If you scroll through LinkedIn, it will look like everyone is an executive coach. That's not entirely wrong, as mass layoffs have led many leaders to hang out a shingle as a coach, even if just temporarily, until they find their next role. But let's be real: not all executive coaches are created equal. Sorting true executive coaches from self-proclaimed leadership experts can be difficult, particularly since AI has made it easier than ever for practitioners to rapidly produce polished marketing content that doesn't always reflect genuine expertise.
When you take the leap of faith to bring your vision, your idea, to life and start your company, you wear many hats and take on many tasks. You develop the business plan and deck pitch, help build a great product or service offering, create and implement the marketing strategies, make sales, handle customer service and get take-out for everyone during the late nights they're working.
I landed on the idea for SET Active in 2017 during a time when no one was really reframing the entire activewear category. Everyone was marketing to the fitness girl or very technical niche worlds, and no one was speaking to the girl on the go and showing how activewear can move with her through the entire day. That worked until competitors caught on. Now, we differentiate through relentless innovation.
Beyond their spending, high-value clients typically engage regularly, remain loyal over time, and align with the company's core offerings. For example, a high-value client that engages regularly could be a regular shopper who purchases often but also always likes and comments on the business's social media posts. These comments and likes on social media can have a positive impact on the business, showing other potential consumers that the business is reputable and valued by others.
Abandon your focus on keyword optimization and start optimizing for citations Your human talent should focus on risk removal instead of pitching By the time a human conversation happens, the decision is often 80% to 100% made Businesses no longer find value in standard blog posts, which AI technology has made obsolete The traditional B2B growth engine is now showing signs of "leaking oil." The predictable path to revenue has followed a straight line for many years.
Intent arbitrage means capturing a buyer's interest before they even start evaluating competitors - and thanks to AI, this capability is available to every business. AI detects emerging intent by processing millions of data points and continuously monitoring intent signals, letting companies respond faster than traditional, reactive demand-generation methods. Turning early intent signals into a competitive advantage requires leadership buy-in and coordination between marketing, sales and product teams.
Negotiating real estate on affiliate portals means you need to have a good sense of commercial selling and how to value different traffic sources. At the end of the day, this is a business, and you need to be able to make the right media advertising decisions that will help the business succeed and meet your overall customer acquisition targets.
Lead management in B2B has evolved into a systems challenge that spans teams, platforms and the entire revenue lifecycle. It is a complex engineering discipline that requires a holistic, lifecycle-driven approach rather than a simple marketing-to-sales handoff. In a recent strategy session, we examined what it takes to build a lead management engine today. We concluded that many organizations are still attempting to solve 2026 problems with a 2010 mindset.
Martech is a team sport, and no one wins it alone. Success depends on coordination across internal teams and external partners. A customer success manager, or CSM, is one of the most important - and often underutilized - partners for marketing technology practitioners. They play a critical role in shaping the vendor-client relationship and long-term success. The value of customer success managers
For many B2B businesses, outbound sales has traditionally been driven by persistence rather than precision. Build lists, send emails, follow up relentlessly, and hope enough conversations convert into opportunities. For a long time, that approach worked. Today, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. Inbox competition is more intense than ever, decision-makers are harder to reach, and buyers are far more selective about where they spend their time.
