Blogs & Case Studies
How to Fix Your Customer Reference Program
For all the hype around “digital transformation,” the sad reality is that in B2B selling, reference management is stuck in the '90s. Most companies do a poor job producing references, and less than 5% of buyers derive real value from speaking with those references.
Standing Out in a Competitive Market
Differentiation is key to survival in a crowded market. Competitive companies need to be well-informed and well-equipped if they want to stand out from the crowd and capture their target audience's attention.
Case Study: Climate Vault Leverages Customer References to Fight Climate Change
This case study explores how Verified, a confidential, on-demand customer reference management platform, helps Climate Vault grow their partnership program and close deals faster.
The Three Myths of Customer References
Katy, a salesperson at ACME Corp, is close to signing a new deal when she hears that the prospect signed with a competitor instead. Katy and her team have fallen victim to three common myths of customer references. This blog explores how proactive reference management helps sales teams close deals faster.
Driving Sales Efficiency During a Market Slowdown: Part 1
Market downturns and the resulting budget belt-tightening are painful for sales and marketing teams. This blog provides three proven techniques to find hard dollar savings and get more productivity from sales reps.
Driving Sales Efficiency During a Market Slowdown: Part 2
This piece, the second article in a two-part series, explores how sales teams can leverage their best tool (satisfied customers) to rise above the competition early in deals.
Newsletters
Zuora Acquires Togai
On April 30, Zuora announced the purchase of Togai, a Chennai, India-based startup with a focus on agile, low-code usage billing. The acquisition equips Zuora with a team of developers oriented toward VC-backed usage companies, potentially accelerating Zuora’s access to this market.
Lessons From a Software Iconoclast
The “tyranny of choice” can overwhelm software buyers and make it feel impossible to parse real product capabilities from spiffy marketing. An unheralded and often misunderstood unicorn software company offers unique insights into the state of business applications.
Canary In a Consolidation Coal Mine?
On January 11, usage billing startup Octane announced its union with Stripe. Stripe’s acqui-hire is an early indicator of what is likely to be a broader industry trend over the year to come.
Between the Lines of the OpenAI Drama
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella deserves credit for taking decisive action to preserve Microsoft’s reliance on OpenAI as the heart of its AI strategy. If it wasn’t obvious before, it is now – Microsoft is all in with OpenAI, and can’t afford for it to fail.
Like Riding a Tiger with an Infected Tooth
Last week’s Dreamforce was a meta representation of today’s tech industry. The company is attempting to completely reorient a complex product portfolio around AI while delivering on expansive customer promises.
Peace, Love, and Profitable Ohana?
Activist investors have forced Salesforce leadership to trim costs and refocus on profitability. For a company that espoused its Ohana – a culture of collaboration, care, and fun (without regard for bottom-line costs), the new approach is a shock to the organization.
Reports & White Papers
Delivering Differentiated Returns in M&A
M&A deals represent a material risk with a variable reward. They can supercharge a company’s market and offerings — or create a bottomless pit for money and resources. This report aims to identify the “secret formula” by analyzing companies that excel at M&A in comparison to those that achieve consistently average or below-average results.
Not a Typical Recession: Making Sense of the Global Economy
Fear, uncertainty, and doubt abound as the world emerges from the pandemic era to face a challenging combination of soaring inflation and unpredictable GDP growth. After the long period of unchecked expansion that followed the crisis of ‘08/’09, first-time business leaders are questioning how to navigate an uncertain and volatile economic climate.
Survival of the Fittest: Managing Extreme Economic Uncertainty
The early months of 2023 have been marked by high inflation, turbulent GDP growth, and growing anxiety about a possible economic collapse. Within the technology sector, valuations are crashing, VC funding is drying up, and C-suites are tightening their belts with multiple rounds of mass layoffs. Are we headed for a recession? Stagflation? Or are calmer waters ahead?
Pricing and Payment Flexibility: A Strategic Business Tool
The ability to deploy a broad range of different pricing and payment mechanisms – and to do so with speed and agility – equips sellers with a distinct, strategic advantage: the power to adapt. This research note explores the primary pricing and payment methods in use today, including subscription, usage/consumption, dynamic, outcome-based, and others.
Press Releases & Articles
MGI Research forecasts cloud Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) market will grow 16% by 2026
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Global CPQ spend is projected to grow from $7.4 billion in 2022 to $11.2 billion in 2026, according to a recent Total Addressable Market (TAM) Forecast by MGI Research.
MGI Research releases Buyer's Guide to CLM market; ranks 35 CLM suppliers by product and go-to-market strength
SAN FRANCISCO, June 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Icertis is the top-rated overall CLM supplier, according to the Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) Top 35 Buyer’s Guide published by MGI Research.
Chapel Hill Town Council space sees overflow problems
The Chapel Hill Town Council has enjoyed its shorter meetings during the past few months, but its temporary location is not without drawbacks. Town Hall sustained major damage from flooding after torrential rains in June. The first floor of Town Hall and the council chamber have been closed since.
Carolina Inn general manager crosses Tobacco Road
Jack Schmidt is being teased for jumping ship from Tar Heel country to Blue Devil territory. Schmidt, the general manager of the Carolina Inn, served his last day Friday and will begin his new position at the Duke University equivalent at the end of the month.
Creative Samples
Shauna’s Bust by Chloe Ladd
This short play is about the ethics of art thievery, sugar babies, and getting stuck in a window.
Runner-up, Playdate Theater Playwriting Contest, 2021.
“Living From the Heart,” performed by Kamara Thomas, videography by Chloe Ladd
This in-studio recording was featured as Video of the Day on the NPR Live Sessions website.
Egg, written & directed by Chloe Ladd
This short film is about entropy and the directionality of time.
Official selection, Swain Lot Film Festival, 2016.