Funny question, until you think about it a bit more. With all the focus on the changed buyer who finds online or from peers much of what she needs to make a decision, on just about everything, including what to buy, why do we still have salespeople on the payroll?

Because your customers require them.  

Funny answer, until you think about it a bit more.

Work with me here.  If your company is in the business of converting assets, like a patent, or skilled craftspeople, or molten metal, or a process you understand well, into something of potential value to others, that is step one.  Next, you have to communicate that value to other people so they can decide to get some, or not.  To do that, you have people crafting all sorts of messages about your value; some of those messages you send out to the world online, some in traditional ads, others on blogs, some into communities, maybe a book, and those messages are the simpler ones. Simpler because these are messages the target recipient must be able to decode, absorb, and assimilate unaided into his or her personal value equation.  Does the value I perceive exceed the cost and is the risk to realizing that value manageable and acceptable? "I like what I hear and read about this iPhone well enough, the cost seems worth it, and I think I can figure out how to make it work."  Like that.  

Then there are more complex messages, to go with more involved decisions, for stuff, the value of which you created to solve more involved problems than retrieving and sending texts or booking a table for dinner.

Hello Fellow B2B Marketers, this weekly blog post highlights our ongoing research focused on B2B revenue acceleration, as well as an exclusive look into what outputs you can expect in the coming weeks. Kick off your week here every Monday to get a burst of support for your professional success.

Forrester hosts its Sales Enablement Forum in Scottsdale, Arizona, on March 4 and 5, 2013. Attendees will engage as a community with a shared focus on driving revenue, hear success stories in process from leading practitioners, become immersed in the latest research outputs and survey data from Forrester, and enjoy one-on-one conversations with analysts and each other, all in the comfort of the Camelback Inn Resort & Spa. This week, Marketing Mondays spotlights some of our guest speakers.

Forrester hosts its Sales Enablement Forum in Scottsdale, Arizona, on March 4 and 5, 2013. Attendees will engage as a community with a shared focus on driving revenue, hear success stories in process from their peers and leading B2B practitioners, become immersed in the latest thinking and data from Forrester including face time with analysts, all in the comfort of the Camelback Inn Resort & Spa. Over the next three weeks, Marketing Mondays will spotlight the

Hello Fellow B2B Marketers, this weekly blog post highlights our ongoing research focused on B2B revenue acceleration, as well as an exclusive look into what outputs you can expect in the coming weeks. Kick off your week here every Monday to get a burst of support for your professional success.

Forrester hosts its Sales Enablement Forumin Scottsdale, Arizona on March 4^th and 5^th, 2013. Attendees will engage as a community with a shared focus on driving revenue, hear success stories in process from their peers and leading B2B practitioners, become immersed in the latest thinking and data from Forrester including face-time with analysts, all in the comfort of the Camelback Inn Resort & Spa. Over the next three weeks, Marketing Mondays will spotlight the themes of the forum through a series of Q&A sessions with attending analysts. This week I sat down with Peter O'Neill and Lori Wizdo to discuss their track at the upcoming forum. Here is our Q&A.

Brad Holmes: Hi Lori and Peter, thanks for taking the time to chat with me today. You’re leading the track “Modernizing Demand Management For New Business And Markets” at the upcoming Forum For Sales Enablement Professionals in Scottsdale, Arizona, on March 4^th and 5^th. Can you talk a little about what you will be discussing during that track?

Hello Fellow B2B Marketers, this weekly blog post highlights our ongoing research focused on B2B revenue acceleration, as well as an exclusive look into what outputs you can expect in the coming weeks. Kick off your week here every Monday to get a burst of support for your professional success.

Forrester hosts its Sales Enablement Forum in Scottsdale, Arizona, on March 4 and 5, 2013. Attendees will engage as a community with a shared focus on driving revenue, hear success stories in process from their peers and leading B2B practitioners, become immersed in the latest thinking and data from Forrester including face time with analysts, all in the comfort of the Camelback Inn Resort & Spa. Over the next three weeks, Marketing Mondays will spotlight the themes of the forum through a series of Q&A sessions with attending analysts. First up, I will answer frequently-asked-questions as a general introduction to the forum, and then Tim Harmon and Jonathan Silber will delve into the forum’s don’t-miss value for clients who market and sell through the channel.