Market Smart:How to Gain Customers and Increase Profits with B2B Marketing

B2B companies aren’t often natural-born marketers. Marketing isn’t a core competence or even a comfort zone for many of them. But with more global competition and new ways of doing business, B2B companies now have the opportunity – and the necessity – to get smart about marketing. They have the opportunity to capitalize on marketing to enhance awareness of their products and services, gain new customers and increase their profits.
This book is a practical, one-stop resource for achieving B2B marketing success. It is heavy on pragmatism and light on theory. It equips you with the fundamentals of marketing and the tactics that will help you achieve powerful results.
The book is written for all the B2B companies who don’t have multi-million dollar marketing budgets, and might never have had a marketing plan or a dedicated marketer. It’s for leaders of B2B companies who (whether they want to or not) wear the marketing hat for their business. It’s also for all the B2B company administrators and coordinators who aren’t marketers by training but become marketers by delegation.
The book is a comprehensive guide that covers the critical elements of successful B2B marketing in a single source. You’ll learn how to:
• Develop a B2B marketing strategy with a practical 3-step process
• Identify what B2B customers really want and what will make your company stand out
• Choose the right B2B marketing tactics for your organization
• Create a realistic action plan
• Set goals
• Budget and manage B2B marketing activities
• Implement effectively
If you work in a B2B company and want to put marketing to work and gain customers and increase your profits, this book is for you.

Lisa Shepherd is the Founder and President of The Mezzanine Group, a business-to-business strategy and marketing company based in Toronto, Canada. Over the last two decades, Lisa has consulted to over 200 companies in more than 30 different industries on how to grow revenues and profits through effective marketing. She has grown Mezzanine into a four-time winner of the fastest growing company award from PROFIT Magazine (two years on the Profit Hot 50 and two years on the Profit 100). She knows how to use marketing to gain customers and increase profits for B2B companies. Lisa's career in B2B began while completing her MBA at the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University, where she worked as a management consultant with technical and industrial companies. She went on to establish The Mezzanine Group to help B2B organizations - from small and mid-sized privately-held companies to large enterprises and professional associations - grow. Lisa has a pragmatic approach to B2B strategy and marketing that has been learned through years of working with owner-managers of privately held businesses as well as exceptional leaders in Fortune 500 enterprises. She knows from experience that marketing can profoundly enhance the success of B2B companies when used effectively - and that more B2B companies have the opportunity to put marketing to work. They just need to market smart. Lisa has worked in advanced manufacturing, aerospace, financial services, telecommunications, oil and gas, technology, healthcare, clean-tech, technical and professional services organizations and many, many others since she started working in B2B. She is a recognized expert on B2B marketing and speaks and writes extensively on effective strategy and implementation. Her columns and advice are featured in The Globe & Mail, PROFIT Magazine, 20/20 Magazine, Toronto Star and the National Post among others.