What's happening: Tech Leaders Must Make Value Visible to Buyers, Not Assume It’s Obvious
A recent Strategic CEO article warns that many tech CEOs and sales teams fall into a false‑consensus bias, assuming product benefits are self‑evident. Overloading prospects with technical details delays deals and can misguide product roadmaps. Reframing messaging around concrete buyer outcomes is essential to accelerate sales.
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The episode examines how heightened economic uncertainty and the rise of generative AI are reshaping B2B purchasing, with buyers demanding verifiable proof over promises. Key findings from Forrester’s 2026 Buyers’ Journey Survey reveal that 94% of buyers use AI but cross‑check its output with trusted peers and analysts, buying groups have expanded to an average of 13 internal and nine external stakeholders, procurement now influences over half of decisions, and more than 60% of buyers require trials before committing. Providers are advised to map these complex networks, align messaging with validated outcomes, and leverage concrete trial results to win over risk‑averse buyers.

AI is becoming a staple in email marketing, but its success hinges on solid governance, high‑quality data, and strict consent management. Marketers must integrate AI with CRM systems, consolidate records, and ensure compliance before automating subject lines, copy, and calls‑to‑action....
I conducted a poll yesterday and asked all of you what happens when a campaign ends. The results are not surprising (the majority of us just move on), but I'm curious why that is. So riddle me this... when a campaign ends,...

TransAct Technologies announced the appointment of Dana Loof as Chief Marketing Officer to steer its global marketing strategy and accelerate growth of its BOHA! platform and casino‑gaming solutions. Loof brings a 30‑year track record in high‑growth tech firms, including senior...

Sitecore announced the expansion of its Global Reseller Program with a new Global Elite initiative, appointing FPT Software as the first elite partner. The elite status grants FPT exclusive reseller rights in Vietnam and non‑exclusive rights across selected Asian and...

Unstoppable Domains and Digital Future Studio unveiled the .digitalfuture top‑level domain at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The new TLD targets founders, operators, and organizations operating at the intersection of emerging tech, regulation, and finance. Backed by Unstoppable Domains’...

3 E Network Technology Group announced an accelerated rollout of high‑density AI and high‑performance computing infrastructure in Finland, leveraging the country’s reliable, low‑carbon power grid. The modular design will support rack power densities of 50‑100 kW, employ advanced liquid‑cooling, and target competitive...

JD Sports reported 1.4% organic sales growth in Q4, but its Christmas trading period saw a 1.8% decline in like‑for‑like sales. The dip was driven by a 5.3% fall in the UK and a 3.4% drop in Europe, while North...

TruVideo launched Video Quality Score (VQS), an AI‑driven model that grades automotive inspection videos against a benchmark for content, process, and delivery. Trained on more than 80 million service videos, VQS outperforms generic AI models by over 30 accuracy points. In...

Comcast’s Universal Ads has hired David Shaw, a veteran of Twitter, Snap, TikTok and Reddit, as Head of Global Expansion. Shaw will oversee the commercial rollout of the TV‑focused ad platform beyond the United States, beginning with a UK launch...

Elastic announced a performance upgrade for its Elastic Cloud Serverless on AWS, leveraging new Graviton instances. The enhancement delivers up to 50% higher indexing throughput and 37% lower search latency, with no additional cost to users. The serverless service remains...

Amagi Media Labs raised $196 million in a Bengaluru‑based IPO, debuting on Indian exchanges at a 12% discount to its ₹361 issue price before settling around ₹349. The cloud‑software firm, which helps broadcasters and streaming services monetize video, earned roughly 73%...

Bolna, an Indian voice‑orchestration startup, closed a $6.3 million seed round led by General Catalyst, adding Y Combinator and several angel investors. The company now processes over 200,000 calls daily and is on track to surpass $700,000 in annual recurring revenue,...
Be honest: Do you actually know how to build an AI-first B2B company? Or are you just bolting GPT onto your existing product and hoping? SaaStr AI 2026. May 12-14. SF Bay. Come learn from founders, execs + leaders who've...
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The SaasRise Enterprise Mastermind call highlighted four critical growth levers for high‑ACV SaaS firms. It recommended starting with retargeting ads and LinkedIn sponsored messages, then scaling AI‑personalized cold outreach to improve lead response rates. The discussion also covered AI‑driven coding...
BlackSky announced multiple expansion contracts for its Gen‑3 satellite program, converting early‑access pilots in the Americas, Asia and Europe into renewal deals. The Gen‑3 fleet, launched from early 2025, delivers 35‑centimeter imagery with sub‑hourly collection speeds, a capability critical for...

The GrowthRise Mastermind on Jan 20 2026 covered AI‑driven content creation, LinkedIn message ads, trade‑show marketing, and email list hygiene. Participants learned to use AI as a brainstorming aid, apply structured markup for SEO, and leverage tools like Canva, ChatGPT, and Gemini....
You can't begin to agree on what # to hit unless you understand the market you're in. You can make a spreadsheet say anything. And of course your investors want double-digit growth this year. Will your market allow it? Is it big...

The United States Postal Service has launched a new bidding platform that lets any shipper compete for access to more than 18,000 destination delivery units nationwide. The move challenges Amazon’s long‑standing exclusive Sunday‑delivery contract, which runs until October 1 2026, and aims...
I'm lucky to have been through a few acquisitions in my career. You learn pretty quickly that the spreadsheets, decks, and integration plans matter, but they’re not what tell you if it’s going to work. People do. There’s a moment, usually early,...
OnRobot will host a free, in‑person event titled “Build Your Automation Roadmap” on February 19 in Dallas to address the acute manufacturing labor shortages in North Texas. The program features live FANUC robot demonstrations, workshops, and case studies targeting sectors such...
Another interesting new perspective search someone recently did SuperMe: How should marketplaces think about liquidity, should they focus on the specific area they focus on? Guessing they can't be liquid on every category they have products in. Great perspectives from Dan...

Funding Circle announced two strategic moves in January 2026. It appointed Sarah Whiteley, a veteran legal executive, as Chief Legal Officer, replacing long‑time incumbent Lucy Vernall. The fintech also launched a beta version of its Cashback business credit card, now...
January always gives me just enough quiet to think, right before the calendar fills up and momentum takes over. This year, I’ve been asking myself one simple question: What do I want to do differently in 2026? Not bigger. ...

Using AI to prepare for a negotiation. For our free newsletter this week, we discuss AI shadow negotiators: invisible agents shaping human deals. @IrenaCronin and I write this newsletter every week. AI shadow negotiators are AI tools that quietly help people negotiate by...

Gusto, founded by Tomer London, Josh Reeves, and Edward Kim, grew from a YC‑backed payroll tool for California SMBs into a $9.5 billion people‑platform serving over 400,000 businesses. The founders relied on relentless cold‑calling and early customer discovery to validate demand,...
What I see CEOs at struggling start-ups do: - Go dark - Hide - Lash out - Tweet about lots of things non-work - Invest time on tiny expenses - Argue internally What should do: - Be Present - Be Honest - Be the Rock - Be Realistic/Optimistic You just plain grow...

Unframe announced Unframe Unlimited, a partner program that equips channel partners to sell, deploy, and scale enterprise‑ready AI solutions on its managed delivery platform. The initiative provides sales enablement, marketing support, outcome‑based pricing and co‑selling opportunities, enabling partners to deliver...
2025 will be remembered as the year AI stopped feeling “emerging” and started feeling like infrastructure. It quietly seeped into every layer of marketing—creative, media, analytics, and even how leaders frame strategy and risk. At the same time, the social...
A wave of AI startups is about to die - and most of them don't see it coming. not because their product is bad. because they built on someone else's data, and the landlords are changing the locks. For a decade,...

FunnL has expanded its B2B demand‑generation platform by adding social media management and video production services. The new creative capabilities integrate directly with its existing ICP development, multi‑channel outreach, and appointment‑setting tools, creating a single operating system for brand and...
The moments that change everything at work are rarely the big ones. They’re the passing comments, the tone in a reply, even the way a leader shows up in the in-between. These “insignificant” moments quietly shape trust, performance, and culture every...
The most overlooked way to increase response? Give someone a choice. When you have a choice, you’re in control. And all humans crave control. We want to feel some agency. We don’t like to feel forced… Or backed into a corner. We want to call the...

Noetics announced a strategic partnership with White Label Communications to merge its next‑generation ERP platform with the latter’s Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) suite. The collaboration creates a single, integrated framework that combines core operational tools with cloud‑based voice,...
Tomorrow I'm doing something I've never done before: Putting on a FREE, 90 Minute Sales Kickoff (SKO) for ANYONE that wants to dramatically improve their sales skills and mindset for 2026 - B2B, B2C, sales leaders, soloists, this is for you. Even...
Boardwalktech Software Corp. unveiled Verity, an AI‑driven Intelligent Controls Platform aimed at banks, insurers and other highly regulated enterprises. The solution uses generative and agentic AI to automate the design, execution, testing and continuous monitoring of operational, financial and compliance...
Atento and Omilia have formed a strategic alliance to embed Omilia’s agentic conversational AI into Atento’s customer experience platform. The partnership enhances Atento’s AI Agent pillar with autonomous virtual agents that can reason, act, and learn across voice and digital...
With AI, what’s more important: EQ (Emotional Quotient) or IQ (Intelligence Quotient)? #sponsored Gary Nugent, CEO of Informa TechTarget says brands who master the “right-brain” EQ elements of the buying journey will win in the age of AI. Full convo:...
LG Ad Solutions partnered with MediaScience to measure viewer attention on Smart TVs using biometric and eye‑tracking data, finding that attention remains steady from power‑on through Home Screen discovery to CTV video ads. The study shows that precise targeting combined...
For all you marketers trying to generate demand for AI products or features, this one's for you: It's all about helping you understand the top trends and pains in AI Adoption in the Enterprise in 2026 so you can align your...
Most "personal brand" problems are messaging or offer problems in disguise Sell something people want Explain it so they know why they should want it Creating unignorable content becomes much easier
SALESmanago is rolling out a native WhatsApp integration and AI‑driven Recommendation Frames to give eCommerce marketers real‑time, hyper‑personalised customer experiences. The platform now supports multimedia messaging, automated journeys, and dynamic CTAs that target abandoned carts, restock alerts, and on‑site product...
The article reviews the leading AI‑driven writing tools for businesses in 2026, highlighting features, platform integrations, and pricing. Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Ginger, LanguageTool, Hemingway Editor, and Otter each offer free tiers and paid plans ranging from $9.90 to $120 per user....
ServiceNow and OpenAI have signed a multi‑year deal to embed OpenAI’s frontier models, including GPT‑5.2, into ServiceNow’s AI platform. The collaboration gives enterprise customers direct access to speech‑to‑speech agents, multimodal capabilities, and custom AI solutions without bespoke development. ServiceNow will...
TreviPay has launched a Pay by Invoice solution tailored for Visa‑issuing banks, allowing them to offer invoice‑based financing directly to B2B merchants. The product plugs into Visa’s existing network, delivering real‑time credit decisions, instant settlement, and seamless integration with issuer...
Pixelworks announced a board overhaul to support its shift toward a pure technology licensing model after selling its Shanghai subsidiary. Douglas J. Darrow, a former Dolby senior vice president and DLP business leader, joined the board effective Jan. 14, 2026,...
BMC unveiled a suite of AI‑driven enhancements across its Control‑M and BMC AMI platforms, aimed at simplifying workflow creation, real‑time event handling, and mainframe support. The AI Workflow Creator lets business users build workflows using natural language, while expanded integrations...

ABBYY introduced Vantage 3.0, a Document AI platform that directly integrates large language models (LLMs) and runs on a modernized tech stack. The release adds a real‑time analytics dashboard, built‑in compliance and redaction tools, and pre‑engineered Azure OpenAI prompts for...

Nativex announced a strategic partnership with Netflix to sell ad inventory on the streaming platform’s ad‑supported tier. The deal gives Nativex clients access to Netflix’s premium pre‑roll, mid‑roll, Pause Ads and QR‑enabled formats, backed by first‑party audience data. Netflix’s ad‑supported...

Questex’s StreamTV Europe, slated for April 13‑15 in Lisbon, is positioning itself as the premier gathering for Europe’s streaming ecosystem. The three‑day forum will host CTV operating systems, platform providers, content owners, ad‑tech firms and infrastructure partners, offering an end‑to‑end...