If you’re a B2B marketing or sales leader chances are you’re swamped with work! You have content flying at you from all over the place with the fire hose getting fiercer each day. But you know you need to stay informed, up to date and have that jewel of information at your fingertips!

That’s why we at Mi6 have developed a Bi-Weekly Wrap-Up Category of posts. Here we will work to summarize and share highly relevant content for you, the B2B marketing or sales professional. Expect to see these posts twice a month – on the 15th and final day of the month. The summaries will help you quickly decide whether more reading, watching or listening is worth your time, or not. You can also discuss the topic in our Private LinkedIn community group (Apply to Join).

#1: Sales and Marketing: The Original Game of Thrones

Source: Pardot, an ExactTarget company | Date: April 16, 2013 | Format: Slideshare presentation

Summary of Findings

In this presentation “Sales and Marketing: The Original Game of Thrones” by Pardot (an ExactTarget company) three key battleground territories are identified as creating friction between marketing and sales in their quest for corporate power and recognition. The fight and friction is around lead management, lead nurturing and ROI. The presentation outlines the frustrations marketing and sales professionals are facing and recommends, via marketing automation, introducing a lead generation program that includes using a universal lead definition, a ranking criteria and nurturing tactics for campaigns. [Link to Article] [Discuss on LinkedIn]

#2: Three Social Media Tools That Improve the Sales Cycle

Source: Social Media Examiner | Date: April 15, 2013 | Format: Blog post with how to screen shots

Summary of Findings

In his post “3 Social Media Tools That Improve the Sales Cycle”, Ian Cleary hilites, in-depth, three social media tools that you can use for prospecting. Each review includes an overview of what the tool does, how to set up an account and specific ways to use the tool and the overall benefits of using it. The three featured tools are Nimble which can help you nurture your relationships and get sales; Needtagger which helps you focus on finding potential business opportunities through twitter and Virally which allows your content to generate leads and be shared on social networks. [Link to Article] [Discuss on LinkedIn]

#3: IBM’s Design Lab: I Have Seen the Future of Marketing

Source: Robin Fray Carey, Social Media Today | Date: April 3, 2013 | Format: Blog post

Summary of Findings

In her post “ IBM’s Design Lab: I Have Seen the Future of Marketing” Robin Fray Carey of Social Media Today gets an inside look on how IBM marketing has evolved and where they are heading particularly in the areas of content development, social networking and cross functional team collaboration. Robin learns that IBM is creating marketing strategy in real-time with teams working together in an agile setting so they can innovate, learn and adjust. They are leveraging internal subject matter experts by mentoring them to create content, develop their own voice through social networks/communities and connect with the market. This is a good post for marketers because it’s a real world example that shows large companies, like IBM, are evolving and embracing newer ways to market. [Link to Article] [Discuss on LinkedIn]

#4: Cracking the Linkedin Sales Code

Source(s): Jill Konrath and Ardath Albee | Date: 2013 | Format: eBook (PDF)

Summary of Findings

In their ebook “Cracking the Linkedin Sales Code” Jill Konrath and Ardath Albee publish the results of their Linkedin survey. The survey sought out to see if professionals were successfully using Linkedin to sell. Over 3,000 people including sales reps, entrepreneurs, sales managers, consultants and service providers responsibile for generating revenue responded. This eBook confirms that top sellers are using Linkedin extensively to research and connect with customers and prospects. This eBook compares what the top sellers are doing and accomplishing on Linkedin as compared to underperforming sellers. The authors include a set of 8 steps sellers can take to improve their chances of using Linkedin to sell successfully. [Link to Article] [Discuss on LinkedIn]

#5: The Powerful Force of Social Sales [INFOGRAPHIC]

Source: Ritika Puri, The Content Strategist | Date: April 17, 2013 | Format: Post with infographic

Summary of Findings

In his post “The Powerful Force of Social Sales” Ritika Puri shares and critiques a recent infographic from Linkedin and Aberdeen on how socially savvy sales professionals are more successful than those who are not. The research behind the infographic, according to Linkedin and Aberdeen, states that “social selling” and by implication socially savvy reps and teams are retiring quota more often and renewing customer contracts more frequently. The author points out that introducing the Social Selling Index as a barometer of success creates some confusion due to a lack of detail and explanation. [Link to Article] [Discuss on LinkedIn]

Chris Herbert is the founder of Mi6. Mi6 is a B2B (Business to Business) marketing and business development agency dedicated to helping companies build their brands and develop commercial relationships. He is the founder of ProductCamp Toronto and the Hi-tech community Silicon Halton. He tweets under the handle @B2Bspecialist.

According to Vivek WadhwaFellow of Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University, the odds are stacked against the aging technology worker. But, Mr. Wadhwa digs deeper and outlines the benefit of having more experienced technology workers as key members of your team, startup etc.

Some key thing to think about:

• as is the case with all business professionals, a tech worker must be obsessed with learning and keeping their skills up to date
• older workers tend to be more loyal and have real world experience that can be leveraged in the form of network connections, industry knowledge and lessons learned
• consider having a young and older mix of people working for you in tech 

Chris (follow me on Twitter)

It’s interesting that the founders of Twitter have moved on to new business adventures. If you’re interested in knowing what they are up to now this is a good succinct post. Square and Medium are two business ventures/platforms that we’re keeping our eyes on.

Read More: This Week in Tech Posts here

This is an important because many marketers are frustrated by the lack of tools and support from social networks like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter that measure conversion and ROI. Two things to look for: 1) Will marketers begin to sell goods and services through Facebook? and 2) Will Twitter and Linkedin provide better analytics and conversion measurement tools and data to advertisers?

Read More: This Week in Tech Posts here

In our experience many larger technology firms have and continue to struggle in developing a sustainable and growing customer base in the SMB market. This article by Laurie McCabe is a must read for any large technology company (IBM, SAP, Cisco, Microsoft, HP etc.) and their partners/resellers. Laurie gets the SMB market and is a true thought leader in this space. [Disclosure: Laurie is a member of the Intellectual Xchange Network. This is a thought leader network program run by our firm sponsored by SAP]

Read More: This Week in Tech Posts here

Make no mistake that Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter while open to the public to use, augment and leverage will always have control of how their networks are used. As a B2B marketer keep this in mind when establishing and developing your digital channels. Focus on building your own networks and establishing your own web properties and channels to engage.

Read More: This Week in Tech Posts here

To what extend does one really care about what Wired thinks about the Samsung Galaxy S4, the iPhone 5, the BlackBerry Z10 or the Nokia 920? What role does mainstream media play today in influencing ones decision to buy a device? Also, how many apps do Smartphone owners use regularly? Does an app marketing with 1 million apps really add value to the overall value proposition of a smartphone?

Read More: This Week in Tech Posts here

Discontinuation of products take place due to lack of interest, declining use, pressures on earnings etc. While it’s surprising that Google Reader is being discontinued (we use it to monitor stakeholder networks) it underscores the fact that full dependence on social networks and cloud services has repercussions. Linkedin for example has discontinued “Answers”, RSS feeds into groups and events. Facebook changes privacy settings and policies. Twitter has made it next to impossible to introduce better Twitter management systems and tools. Our advice: always be heading in a direction of self sufficiency.

Read More: This Week in Tech Posts here

This decision by IBM is a potential market changer and will have an impact on VMware and Citrix. OpenStack, is an Open Source alternative for server virtualization and cloud computing (private and public).

Read More: This Week in Tech Posts here