B2B Reads: Expectations Crushing Creativity, Remember 2020, and Lego Inspiration

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.

4 Paths To Building Buyer Trust Through Empathy And Humility
Marketing and sales traditionally believe that the path to building buyer trust is by providing answers through education, experience, and training. In today’s world of continuous uncertainty and accelerated change, marketing and sales who have empathy balanced with humility can be more open to learning, exploring new ideas, and displaying curiosity. Thank you for the mindful read, Tony Zambito

The High Bar of Expectations Can Crush Our Creativity
Write amazing blog posts, create inspiring music, profound works of art, form a thriving business that reaches hundreds of thousands of people. These are beautiful aspirations, but if you are setting out to create a masterpiece, what does that do to you when you show up at the blank page or canvas? Thanks you, Leo Babauta, for the insightful read.

Taking a Sabbatical
It’s easy to justify a sabbatical from a personal perspective: time to regroup, learn something new, or reconnect with yourself. But there is a compelling argument to be made that a sabbatical would not only be good for you, but also be good for your business. Thank you for the great read, Jonathan Baker.

How to Remember 2020
Amid the hope of 2021, if we close our minds to 2020, we will be doing ourselves a disservice. We experienced a world turned genuinely upside-down and if we shut our minds to what we experienced, we will have missed a great lesson. Thank you, John Baldoni, for the thoughtful read.

The Surprising Power of CEO Gratitude
While coaching thousands of CEOs at businesses large, medium and small, Chester Elton and his co-author Adrian Gostick, stumbled upon a single constant among all the top performers, one that might not be what you’d expect. Thank you, Dan Bigman, for the great read.

How Childhood Bullying Inspired This Lego VP To Design An LGBTQ Set
According to Matthew Ashton, Lego’s VP of design, the company had wanted to create a product celebrating the LGBTQ community. Ashton had previously built a model similar to the Everyone Is Awesome set to decorate his desk and thought the design might work well for this project. Thank you for the inspiring read, Elizabeth Segran.

Ten Things to Say Besides Yes
Lots of folks are headed for a crash if they don’t master the art of answering the next request for their time and attention with something other than an unqualified, “yes.” Practicing these ten phrases and having them in your pocket to use when needed will enable you to collaborate with and support your colleagues without sinking yourself in the process. Thank you, Scott Eblin, for the helpful tips.

Stop Being So Hard on Yourself
Perhaps you have thought that self-criticism is what keeps you sharp. People who are sensitive strivers  often use it as a form of motivation, hoping that if they’re tough enough on themselves, they’ll be compelled to perform. But research shows that self-criticism is a poor strategy. Thank you for the insightful read, Melody Wilding.

If Marketing Is as Critical as Sales Is to the B2B Pipeline, Why Don’t We Formalize Training for Marketing Teams?
In the not-too-distant past, B2B marketers were responsible for branding and communications. They created ads, brochures, and publications, and they set up booths at events. Today’s marketers are responsible for technology, demand generation, branding, communications, PR, AR, content generation, thought leadership, sales enablement, and so much more.  With the expectation from company leaders that marketers will track the impact of their efforts on pipeline and revenue, shouldn’t there be more formalized training for marketing teams? Thanks for the great read, Jennifer Smith.

Five Key Questions to Improve Your Marketing to Sales Handoff
In a recent webinar, ON24, NetLine and Bombora discussed the trends behind improving the marketing-to-sales handoff. From the discussion, they came up with a few questions that B2B marketers should answer for themselves as they look to improve alignment between marketing and sales. Thank you, ON24, for the insightful read.