As a former journalist and current PR and communications professional, I am a voracious reader. During the Summer of CMO Love at Red Fan, I have been revisiting my bookshelf for specific titles that cater to the unique challenges and opportunities faced in the business-to-business marketing space.
For chief marketing officers (CMOs), sharpening your knowledge of various aspects of B2B marketing—including sales and marketing alignment, digital strategies, content marketing, and understanding the modern B2B buyer—is critical to the success of your organization. Reading (or listening to an audio book!) is one of the best ways to equip B2B CMOs with valuable knowledge to navigate the complexities of their industry and drive success for their brands.
Here are 10 best B2B marketing books that provide valuable insights for CMOs:
- “The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation“ by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson – This book challenges traditional sales approaches and introduces a methodology for building high-performing sales teams.
- “Aligned to Achieve: How to Unite Your Sales and Marketing Teams into a Single Force for Growth” by Tracy Eiler and Andrea Austin – A guide to aligning sales and marketing efforts to drive better results and revenue growth.
- “They Ask You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today’s Digital Consumer” by Marcus Sheridan – A B2B-focused book that emphasizes the importance of transparency and addressing customers’ questions and concerns through content marketing.
- “From Impossible to Inevitable: How Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue” by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin – Offers practical strategies for scalable revenue growth management for B2B companies.
- “Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets” by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead and Kevin Maney – Explores how to position a B2B brand as a category leader and market disruptor.
- “Digital Selling: How to Use Social Media and the Web to Generate Leads and Sell More” by Grant Leboff – A guide to leveraging digital channels for lead generation and sales in the B2B context.
- “Driving Demand: Transforming B2B Marketing to Meet the Needs of the Modern Buyer” by Carlos Hidalgo – Focuses on the evolving B2B buyer journey and how marketers can adapt their strategies to meet modern buyer expectations.
- “The B2B Executive Playbook: The Ultimate Weapon for Achieving Sustainable, Predictable and Profitable Growth” by Sean Geehan – Provides actionable insights and steps for building and executing effective B2B growth marketing.
- “The SPIN Selling Fieldbook: Practical Tools, Methods, Exercises, and Resources” by Neil Rackham – A classic B2B sales book that focuses on the art of asking the right questions to understand customer needs and close larger deals.
- “B2B is Really P2P: How To Win With High Touch in a High Tech World” by Frank Somma – Offers a human-centric, neuro-linguistic approach to B2B marketing, recognizing that businesses are ultimately made up of people.
- “Get to Aha!” by Andy Cunningham – A groundbreaking guide to positioning any company for industry dominance.
- “Magical Meetings” by Douglas Ferguson – An unusual and irreverent guide to transforming your meetings from time-sucking interruptions to productive moments of collaboration – whether your team is together or virtual.
