#82: Tribes and titans, prostitutes and child brides, and that crazy Forrester prediction...
Hello hello! It's time for issue #82.
In this edition of The World's Best Newsletter:
1. My newest post unpacks a bombshell prediction for B2B sales
2. Why Outreach acquired SalesHacker
3. A tribe makes you a titan
4. Teachers, nurses, prostitutes, and child brides.
5. How to lead in diversity: "get your head out of your butt"
6. Quote of the week: "What have we done?"
Let's. Do. It.
1. My newest post unpacks a bombshell prediction for B2B sales
Will 1M Sales Reps Lose Their Job in 2020? Let’s Clarify this Bombshell for B2B
This past weekend, the incomparable Jill Rowley shared the following slide:
I shared the slide on Twitter, and the responses were swift:
"I don't believe that for a second."
"Reps are not going away."
"Number replaced so far =0" (Quick note: This one came from Tom Goodwin, who I absolutely adore for his contrarian ways, so to have him part of this thread put a big smile on my face.)
"I'm guessing this won't be accurate in 2020."
I felt it was important to clarify this report, what it's truly saying, and what B2B teams need to do about it, especially in light of the rise of ABM. Read the full article.
2. Why Outreach acquired SalesHacker
I learned through Michael Levy's excellent market insights newsletter that sales software firm Outreach had acquired sales training firm, SalesHacker.
I loved this, as it's an example of a high-growth company acquiring education, content and community to defend its leadership position and drive awareness of the category/problem.
"Given that we are the biggest, we have the most funding, we are the fastest growing, it’s kind of like our responsibility to make sure that the industry continues to grow and the category continues to grow,” Outreach CEO Manny Medina Medina said.
Note: To subscribe to Michael's newsletter (paid) visit this site. I highly recommend it to anyone operating within the information services industry, especially
Sales Intelligence
Data as a Service (DaaS)
Data Hygiene
Predictive Analytics
ABM / ABSD
3. A tribe makes you a titan
My soul sister Hally Pinaud shared this article from martech leader Chandar Pattabhiram, "To Become a Tech Titan, You’ve Got to Build a Tribe." His point: As a B2B software company, only a Tribe can make you a Titan in today’s customer-driven world.
He illuminates the point using his firm, Coupa's Community Intelligence offering:
"Networks connect ‘nodes’ and technology, while communities connect people who interact and form a tribe. In our world, the entire community can collectively benefit from the individual intelligence of its peers.
From the early days, Coupa has focused on the guiding principle from our CEO Rob Bernshteyn that “none of us is as smart as all of us.” This principle has shaped our product offering. Today, billions of dollars of spend data is analyzed at an aggregate level using AI in the Coupa cloud platform and every customer gets insights on their benchmarks – item pricing, supplier ratings, expense fraud, and many more – relative to the performance of the entire community. And these insights are provided instantly to users as part of their daily experience.
With Community Intelligence, every member of the tribe is benefiting from the collective wisdom, and the next tribe member will be smarter than the previous due to this ever-expanding dataset. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
PS I will always stop to marvel at how they find people for stock photos like the one in the post:
Can you imagine the casting notes? We need white people from every age group to stand against a green screen while clapping and smiling triumphantly. Except one guy in the front. Turn your back to the camera, you anarchist, you.
I want whatever they're on.
I digress.
4. Teachers, nurses, prostitutes, and child brides.
From CB Insights:
The 13 novels on the Man Booker Prize 2018 longlist were announced this week, including the first graphic novel to make it onto the list. IBM recently used AI technology to dig into the 275 works shortlisted over the history of the prize, specifically looking at gender bias.
The analysis found that the top occupations for men in shortlisted books were (in order) doctor, professor/scientist, business, and clergy... while the top occupations for female characters were teacher, nurse, prostitute, and child bride.
COME ON.
5. How to lead in diversity: "get your head out of your butt"
Via GenderAvenger: MassBio (a nonprofit org of over 1100 biotech co's, academic institutions, etc) is showing us how it's done in diversity leadership.
They recently implemented a policy banning all-male panels at MassBio events and prohibiting staff from sitting on all-male panels at outside events.
Women represent 50% of MassBio’s newly elected Board members and 30% of the overall board.
The company conducted a study to find out why women weren’t advancing at the same rate as men. They found that the gender ratio is roughly equal for entry level positions, but it soon diverges, with the gap growing wider at every level of leadership, until it becomes a chasm at the top. Just 1 woman for every 9 men sits on a board of directors at Massachusetts biotech companies, according to their study.
But perhaps the best part of this is the eloquent quote from MassBio President & CEO Bob Coughlin:
“Let’s not do what seems easy and convenient. If you really care about your business and you really want to be successful, why the heck would you not put 110% effort into creating the most diverse organization that you can possibly have? It’s a fact that the outcomes will be better. Get your head out of your butt and start making good business decisions.”
Amazing.
6. Quote of the week: "What have we done?"
As Silicon Valley struggles to come to terms with its corrosive underpinnings, a new vein of disquiet has wormed its way into the Slack chats of engineers, spurred by a question that seems to drown out everything else:
What have we done?
via VanityFair
Have a great weekend.
Best,
Katie
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Upcoming events:
I've curated some of the best B2B marketing content and will be walking through them at this year's Connect to Convert event in Boston, October 3-5th, 2018. Save 20% with code BCVIP, and register here.
I'm excited to be your emcee for the 2018 Women in Digital National Conference. I'll also be sharing a talk on (R)evolution: Suffragettes to Social Media. Join us in Columbus, OH September 12-14, 2018.
Can I have your attention please? Hear me share my strategies for breaking through the noise at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum in San Francisco this November. November 13-16, 2018, San Francisco. Use code "B2BFriend18" and save some cash!
I am so so excited to be keynoting this year's Spiceworld 2018, speaking to a room of B2B marketers and sales teams. I'll dig into what makes the most transformative voices so effective - and how courageous brands move buyers from apathy to action. October 8-10th, 2018 in Austin TX. See you there?
Ask Me Anything! I'll be part of Startup Boston 2018 answering questions, on-stage, from real audience members. Oh boy. September 11th at 8:30am. RSVP here.
Learn more about how to book me to speak.