B2B Reads: Executive Presence, Future-Proofing, and Mapping New Industries

In addition to our Sunday App of the Week feature, we also summarize some of our favorite B2B sales & marketing posts from around the web each week. We’ll miss a ton of great stuff, so if you found something you think is worth sharing please add it to the comments below.

Mapping the Unknown – The Ten Steps to Map Any Industry
In this blog post, Steve Blank provides a helpful framework for efficiently mapping a new, unfamiliar industry. Comprised of small, information-based activities, these tips are helpful for anyone looking to invest in or understand a specific industry.

3 characteristics of leaders with executive presence
In this piece, Joel Garfinkle outlines three characteristics of leaders with executive presence, which he describes as those who “exude a certain magnetism that grabs people’s attention. People lean in and want to listen to them.”

What will social media look like in the future? Here’s What The Data Suggests
In this article, Martina Bretous uses data to predict how social media will look in the future. Utilizing a new social media trends report, Bretous identifies trends like using social media as a search engine, more reliance on influencers, and VR/AR integrations.

Initial Negative Reaction: Value of Leaders Not Showing It
In this blog post, Kate Nasser offers her insights on the dangers of an initial negative reaction. Directed specifically at leaders, Nasser offers the benefits of not showing an initial negative reaction, which include empowering employees and preventing groupthink.

Delivering Service Excellence to Your Customers: 5 Steps
In this post, Colleen Francis delivers 5 steps for service excellence. These steps focus on the entire pathway of service, and seek to provide value no matter what type of customers you have. Broadly, the steps are to automate, reassign, refocus, reconsider, and incentivize.

Marketing 101: Ask me anything
Susan Rush in this post provides a Q&A from leading demand gen experts about some of the more basic “marketing 101” concepts. Each leader offers easy-to-understand, helpful definitions to some commonly used terminology like MQLs and demand generation vs. lead generation.

Future-Proof Your Strategy: Scenario Planning
In this article, Aine Doris, Jared D. Harris, Michael Lenox continue their series in “future-proofing your strategy,” this installment being about scenario planning. The authors describe this tool as having “the benefit of forcing all decision-makers to set aside their assumptions about the future and to embrace contingency planning.”

Presentation techniques for persuading the C-suite
In this blog post, Alaina Love offers 2 high-level strategies for presenting to and persuading C-suite members. These tips are focused on understanding the psychology, role, and behavior of the C-suite to better tailor your presentations.

For Efficient Content Marketing, Stop Planning Content So Far Ahead
In this piece, Alex Novkov advocates for having a solid system around content marketing. This includes planning in iterations, having an agile-based plan, and keeping your work process visualized.

Leading operating model modernization: What do transformation leaders say?
In this article for McKinsey, Amit Anand, Jason Inacio, Dávid Kincsem, Guilherme Riederer, and Dániel Róna compile the thoughts of prominent “leaders of agile centers” on “key success factors for going agile,” among several other topics.