Strategies for Selling in a Competitive Market

Branding in B2B is more important than ever. That's a fact...or better yet, facts! B2B marketing was once all about facts, figures, and rational decision-making. Creativity? That was for B2C. But in 2025, the game has changed. B2B and B2C buyers are the same humans, driven by emotions first, logic second. That’s why brand is now a company’s most valuable asset. Marketing Week reports a major shift: in 2021, lead generation ranked as the 3rd most important B2B strategy, now it’s 7th. Meanwhile, brand awareness jumped from 6th to the top priority in 2024. For years, B2B companies relied on product-first strategies, dropping most of the cash into short-term lead generation. But as differentiation becomes near impossible, with features and offerings being nearly identical, the real competitive edge isn’t what you sell, it’s how you make customers feel. AKA B R A N D. Why Brand Wins Over Product - IBM vs. cheaper alternatives? Trust. - Salesforce dominates CRM? Familiarity. Why do buyers choose one car over another with the same specs? Once again B R A N D. Branding isn’t about logos or colours; it’s about trust, credibility, and being top of mind at the right moment. But why invest in brand? - Reduces risk perception: A strong brand makes buyers feel safer choosing you. - Shortens sales cycles: Familiar brands require less convincing. - Attracts top talent: People want to work for admired brands. - Creates pricing power: Strong brands command higher prices. - Future proofs your business: Products get copied. Brands endure. 4 Key steps to build a strong B2B srand: 1: Shift from product to purpose to benefit. Stop marketing what you do. Start marketing why it matters. IBM helps businesses ‘Build Smarter Businesses.’ HubSpot helps them ‘Grow Better.’ Your brand purpose should be at the core of your ecosystem. 2: Tell better stories. People remember stories, not specs. Case studies, success stories, and founder journeys humanize your brand and build trust. 3: Invest in distinctive assets Logos, colours, taglines, music... and so on, they create instant recognition. Think Salesforce’s blue cloud, Slack’s multicolour hashtag, or AWS’s signature orange. 4: Play the long game brand building isn’t a quick win, it’s a long-term strategy. Top-of-funnel activities now drive more financial value than performance marketing, with CMOs allocating 51%+ of their budgets accordingly (Marketing Week). If branding is still an afterthought for your B2B strategy, it’s time to rethink or prepare to fade into irrelevancy very soon...In life, the best product doesn’t always win. The best brand does.

I lost £35k on the sale of my first home because of one simple mistake. Don't make the same error as me: 1. Strategic timing matters. Sell in summer when your home looks its best and yards are in bloom. The real estate market fluctuates dramatically, so once you have an offer, move quickly toward closing. Our costly mistake? Pushing for a 6-month closing timeline, leaving too much time for market conditions to change. When market sentiment shifted, our buyer's lender reappraised the property lower. 2. Small investments yield big returns. Spend a few hundred dollars on fresh paint, minor repairs, and professional cleaning. These small touches can add thousands to your final sale price by creating a move-in-ready impression. The ROI on pre-sale improvements is often 5-10x your investment. Focus on kitchens and bathrooms - they sell homes faster and for more money than any other area. 3. Create competitive bidding situations. Host open houses during limited timeframes (1-2 hour windows). When multiple buyers view simultaneously, they see the competition firsthand. This perception of demand creates urgency and drives up offers. A good agent will leverage this energy to negotiate between multiple interested parties. I used Highcastle - and they were great. 4. Thoroughly verify your buyer's financing. Don't just accept "pre-approved" at face value. Our mistake was not digging deeper into our buyer's mortgage situation. The longer the process drags on, the more time for financing circumstances to change. Request proof of funds or a mortgage pre-approval letter. For those using Islamic home financing, this verification is even more critical as the process can involve additional steps. 5. Compress your timeline as much as possible. The probability of a sale falling through increases dramatically with time. Between agreement and closing, countless variables can change: mortgage rates, buyer circumstances, and home appraisals. Each week that passes represents a risk to your sale price. Push for 30-60 day closing windows whenever possible. The painful lesson: What began as a £35k premium evaporated because we opted for a distant closing date. Have you experienced something similar with real estate timing? Share your story below.

Demand gen is utterly broken. It's overly complicated & lacks the soul and creativity that consumers deserve. I promise there's a better way. Here's the 3-pronged content engine we're building for companies at storyarb: Principles: - Treat your content as the product, not as marketing for another product - Unique insights + Unique voice + Unique packaging = Unique content - Pick topics that make your Market of 1 better at their job Channels: 1) Deeply researched long-form content Purpose: create data-driven OR interview-based website content that is deep enough & insightful enough such that a reader feels the need to bookmark & reference later. Good examples: Lenny Rachitsky: "How the biggest consumer apps got first 1,000 users" - Lenny interviewed hundreds of founders, identified patterns, and broke down the seven strategies consumer apps used to grow. Carta: "State of Private Markets: Q3 2024" Report - Using tons of internal funding data by Carta customers to pull together trends in startup funding for the quarter. HubSpot: "My First Million's Business Idea Database" - Aggregating & organizing 57 startup ideas shared by past MFM podcast guests into an e-mail gated database 2) Editorial email newsletter Purpose: create the best industry read for your market of 1 that allows you to build an owned audience of current/future customers. Good examples: - Content Examined by Alex Garcia: the best read for consumer content marketers, which acts as a perfect nurturing tool for his community, course, and agency - Big Desk Energy by Tyler Denk 🐝: a window into building a high-growth startup as it's happening by the founder of beehiiv - Exploding Topics: a snapshot of 4 emerging trends (based on google search data) that founders & investors should be aware of. 3) Personal brand social content Purpose: allow your market of 1 to build a parasocial relationship with your company through 1-4 personalities (execs, founders, etc) who enable connection with your faceless brand. Good examples: - Adam Robinson: fully transparent monthly breakdowns of his companies' (Retention.com & RB2B) performance with lessons learned & plans to fix key issues - Peter Walker: Head of Insights at Carta uses first party data from the company to share unique startup ecosystem trends + his own POV - Kieran Flanagan: AI & GTM expert who shares deep marketing insights, playbooks, and predictions that help build his & HubSpot's brand If you want help building this 3-pronged engine at your company, shoot me a DM or email at alex@storyarb[.]com.

Most AEs fail on the phone for one simple reason: They’re cold calling people who’ve never heard of them. In 2025, that’s just lazy. Here’s how I would book executive meetings without sounding like a desperate sales rep: I used to teach cold calling techniques. Tonality. Pacing. Objection handling. And while that still matters... It’s not the reason I consistently get meetings with C-level buyers. The secret? I never cold call anymore. I warm call. Here’s how I do it: Step 1: Start with a personalized, relevant email. Do some quick research. Make it about them. For example, if I’m reaching out to a CRO, I’ll highlight a drop in quota attainment from RepVue and explain how I can help upskill their team in tough times. Step 2: That same day—a few hours later—I call their cell phone. (ZoomInfo or LinkedIn can get you that. No excuses.) DO NOT call the office. DO NOT waste time dialing assistants. If you can’t get a cell, send a LinkedIn connection request with a DM or video message. Step 3: When I call, I say: “Hi, this is Ian Koniak—did you happen to see the email I sent this morning?” If they say no: “No problem. I sent it because I saw your team’s quota attainment is down since 2022. I think I can help based on what I’ve done with other clients. Do you have a couple minutes now, or should we find time to connect on Zoom?” It’s not a pitch. It’s a reference to something you already sent that’s about them. That’s what makes it warm. Step 4: If they don’t respond, wait 2–3 days. Then reply to the original thread with more context: – Mention the training or workshops you offer – Share real results (e.g., 20% increase in quota attainment) – Ask: “Is this something you’d be open to learning more about?” Always lead with interest, not a hard ask for time. Step 5+: Stack 6–8 touchpoints total. Each one builds on the last—adding more insight, examples, testimonials. Mix in: – LinkedIn videos – Client stories – Relevant frameworks Each message = more value. That’s how you break through. It can take 8-12 touchpoints to get a meeting. Most reps quit after 1-3 touchpoints. Or worse—just send the same “following up” message. No value. No relevance. No shot. This process works. It’s not magic. It’s just real sales effort with a real strategy.

I would do this if I were going to start in brokerage today 1. Have 12-24 months of financial stability if going 100% commission. 2. Expect little to no money for your first 1-2 years 3. Select a brokerage firm: talk to several, determine who will create the most value. Not all brokerage firms are created equal. Some provide a desk and a phone, then you do all the work A-Z. Others provide a platform including analytical support, research/data, mentorship 4. Identify a mentor or team to help you reduce hurdles and increase the probability of success 5. Identify a specific geography to focus on. Niche down* (ex: Boston) 6. Select an asset class. Niche down** (ex: apartments) 7. Database and skiptrace every owner of 10-50 unit apartment building 8. Learn the market: sales over the past 5 years (how many, how much, who is buying, who is selling), development pipeline (how many deliver annually in the your market, who is building), trends (historical and future rent growth, vacancy, collections), Update this monthly 9. Learn what’s happening in the local market – new legislation, new zoning efforts, new proposals, etc 10. Create a brief monthly market report highlighting trends and news related to your specific geography and asset class 11. Call every owner in your database to setup IN-PERSON meetings to share your market report and create a relationship. If they don’t want to meet, get their email address and send it to them 12. Meet with owners in your database. Ask about how they got into the business, how they’re currently doing and their plans for the future (shut up and listen!) 13. Learn how you can create value and deliver (ie: share market trends data, expense comps, deal flow) 14. You will land a BOV from talking to enough owners 15. You will win a listing from completing enough BOVs 16. After you win a listing, call every owner in your database to market the deal 17. During the marketing effort, communicate often with your new client. Setup recurring weekly calls to share who you called, who toured, their feedback and status of the marketing effort. 18. Once you close the deal, call every owner of like-kind deals and share the details of the sale 19. Start posting valuable content related to your market/asset class on social media, 3+ times per week. Don’t flex… share informative deal stories and market intelligence 20. You will do all of this yourself (or on a team) until you have the financial resources to hire an analyst to delegate the analytical work, then you’ll bring on a junior agent and train that person to do what you did to land your first deal. Now you have a team and can slowly begin expanding your market share 21. Once you have a team, create processes and procedures to delegate***. Focus the majority of your time on building relationships and originating business If you made it to #21, you’ve done what the majority of those who started in brokerage can’t or won’t do. #cre #brokerage

Become the expert. I get calls every week from young brokers. They say, “Bob, I’ve been in the business two or three years. I’m competing with people who have been doing this for twenty. How do I compete?” The assumption behind the question is that time in the business equals expertise. It does not. Focus equals expertise. Let me ask you a simple question. If you sell apartment buildings in your market, how many buildings are there? Not approximately. Exactly. How many sold last year? How many sold the year before? What was the average price per square foot? The average price per unit? The average cap rate? If you do not know the answers to these questions, someone else will. And that someone else becomes the expert. Early in my career, we learned that knowing your territory was not optional. It was mandatory. Our entire system was built around becoming hyper focused experts in defined geographic areas . When you know every building, every owner, every sale, every zoning nuance, you walk into a meeting differently. Confidence is born from preparation. Imagine sitting across from an owner who is considering selling. Instead of speaking in generalities, you say: “There are 312 buildings like yours in this market. Twelve sold last year. The average price per square foot was $487. The average cap rate was 5.6 percent. Based on your rent roll and location, here is exactly where you fit.” You think that owner is not impressed? You think the broker with twenty years of “experience” who cannot quote those numbers off the top of his head has the advantage? Experience without focus is just time. Specialization is a competitive weapon. When you narrow your territory and master it, you compress decades of perceived experience into a few intense years of disciplined study and action. Walk the streets. Count the buildings. Track every sale. Know the players. Understand the zoning. Study the trends. Do this consistently and you will not feel like the young broker trying to compete with veterans. You will be the market expert. And here is the secret: most people will not do the work. They will say they want to dominate their market, but they will not map it, measure it, and memorize it. Opportunity lies in what others are unwilling to do. If you want a competitive advantage, earn it. #MondayMotivational #KnakalKnuggets #BKREA

Something remarkable happened when we started bringing Customer Success leaders into our sales conversations. The traditional sales process transformed into a strategic partnership discussion that benefited everyone involved. After implementing this approach across hundreds of deals, we discovered benefits that went far beyond our initial expectations. Sales teams gained a deeper understanding of post-implementation challenges, which helped them qualify opportunities more effectively. Instead of focusing solely on closing deals, they began asking questions about operational readiness, internal champions, and resource allocation. Prospects received authentic insights into what successful implementation truly requires. Our CS leaders shared real examples of customers who thrived and openly discussed common obstacles they might face. This transparency built trust and helped prospects make informed decisions. Better aligned customer expectations from day one. When CS leaders joined these conversations, they highlighted potential roadblocks and success metrics based on similar customer profiles. This practical guidance helped prospects understand the work required to achieve their desired outcomes. This early involvement proved invaluable for our CS team. They gained visibility into the customer's vision before contracts were signed, allowing them to proactively plan resources and create tailored onboarding strategies. A surprising result was the reduction in "rescue" situations during implementation. We eliminated many issues that typically surfaced months into the relationship by addressing potential challenges during sales discussions. The data supported our approach. Deals that included CS leaders showed 40% higher implementation success rates and 25% faster time-to-value. More importantly, these customers renewed at significantly higher rates. For those considering this approach, start small. Choose strategic opportunities where CS insights could substantially impact the prospect's decision-making process. Document the outcomes and refine your strategy based on that feedback. Great customer relationships begin with the very first conversation.

Most companies don't need more content. They need better, more strategic, value-driven content. 🚀 👉 Copying your competitors? It only adds to the noise — it doesn’t differentiate you, and it definitely doesn’t drive pipeline. Here’s what to do instead if you're serious about scaling content the smart way: → Audit your existing content — identify what's driving outcomes (not just traffic). → Align your strategy with your Sales, Product, Success, and Support teams — integrate real customer feedback into your content plan. → Map your content to the full buyer journey — awareness → consideration → decision → expansion. → Focus on intent over volume — not every high-volume keyword matters to your funnel. → Identify opportunity gaps where you can genuinely add value, not just "rank." → Build content clusters around your core solutions to strengthen topical authority. → Refresh and optimize existing content regularly to keep it aligned with evolving customer needs. → Treat SEO as a distribution channel, not a content strategy. → Prioritize formats that match intent — blogs, webinars, guides, comparison pages, customer stories. → Measure what matters: influenced pipeline, sales velocity impact, time-to-value reduction — not vanity metrics. Content marketing isn’t about churning out more. It’s about building a real growth engine — one piece of strategic content at a time. Need help turning your content into a revenue-generating machine? Drop me a DM and let's get talking! 👋 #contentmarketing #b2bsaas #b2bmarketing #saasmarketing #seostrategy #b2bcontent

🚫 STOP creating sales-driven content. I can promise you one thing… Your audience is tired of being sold to. What they’re really craving is VALUE. They want to know how you can make their lives better. They want to know how you can solve their problems. By focusing on content that addresses these needs: You build trust. You build authority. You build loyalty. And here’s what happens next: They keep coming back for more. They share your content with others. They start reaching out when they’re ready to buy. At the end of the day, it’s about them, not you. So how do you create content that converts into $$? Understand Your Audience’s Pain Points —> Research their specific problems through social listening. Provide Solutions Through Content —> Offer actionable advice or tips that directly address these pain points. Use Storytelling to Connect Emotionally —> Share relatable stories that resonate with your audience’s struggles. Educate, Don’t Sell —> Focus on teaching something new, positioning yourself as an expert. Offer Free Resources or Tools —> Provide downloadable resources that offer immediate value. Analyze What’s Working and Iterate —> Regularly review performance and refine your strategy based on data. Give them what they need, and the sales will follow. P.S. Are you too focused on sales-driven content? Be honest!

You’re on a discovery call. The conversation is flowing. Suddenly the prospect drops this question: “How are you different from your competition?” Your first instinct? Probably to jump in and explain: “We’re the only ones who…” “We have the best…” “Clients who work with us say…” But here’s the problem: when you’re explaining you’re convincing. And no one wants to be convinced. Why? Because prospects know you have an agenda. Of course, you’re going to put your best foot forward. Talk about your wins. Showcase your edge. But to them, it feels… self-serving. So what’s the way out? Instead of convincing, shift to understanding. Understanding starts with meeting them where they are—acknowledging what’s likely swirling around in their head. Like this: “I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of similar solutions, all promising the same thing. It’s tough to tell what really sets anyone apart.” And then—pause. You’re not selling. You’re empathizing. You’re showing them you get it—that you’re not just another salesperson with a rehearsed pitch. Here’s the magic: once people feel understood, they’re far more open to hearing you out. From there, you shift the focus away from you and toward them. “Different means something unique to everyone. Do you mind me asking, what does it mean for you, based on what you’re trying to achieve but haven’t yet?” And then you listen. Not with an agenda. Not with a mental checklist of what you’re going to say next. You just listen. Because your job isn’t to cram their head full of information about why you’re the best. Your job is to draw out their story. Why? Because people don’t buy because they understand you. They buy because you understand them. Buyers have the answers. Sellers have questions.