Business buying is changing, and marketers must change with it—fast. I take inspiration from Brent Adamson’s new article in Harvard Business Review, with the provocative title, “Traditional B2B Sales and Marketing Are Becoming Obsolete.” Adamson explains that business buying no longer fits the linear “handoff” model between marketing and sales. Instead, it requires a deep understanding of the account’s buying process and developing a unified selling process that maps to it.

Buyer/seller matching platform. If you are a software or services firm looking for small and medium business customers, get yourself onto ShapeConnect, a matching platform designed to speed up the business buying process and simplify vendor relationship management. ShapeConnect acts like a concierge, vetting new vendors, and providing expert advisors to help buyers find the right fit. Contracts are then managed through the platform

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