Go To Market

Programme Failure
Reading Time: 7 minutesThe warning signs of programme failure can emerge whilst the dashboard is still green. The latest report describes progress, the steering group has met and the completion date remains on target. Yet the sponsor is becoming uneasy. Milestones have moved. Decisions return to meetings without being resolved. People describe how [...]

How to Regain Control Before Programme Failure

Hiding your expertise
Reading Time: 5 minutesA capable business can be surprisingly difficult to understand by B2B buyers. This post explores those challenges. Its people know the work, customers value its expertise and leadership can explain why the company deserves consideration. Yet the website presents a list of services, social activity says little about the problems [...]

Why B2B Buyers Can’t See the Business You See

Proposition Lifecycle
Reading Time: 7 minutesA useful portfolio review brings the claims together and tests what the business should kill, keep or look at a recovery. It also recognises that some work must continue, while other activities need a managed transition rather than an immediate verdict. Every substantial piece of work usually has somebody who [...]

Proposition Lifecycle: Kill, Keep or Recovery?

Purpose
Reading Time: 6 minutesHow do we keep focused on purpose? A B2B business approves a transformation to make buying and onboarding easier for customers. Leadership wants fewer delays, less repeated information and clearer responsibility from the first commercial conversation through to a working service. The programme introduces a new platform, revised processes and [...]

The Programme Ate The Purpose

Forecast Confidence
Reading Time: 8 minutesIn this post, we look at instances where forecast confidence can become forecast theatre: a persuasive prediction continues to carry authority after its connection to evidence, ownership and action has weakened. Consider an investment case with a three-year payback. The proposed expenditure is clear, the benefits are attractive and the [...]

Forecast Confidence Versus Forecast Theatre

Visible Online
Reading Time: 10 minutesA specialist B2B company can spend thirty years building expertise and still not be very visible online. Its technical people understand difficult customer problems and its commercial team knows where projects become complicated. The leadership team have strong views about the market, and its customers rely on experience that competitors [...]

Why Good B2B Companies Struggle to Be Visible Online

Evidence-Based Decisions 1
Reading Time: 11 minutesLeadership Judgement Series – Part Seven Evidence-based decisions are made using the best information available at the time, but that does not mean they should remain unchanged when the evidence moves. A leadership team might make a significant investment in a new proposition after researching customers, testing demand, assessing competitors [...]

Evidence-Based Decisions: Why Good Leaders Change Course

Leadership Decisions
Reading Time: 9 minutesLeadership Judgement Series – Part Four Businesses have never had more information available to support important leadership decisions. A significant investment proposal might arrive at a leadership meeting supported by financial forecasts, historic performance, CRM data, market analysis, customer research and competitor intelligence. Increasingly, AI can add another layer of [...]

Why More Data Does Not Always Improve Leadership Decisions

Leadership Judgement 1
Reading Time: 14 minutesWhy leadership judgement matters more than ever The hardest leadership judgement is rarely the one where information is unavailable. These leadership judgement decisions are the ones where information exists, but the answer remains unclear. The customer data tells one story. The market signals suggest another. The leadership team has confidence, [...]

The A to Z of Leadership Judgement

Proposition Clarity
Reading Time: 7 minutesMany businesses do not lack a value proposition. They lack proposition clarity. The words may exist. The website may be polished. The sales deck may explain the offer well enough. But when the proposition is not clear enough to guide sales, pricing, product, delivery and leadership decisions, it starts to [...]

When Proposition Clarity Becomes A Growth Constraint