Artificial intelligence isn’t new, but as a technology it’s still very much in its infancy. The term was first coined in 1956, but AI as we know it didn’t officially begin until the first neural networks emerged in the mid 80s. Even then, it was another decade before concepts...

Every business today needs one essential piece of kit: a crystal ball. If you could predict the future, risk and waste would be avoided. You wouldn’t need to apply guesswork as to what your prospects or existing customers are thinking; business operations would undoubtedly run...

“Why Marketing needs closer ties to IT” is the title of an article published by Adele K. Sweetwood in December in the prestigious Harvard Business Review. Ms Sweetwood is Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Shared Services at SAS. In other words, for...

The never-ending rivalry between marketing and sales departments dies hard. But this entrenched battle is meaningless in the age of omnichannel and social selling. With a few best practices, peace in our time is achievable. Some see it as a sort of Hundred Years’ War....

Marketing automation is a potent B2B weapon, but it’s not not the sort of weapon that works like a nuclear deterrent. In other words, possessing automation software is no use. You need to make it your lethal weapon, one that you deploy using a variety of attack vectors. That’s...

During the ‘70s and ‘80s, Hershey ran a series of commercials for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with the tagline “Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together.” As part of the campaign, serendipitous accidents mixed peanut butter and chocolate. The accidents were silly, but the...

Every business leader worth their salt is aware of marketing automation and the benefits it can bring. The internet is awash with articles urging B2B sellers to automate their emails, ASAP, to streamline the sales process and to engage with prospects on different stages of the...

There is a tendency to talk about artificial intelligence in the future tense. ‘AI will change that.’ ‘One day, AI will do this’. The reality though is that the future is here. Businesses that are ahead of the curve are already harnessing the power of artificial intelligence. It...

“Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet” – Rudyard Kipling In a recent blog, Forrester Principal Analyst James McQuivey, argued that calls for alignment generally come from powerful parties looking to control weaker organizations.  Alignment is...

In a data-driven era, success in business is largely the result of thorough market research — research conducted to know 1) why you’re selling your product or service and 2) who you’re directing your product or service towards. That may sound like simple logic…but you’d be...