching out to other buyers in an account
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