Blog
Notes on getting go-to-market right
Thinking out loud about how buyers actually decide, why strategies stall, and what the C3 Method does differently.
B2B Event Marketing Strategy: Why In-Person Only Works If You Know Your Buyer
Everyone says pipeline is the problem, and "go meet people in person" is a popular answer. It only works if you know which people, which room, and what to say. Here is how to choose events, build the guest list like a buying committee, and prepare your team to be useful instead of pitchy.
Read the post → November 1, 2026MQL vs SQL: Why the Handoff Breaks (and How to Fix the Definition)
Marketing hands over 200 leads, sales accepts 30, and everyone proposes a tighter definition. The definitions are rarely the problem. Here is how to build lead criteria from closed-won evidence, name the anti-ICP, and make the handoff a feedback loop both teams trust.
Read the post → October 16, 2026Free Lunch and Learn at the Aurora Chamber: Build a Go-to-Market Strategy That Holds Together
Join me at the Aurora Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, October 29, 12:00 to 1:00 PM, for a free lunch and learn on five go-to-market fundamentals: who you serve, why buyers buy, one message everyone uses, product-marketing-sales alignment, and staying aligned as things change. Lunch is provided.
Read the post → October 15, 2026The B2B Buying Committee: How to Sell When Six People Have to Say Yes
Most B2B deals are decided by a group, and the contact who loves you is rarely the one who signs. Here is who sits on the buying committee, why each role has its own problem, and how to find a champion and give them words they can repeat in rooms you will never enter.
Read the post → October 1, 2026How to Write a B2B Positioning Statement (That Buyers Can Actually Feel)
Most positioning statements are a Mad Lib that could describe any company in the category. Here is how to write one from buyer evidence: who you are for, the problem that sends them looking, what they use instead, and a difference they would actually notice, then test it and get it into the sales call.
Read the post → October 1, 2026Win-Loss Analysis: How to Find Out Why B2B Buyers Really Chose You (or Didn't)
Your CRM's "closed-lost reason" is a dropdown, and the answer is usually "price." Here is how to learn what really decided the deal: interview the buyers who chose you and the ones who didn't, ask about the decision instead of the product, and feed what you hear back into your strategy.
Read the post → September 15, 2026How to Build a B2B Messaging Framework Sales Will Actually Use
Most messaging frameworks get one round of applause at the offsite and are never opened again, while sales goes right back to improvising. Here is how to build one that survives contact with a real call: one message per endemic problem, a promise, a line a rep can say out loud, and proof behind it.
Read the post → September 1, 2026How to Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (Without Guessing)
Most ICPs are a list of firmographics written on a whiteboard and never tested. That's why sales says the leads aren't real and marketing points at the profile everyone agreed to. Here's how to build one from evidence instead: closed-won patterns, the endemic problem, the buying center, and the anti-ICP nobody writes down.
Read the post → August 26, 2026Get Aligned, Stay Aligned: Why Alignment Is the Real Go-to-Market Problem
When revenue falls short, the instinct is to add more: leads, content, channels, tools. But most revenue problems aren't effort problems, they're alignment problems. Here's why getting product, marketing, and sales pointed at the same picture of the buyer, and keeping them there, is the real growth lever.
Read the post → August 15, 2026Sales and Marketing Alignment Isn't a Meeting Problem
The usual fix is a standing meeting, a shared dashboard, and a new definition of a qualified lead. It rarely holds, because the two teams are quietly working from two different pictures of the buyer. Here is what actually has to be shared.
Read the post → August 14, 2026The 7 Stages of the B2B Buyer Decision Journey
Most B2B marketing is aimed at buyers who are ready to buy, which is a problem, because on any given day almost none of your market is. Here are the seven stages buyers really move through, and what your message must do at each.
Read the post → August 14, 2026How to Build a Go-to-Market Strategy (a Step-by-Step Approach)
Most GTM templates start in the middle, with what you want to say and do. This one starts where it should: with the buyer. A step-by-step sequence for a strategy that actually holds up.
Read the post → August 13, 2026Why Most Go-to-Market Strategies Fail (and It Isn't Execution)
When a go-to-market plan stalls, the instinct is to do more: more content, more channels, more tactics. But the real crack is almost always further upstream, in an assumption about the buyer that nobody ever tested.
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