What are the best B2B marketing books out right now?

I agree with Joseph: an objective assessment from a professional will provide the balanced insight you're looking for. You can accomplish that very inexpensively with a Clarity call ... or a couple of calls to different experts. Here are some of the things we'd want to know (and which you can ask yourselves): - What does your current name say about your products, your services, your brand? If you think of it as the title of a story, what story does it promise? - What are the advantages of keeping the name? - How is the name holding you back? - Does the name have built-in limitations? For example, is it hard to pronounce? Does it suggest a service offering you no longer wish to be associated with? Have you been faced with a trademark challenge? I do not advise polling your customers or suppliers. They are apt to prefer the familiar over the new, and if you are contemplating a significant rebrand -- branching into new areas, dropping some key offerings -- you risk tipping your hand.

The perfect strategy is to show your client what their benefit and return on investment would be on this specific advertisement. This is what they are looking for from your pitch. It is great if you show them a positive benefit that they will receive from the advertisement. An example would be a return of a certain amount of money that is more then they invested. Sometimes they will have a certain budget that they must spend wisely. You must ask what the client needs for their benefit. It could be an increase towards their image or recognition. After you find out what they need you will be able to sell them the right advertisement.

Someone else creates the design and physical products, correct? In that case, your main challenges are (A) identifying customers (B) convincing them to give you a chance (C) keeping them happy with good customer service When it comes to (A), you should probably be knocking on a lot of doors. You'll experience plenty of rejection, but some people will say Yes. Do a good job, and they may remain ongoing customers or refer you to others. This doesn't require any formal study of marketing. It just takes practice and long hours. There's another way to handle (A). And you should probably be doing both in tandem. This involves studying the behavior of people you want as customers. Many people are searching online every day to find companies who provide exactly those products and services you offer. You can ensure they see you by running a pay-per-click advertising campaign in Google and other search engines. SEM professionals can help manage your expenses and ad placements. You'll also want to evaluate the written content on your website and think about SEO. The better your websites perform online "organically", the higher they rank for all the relevant online searches, the less you'll need to pay to advertise. I can't help you with customer service (C). But maybe I can help you think about (A) – finding customers online. And I can certainly help with (B) convincing the people you approach (or who find you on their own) that they ought to hire you. Practicing your sales pitch is important, since you'll be delivering it to a lot of different people. But much of your sales pitch is embedded within your website and brand name. So you ought to pay very close attention to the visual and verbal quality of all your promotional material, ranging from on-site text to graphic design, verbiage in brochures and ads, and (perhaps most crucially) the domain name you've chosen to be known by. That name / domain is everyone's first impression of you. Even before they click, they've judged you. When they arrive on the website, they see the visual layout and the written content. So even before they've tried your actual services, they've judged you again. Clearly, it's worthwhile to perfect these early stages in your sales funnel so that prospects make it all the way to the finish line – i.e. asking questions and hiring you. If you'd like help with naming, domain procurement, branded copy writing, or SEM strategy, perhaps I can assist.

How to sell to retailers? As a former Retail Buyer from Target, here's my suggestion. You need to first ready your sales communication and materials to explain how 1) You will drive sales at their stores (best told through sales traction and history in comparable or slightly smaller retailers than the one you are targeting 2) Demonstrate how you will support sales with a marketing plan. Marketing mitigates sales risk and that's a retailer's #1 concern and 3) Prove you will deliver flawless vendor execution. There are many hiccups that happen along the supply chain and it takes an experienced company to flawlessly deliver inventory to the right stores/DC's in the right quantity on the right day. The best way to prove this is by showing that you are currently working with retailers of the same magnitude. So in short, you have to scale up slowly - from small retailers to larger retailers - in order to manage risk, build sales traction, build brand awareness, and manage cash flow. How to contact them and sell to them? Use Linked In to find retail buyers. I have a short video on how to do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwbfUMRHiq0 Trade shows are also effective; you can get the mailing address of retail buyers in attendance plus meet them face to face if they come to your booth. Also, network within your industry. You'll find your peers are wiling to trade buyer lists with you. But in short, don't bother reaching out to a retail buyer until you have talking points that address those 3 things I mentioned above all. I'm happy to do a clarity call if you have follow up questions.

Find apps that are B2B and go to the review sections. Specifically going to Google's play or Chrome store and look at reviews and follow them to Google+ to engage. I took that same angle for B2C app I was building last year. Check it out. http://blendah.com/post/37331434653/lean-startup-hack