Lilia Shirman - 42 Rules for Growing Enterprise Revenue. Go-to-Market Strategies that Increase Your Relevance to B2B Customers

Go-To-Market Strategies that Increase Your Relevance to B2B Customers

By Lilia Shirman

Foreword by Jill Konrath

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20660 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 210
Cupertino, CA 95014

Copyright 2014 by Lilia Shirman

All rights reserved. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Published by Super Star Press, a THiNKaha imprint

2nd Edition: March 2014
1st Edition: November 2009
Paperback ISBN (2nd Edition): 978-1-60773-093-4 (1-60773-093-6)
Paperback ISBN (1st Edition): 978-1-60773-000-2 (1-60773-000-6)
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60773-001-9 (1-60773-001-4)
Place of Publication: Silicon Valley, California, USA
Library of Congress Number: 2009938516

Trademarks

All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. THiNKaha, nor any of its imprints, can attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.

Warning and Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible. The information provided is on an as is basis. The author(s), publisher, and its agents assume no responsibility for errors or omissions nor assume liability or responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the use of information contained herein.

Praise For This Book!

The core of growing any venture is deep customer insight. Lilia Shirman gives simple, powerful frameworks, practical action plans, and real-world examples for putting such insight to work. This book should be assigned reading in every business and entrepreneurship course.

Tom Kosnik, Fenwick and West Consulting Professor, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Stanford University

Simplistic value claims wont cut it in enterprise accounts. Dont leave sales teams to do the hard work of proving worth on their own. Shirman inspires us to stop crafting messages and instead to collaborate with customers to understand how and why we really matter. And then to throw the entire organization behind mattering more.

Rick Jackson, CMO, VMware

The objective for enterprise solution vendors is to make big deals more repeatable and big accounts more loyal. This is an astute and practical guide to greater customer engagement, more valuable offerings, and go-to-market approaches that produce consistently bigger wins. Keep this useful tool on your desk.

Eugene Lee, CEO, Socialtext

Shirman presents incisive ideas about understanding markets, quantifying value, and constructing solutions and industry offerings that really matter in the customers universe. Some of these rules are common sense, but certainly not common practice. Many are completely new takes on demonstrating and delivering value. All are thought-provoking and critical reading for everyone on your management team.

Gail Ennis, CEO, Karmasphere

This book is an indispensable guide to what it takes to make complex B2B products more relevant to customers and to entire markets. It packs a wealth of go-to-market strategy and execution savvy into a quick read. Ill be keeping it close at hand as we grow our business.

Ivan Koon, CEO, YouSendIt

Want to grow revenue in the enterprise market? Being customer-focused is not just a clich. Its core to every successful business. Shirman presents fresh thinking and pragmatic approaches for selecting target markets, understanding customer priorities, and communicating and delivering real value to customers. This book hits the mark and should be on the desk of every business strategist.

Ken Goldberg, VP, Business Planning and COO, Travel and Transportation Industry, HP Enterprise Services

To avoid commoditization, B2B companies must constantly expand their offerings and innovate how they sell, market, serve, and partner; in short, how they do business. If adding yet another product feature is no longer enough to differentiate, read this book. Shirman provides a treasure trove of strategies for staying relevant and valuable.

Erik Frieberg, Chief Marketing Officer, 10gen

We focus on innovation in creating and extending customer value beyond the core product or technology. Shirman provides actionable and repeatable processes for developing integrated go-to-market strategies and aligning companies around what matters most to customers. This is a valuable new tool that well be using to foster business innovation and entrepreneurial success at the Center for Business Innovation.

Soren Sjolander, Chair Professor of Innovation and Founding Chairman of the Center for Business Innovation (CBI), Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Dedication

To my mother and my grandfather Shura, who had the courage to rescue me from a world of repression and hypocrisy and the foresight to teach me that in any world, its the human relationships that matter most.

With my everlasting gratitude to my husband, Leon, for his belief and encouragement and for demonstrating what writing could be in quality, clarity, and speed.

To Nina and Ally, for their contagious enthusiasm and curiosity and the ultimate writing inspiration contained in the words: My mom is an author!

Acknowledgments

Nothing helps communicate an idea better than a real-life example. The stories of how the rules look in practice came from dozens of business leaders who generously shared their experiences and insights. My deepest gratitude goes out to these generous and wise souls. They include Charlie Born, Michael Browning, Mark Carges, Chris Cook, Jeremy Cooper, Erik Frieberg, Jeff Greenwald, Andrea Holko, Rick Jackson, Judy Ko, Bud Landrum, Eugene Lee, Holly Lugassy, Suzanne McLarnon, David Miner, Dave Munn, Michael Pierantozzi, Pavey Purewal, Rick Schmaltz, Dave Stein, Mark Templeton, and Matt Thompson, along with the scores of colleagues and clients who demonstrate the efficacy of customer relevance and business innovation in their daily work. Thanks also to the creative and talented Monica Girel for turning my rough sketches into visually clear diagrams.

This book is better than I could have ever made it alone, thanks to the feedback and encouragement of other authors and business sages. They include Ken Goldberg, Jill Konrath, Tom Kosnik, Phillip Lay, Pam Fox Rollin, and Mari Anne Vanella.

Much credit for this book belongs with my executive editor and, more importantly, friend and supporter Laura Lowell for her encouragement, guidance, patience, and for setting the definitive example of turning vision into reality.