Book Review – eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale by Ardath Albee
Posted on Tue, Aug 03, 2010
I first learned of Ardath Albee by reading her blog, and it was obvious she understands the full implication of Web 2.0 and the interconnection and alignment between sales and marketing.
Albee’s book is full of great suggestions; here’s the best of what I read:
1. Customer synopsis: A four–step buying process
What most impressed me about this process is that the steps were very specific to the customers’ needs and tying into the changes in the customer needs through their buying stages.
2. Nurturing track
Albee laid out six steps to help you to create a nurturing track with your customers. The strength of the steps lies in the interrelation of the content you deliver to your customers relative to where they are in the buying cycle.
3. Competitive differentiation through content structure
Albee talks about “three types of contagious content, which are fundamental for establishing competitive differentiation: educational, expertise, and evidence-focused content.” I find this viewpoint convincing because of its complete focus on the customer, not on one’s products and services.
eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale, by Ardath Albee, published by McGraw-Hill, 2010.