Remember back in high school? If you wanted to do great on your algebra exam, you put in the time. It didn't come naturally to anyone - it required hard work.
Same with business to business (B2B) marketing communications. If you want to be average, you can just plod along doing what everyone else is doing. If you want to be great, you need to set a tough goal, focus like a laser beam, put in the hours, earn the scars, and live knowing that precious few people will understand how much blood, sweat, and skin went into it.
It's not much different than Dave Thompson's story. This vid is a story of passion, commitment, and the desire to be the best.
You don't want Dave Thompson as a B2B Marcom competitor! He sets his bar insanely high. Instead, YOU want to BE Dave Thompson. Every morning he walks out of the house knowing he will bash his shins, rip open his elbow, and fall on his face in front of his best friends and his critics. He doesn't seem to hang with the cool people, nor does he work in the impressive part of town. His focus and his goal don't allow that. When he crashes, he springs to his feet and rethinks things - then does it better.
Dave's not on the speaker circuit, he's putting a bandage on his leg. Dave's not sitting in refried seminars, he's laying on his back on a cold, gritty sidewalk, playing the experience through his mind - learning. Dave's not worried about what his boss might say, Dave is his own boss. Dave's not taking direction from any committee, Dave tells Dave what to do. Dave's not comfortable, Dave wakes up every day scared, brave, cocky, unsure, and totally certain. Dave doesn't want a plaque, Dave wants nothing less than a singular true measurable accomplishment and to see people standing with their jaws dropped in awe.
Things get nuts at the 4:00 mark. I don't see any people riding like this where I live - and I don't see too many B2B Marcom people approaching this level of performance either.
The formula is simple. Actually doing it is something altogether different.
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Trying to ramp-up the greatness this year, so thanks for the inspiration.
I really liked the way you’ve tied together Dave Thompson’s “passion, commitment, and the desire to be the best” with what it takes to succeed in B2B marketing.
You are absolutely right -- it takes healthy doses of guts, perseverance and a willingness to learn in order to deliver real results. In our common world of industrial marketing, that usually means generating high-quality leads and creating sales opportunities.
And it just as awesome as some of Dave’s feats when we can pull it off despite all the skeptics in the C-suite.
You nailed it when you said, “The formula is simple. Actually doing it is something altogether different.”
Thanks for posting such a compelling story about B2B marketing.