Personal, Tangible Gestures Beat Automated B2B Outreach
A few years ago, someone sent me tiki cups. Not branded cups. Not a box with a company logo slapped on the side. Just a set of those fancy ceramic tiki mugs — the kind you’d get at Trader Vic’s or a kitchy tiki lounge — because I’d ended up at a tiki bar with a partner at a conference a week earlier. No pitch. No follow-up ask. Just: I remember you, I remember that night, here’s something that made me think of it. My kids still use those cups. They’re the preferred milk receptacles in our house. And every single time I see them on the counter, I think about that company. That wasn’t expensive. It wasn’t sophisticated. It was thoughtful. And it has outlasted every automated sequence, every “just checking in” email, and every AI-personalized outreach I’ve received in the years since. I’ve been thinking about why that is — and I think it gets at something we’re badly confused about in B2B marketing right now. Check out my latest Substack article for more on this - mattheinz dot substack dot com.
Fractional CMOs Deliver Long-Term Strategic Value Over Full‑Time Hires
Can a fractional CMO be long-term? Absolutely. And more companies should probably plan for that instead of apologizing for it. The reason "long-term fractional CMO" sounds strange is that the category got invented as a bridge. Something you did while...
C‑Level Commitment Needed to Bridge AI Adoption Gap
If you find yourself like so many organizations struggling with the growing gap between AI's potential and your actual, daily leverage of that potential, Gary Survis says you likely have one to three problems: 1️⃣ Your people are not business...
Escalating Late Kills Deals and Trust
Prompt for an AI agent with access to your CRM: I want to see all of the times our sale reps went over the buyer's head to the executive sponsor to "secure the deal". Please then pull the conversion/win rates...
AI Enables Exponential, Not Just Incremental, Innovation
Reinventing the process with AI isn't enough. Sometimes we need to reimagine the solution entirely. In other words, separate process from outcome. Let's say you need to get to Chicago. Adding a couple more horses to your stagecoach is irrelevant...
LLMs Remix Existing Ideas; True Innovation Remains Human
What you think are new ideas from your LLM aren't actually new. They may be new "to you", but they're actually someone else's ideas that the LLM was able to access and communicate back with mind-melting speed. Even when your...
Using AI Fuels Optimism; Fear Stems From Avoidance
I've noticed lately that the people most afraid AI is going to take their job and disrupt their earning potential have spent the least amount of time actually using AI. And those using AI more and more tend to be...
Churn Reveals Trust Gaps—Identify and Repair Them
Churn is about trust. A lack of trust, more specifically. If a customer fails to continue, it means they lack trust in you, in themselves and/or the future. Figure out where the trust break specifically lies, that's how you save...
Great AI Won’t Save Poor Customer Journeys
Today's reminder that, even in the age of AI, marketing still matters. In my exuberance over the launch of ChatGPT 5.4 yesterday, I hit a usage limit. But instead of using this as an upsell opportunity, I got the below...
Stop Delaying AI: Start Small, Involve Legal, Gain Time
I continue to hear from companies and marketing teams that are reticent to lean in holistically on the AI opportunity. So here I've parsed the most common push-backs as well as how I respond to each. 1️⃣ “We don’t have...
Leverage AI to Power Through Afternoon Energy Slumps
I know how my energy levels typically vary through the workday. High energy in the morning, low energy in the early afternoon, a bit of a "comeback" late afternoon. In the past I've stacked up "easy" tasks for that early...
Pre‑filled LLM Prompts Drive Smarter Brand Traffic
Most marketers right now are trying to figure out how to get the LLMs to send them more Web traffic. Maybe the pro move is to do the opposite. Check out what Amplemarket HQ is doing. And when you press...
Buyer Enablement Must Be Core, Not Afterthought
When I surveyed last week how marketing teams define their focus in support of sales, here’s how it broke down: • Brand and awareness primarily — 3% • Brand + pipeline generation — 32% • Those + lead-to-opportunity conversion —...
AI Frees Us to Think, Not Just Do
So, that viral post that says 50 percent of white-collar jobs will be gone in five years or less actually...has me really excited about the future. I've always enjoyed rolling up my sleeves, getting work done. But the real value...
Exclusive AI Dinner: CMOs & Ops Leaders Share Real Insights
Sharing this for my friends Mike Rizzo and Nish Patel . They're hosting an executive dinner series in March for CMOs and Marketing Ops leaders. The premise: get CMOs and their MOps counterparts in the same room for an honest...