One of my favorite things about the end of the year (aside from the holiday cheer) are the year-end reviews of movies, music, news stories and almost anything else you can think of. But we’re past that now, and the new year brings with it an inclination to plan ahead — to resolve to improve in certain areas and map out a strategy to do so.
Our January/February issue is chockablock with insights from sales and marketing experts on various trends that will impact how you and your team achieve success in 2016. On page 6, Walter Ruckes of BI WORLDWIDE examines how some basic elements of psychology can help drive performance in ways you may not have thought of. In an accompanying article on page 7, Meghan Moraes offers some areas of focus for marketers.
Meanwhile, the subscription business model has already been established as an effective means of generating recurring revenue and increasing customer retention. It’s frequently mentioned in consumer circles (think Netflix or the numerous companies that want to deliver prepackaged dinners to your door), but there are some successful examples in B2B, and we suspect there will be many more. Is your product or service right for a subscription model? The story on page 16 provides some starter questions to help you think it through.
A number of other stories in this issue look at trends that have been firmly established in the last year or two, but will undoubtedly experience dramatic changes in the next 12 months. Staying competitive requires staying on top of the newest tools, strategies and tactics and having the courage to be an earlier adopter of many of them.
Our mission at Sales & Marketing Managementmagazine is to bring these trends to you through our six print issues each year as well as a steady stream of contributed articles, free webinars and other useful tools at SalesandMarketing.com. If we’re not a regular online stop for you, you’re missing valuable content that can help you improve your team’s performance.
If there’s a new sales or marketing tactic you have enjoyed success with, or one you would like us to report on, let us know. Send me an email at paul@salesandmarketing.com. Hopefully, next December, we can look at the previous 12 months and say, “Man, what a wild ride!”
