The truth about B2B marketing

I’m way too mild-mannered to be a fan boy of Steve Jobs, and also really want to avoid the cliche about blogging about his marketing chops. So I’ll just point at this comprehensive post I saw earlier today by Laura Ries, The Secret of Steve Jobs. Yes, we’d all like to be that marketer, but will humbly admit that we aren’t (or that there are too many road blocks, like not being CEO).

What we B2B marketing managers are is scrappy, tactical, and responsive marketers. Myself, I think my start as a salesperson gives me a unique edge in being able to match our customers to our products. And with a very strong technical skill to master the tools of marketing, we generate results that are impossible for others to duplicate. A meeker Steve Jobs in our own factory, you might say.

All that to build up to this fascinating blog-post by the wiz of the “Four hour work week”, Tim Ferriss, interviewing online marketer and millionaire Mike Geary: How To Make $1,000,000 Profit Per Month with Digital Products.

“To be honest, I was a little slow in learning marketing and building the business, so it took me about five years to get to those numbers. About two years into this venture, I was finally making about $50,000 per year with the online business. As I explained above, growth exploded once I quit my corporate job, and my earnings increased about 10x the following year. Growth in following years went to $3.6 million, then $6 million, and finally $11 million in annual revenue.”

Yes, while we’ve been sitting in our cubes or offices filling up our company funnel, this guy has been filling up his pockets. But that’s not why I share this. As you read his interview, you’ll see that Mike Geary is just like us …

  • Very close to our product
  • Know our sales force
  • Adjusting and tuning our marketing
  • Mastering our tools
  • Watching costs and revenue
  • And traveling 10-15 days a month (Well, if we are traveling, its certainly not to go skiing!)

So the truth is I have no allusions about being the Steve Jobs of B2B. I do see tons of opportunity to be the next Mike Geary, either at work or on a personal venture. How about you?