In today’s fast-paced B2B environment, businesses face unique challenges that require innovative solutions. From managing customer dependency to navigating the uncertainties of a volatile market, B2B companies must be more agile and resilient than ever before. That's why I’m thrilled to share that our book, ‘Imposters On The Zoom!,’ which I have co-written with Journey’s President & CEO John Buie, has been featured in Entrepreneur—one of the most trusted resources for business leaders and innovators.
How Our Entrepreneur Feature Can Drive Your Business Forward
Entrepreneur magazine is a go-to resource for innovators and business leaders seeking actionable insights and strategies. Since its launch in 1977, Entrepreneur has established itself as a trusted guide, providing entrepreneurs with the tools they need to navigate the complex and ever-changing business landscape. For B2B companies, being featured in Entrepreneur isn’t just an accolade—it’s an opportunity to access practical strategies that can directly impact growth and
stability.
The insights from ‘Imposters On The Zoom!,’ as highlighted in Entrepreneur, go beyond just theory—they offer practical, actionable solutions tailored to the unique challenges that B2B companies face. In today’s fast-paced business environment, many companies struggle with issues like high employee turnover, market volatility, and the pressure to consistently generate new leads. The strategies outlined in our book are crafted to directly address these challenges with a focus on immediate implementation, ensuring that businesses can quickly adapt and see results.
The book provides step-by-step guidance on how to diversify your client base to reduce dependency on a few key customers. This is critical for B2B companies looking to secure stable revenue streams and protect themselves from sudden market shifts.
Additionally, ‘Imposters On The Zoom!’ emphasizes the importance of creating evergreen lead generation systems, which are essential for maintaining a steady flow of new business opportunities, regardless of economic conditions.
Moreover, the book addresses internal challenges, such as employee turnover and imposter syndrome, which can severely impact a company’s growth and stability. By offering strategies that improve employee engagement and confidence, ‘Imposters On The Zoom!’ helps businesses build a more resilient workforce that is better equipped to contribute to long-term success.
The Full Entrepreneur Article: Deeper Insights
For a comprehensive understanding of how these strategies can be applied to your business, I encourage you to read the full Entrepreneur article. It delves deeper into the challenges and solutions we’ve discussed, providing valuable insights that can help you take your business to the next level.
“Seeing ‘Imposters On The Zoom!’ featured in Entrepreneur is incredibly rewarding,” said John. “Our goal has always been to equip B2B leaders with the tools they need to overcome today’s toughest challenges, and this feature helps us reach even more businesses in need of practical solutions.”
Personally, on my end, collaborating with John on this project has been a highlight of my career. Entrepreneur is such a respected platform, and we’re ecstatic that they’re showcasing the insights we’ve worked so hard to develop. We believe these strategies can truly make a difference for B2B companies, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to share them with a wider audience.
Read the Full Entrepreneur Article or read down below:
The Marketing and Sales Post-Pandemic-Pandemic. How to Treat Imposter Syndrome In B2B Marketing & Sales Roles
Turnover in B2B marketing and sales roles has been trending upward for 5 years, in step with a rise in reported feelings of imposter syndrome. For business owners, this means stagnating revenue and sales leads. A new book outlines a simple solution.
Key Takeaways:
- Imposter syndrome affects up to 78% of professionals at all stages of their careers and all levels of seniority.
- It has a significant impact on business revenue, job satisfaction, and employee retention at industrial manufacturing and distribution businesses.
- The new book, Imposters on the Zoom! by John Buie and Jason Hagerman, lays out a simple and effective blueprint to overcome imposter syndrome in B2B marketing, sales, and leadership roles, resulting in positive trends in revenue, retention, and satisfaction.
There’s been a widespread increase in imposter syndrome in the workplace since 2020, and it’s quietly ravaging the lead-generating and revenue-generating capabilities of business-to-business (B2B) manufacturers and distributors.
According to research from Asana’s Anatomy of Work report, 62% of knowledge workers reported experiencing impostor syndrome in 2022.
Data from EDN says 66% of Gen Z workers and 58% of millennials have experienced imposter syndrome.
And recent research from NerdWallet found that 78% of leaders experience workplace imposter syndrome.
Why?
The workforce is shifting in uniquely dynamic ways, particularly in B2B.
Employees are job hopping more frequently. Loyal staff are moving to senior roles more rapidly - partly as a form of employee retention and partly because those senior roles simply must be filled. Gen Z and millennials are drawn to work in other industries. Working from home is eroding the bonds of camaraderie that historically kept feelings of isolation and inadequacy at bay.
Experts say dealing with imposter syndrome early can help businesses retain talent and get more reciprocal value from each team member.
How are B2B manufacturers and distributors dealing with imposter syndrome?
There are several common approaches to addressing imposter syndrome in organizations, says John Buie, co-author of the new, best-selling marketing and sales lead generation strategy book Imposters on the Zoom!
“Businesses are hiring consultants to weed out imposter syndrome with all kinds of different strategies,” he says. “And I feel a lot of these strategies aren’t of any real value to the workers struggling with these emotions every day, or to the business that wants to help so those employees can reach their potential, and of course provide value back to the business that’s investing in them.” Buie points to strategies like naming the feelings, reframing failure as learning, visualizing success, and eliminating negative self-talk.
“There’s nothing wrong with those approaches. From a mental health standpoint, they’re valuable, and that’s important,” Buie says. “But that puts a lot of focus on individual willpower, which seems negative or at least counterintuitive to me.”
Imposter syndrome is a leading cause of workplace burnout. Research from Asana says burnout impacts the decision-making capabilities of 70 percent of C-suite leaders. In addition, the findings showed anyone suffering from burnout is at a higher risk of having low morale, being less engaged, making more mistakes, and leaving the company.
Jason Hagerman, co-author of Imposters on the Zoom, says, “there are other nebulous strategies organizations are being told to use to counteract the burnout associated with imposter syndrome, like more thoughtful staffing, structures to support work-life balance, and behavior modeling.”
But, he says, an obvious strategy is often overlooked.
“Getting measurably better at the job,” Hagerman says. “Learning, then applying that learning tomorrow and the next day and the next week. Actually learning the industry, engaging or re-engaging with the challenges their organization solves, and getting better at the impactful things that get seen, recognized, and acknowledged in the business. Learning what to do, when to do it, and where to find the information that makes you look like a rockstar when you don’t feel like one.”
A blueprint to beat imposter syndrome in B2B marketing, sales, and leadership.
The challenge with “getting better at the job” is the investment in time. It can take years of learning, experience, testing, failing, and struggling to reach a point of insightful competency in an industry.
“The point of writing our book was to reshape that time investment to something more valuable for everyone in the business,” Buie says. “We wanted to make a template everyone in the organization can follow to contribute value to the business, get on the same page, make work easier but also make every marketing and sales initiative within the business more fruitful. But most importantly, to help everyone learn the exact steps to follow to work in concert and generate leads and revenue for the business.”
The best way to beat imposter syndrome, they say, is to create facts that counteract the feelings.
“For B2B marketing and sales professionals, that means generating a steady and increasing volume of leads and sales for the business,” Hagerman says. “For leaders, that means understanding more clearly what those marketers and sales professionals are doing, and evaluating them quickly and competently in their own language.”
So, how exactly is it done?
The most basic approach is to make learning active in the organization and provide everyone with clear, detailed, step-by-step processes to do so. For employees, reading about the business is less valuable than creating assets for the business. Reading case studies about customers is less valuable than interacting with customers and creating them. Webinars about email marketing are less valuable than creating email marketing campaigns with those case studies. And so on.
In education, it’s called scaffolding. Teachers use it to nurture students into critical thinkers. However, the approach rarely applies to B2B marketing, sales, and leadership.
“You start with something small and get a fulsome understanding of it in the context of the business and your role in the business - like a single value proposition for a product,” says Buie. “Then you incorporate that understanding into customer-facing assets for the business. You do that again and again, and you generate real value for the business while learning and avoiding missteps because the scaffolded learning is there to prop you up.”
“There are no quick-fix bullet points,” Hagerman says. “It has to be a process with defined steps and direction. But because the process is practical and immensely detailed, the outcomes for both the business and the person struggling with imposter syndrome are powerful. It doesn’t matter if it’s the founder of the business or the marketing intern. Scaffolded, active learning about the business and the industry is the best way to get genuinely better at the job, provide value to the business, and get past imposter syndrome.”
Want to give it a try? Here’s a simple way to better understand the business you own, operate, or work in, and feel more confident in your ability to do work that connects with them.
Click to your business’ website right now and find a statement meant to convince prospects to buy from you. Maybe we offer fast shipping or superior product quality or the lowest prices. Write it on the left side of a blank sheet of paper. At the top right of the same blank sheet of paper, in big letters, write why do they care?
Beneath, record every possible reason this matters to the purchasers of your products, end-users of your products, and owners of the businesses you sell to. Think about their days. Their stress. Their colleagues. Their KPIs. The other things they worry about. Their home life.
When you’re done, this page is the first layer of your scaffolding. You successfully dug deeper into your customers’ experiences than most leaders and B2B marketing and sales professionals. You’re already less of an imposter than you think. And for your next steps, find a blueprint.
- Entrepreneur
Key Challenges Identified by Entrepreneur: Market Volatility and Customer Dependency
In their coverage of ‘Imposters On The Zoom!,’ Entrepreneur identifies two pressing challenges that B2B companies are currently facing: navigating market volatility and the risks associated with over-reliance on a small number of key customers. These issues are particularly pressing in today’s unpredictable business environment, where a single client loss can significantly impact your bottom line, and fluctuating market conditions can create uncertainty.
Market Volatility
The B2B sector is no stranger to market fluctuations, but the current level of volatility has left many businesses scrambling to maintain stability. Entrepreneur highlights how unpredictable market conditions can derail growth strategies, making it difficult for businesses to plan for the future with confidence.
Customer Dependency
Another significant challenge is the reliance on a few major clients for the bulk of your revenue. While these relationships can be lucrative, they also represent a significant risk. Entrepreneur emphasizes that losing just one key customer can create a substantial gap in your revenue stream, leaving your business vulnerable.
Actionable Solutions from ‘Imposters On The Zoom!’
‘Imposters On The Zoom!’ provides a roadmap for navigating these challenges, offering strategies that can be implemented to build a more resilient and adaptable business. Here’s how the book’s insights can directly address the issues highlighted by Entrepreneur:
Diversifying Your Customer Base
One of the core strategies in ‘Imposters On The Zoom!’ is to diversify your customer base to reduce dependency on a few key clients. The book outlines practical steps for expanding your reach and acquiring new customers, ensuring that your business isn’t overly reliant on any single revenue stream. By developing a broader client portfolio, you can protect your business from the financial impact of losing a major customer.
Building Resilience Through Evergreen Systems
To combat market volatility, ‘Imposters On The Zoom!’ advocates for the creation of evergreen lead generation systems. These systems are designed to provide a consistent flow of new business opportunities, regardless of market conditions. The book offers detailed guidance on setting up these systems, which include leveraging permission assets and crafting compelling USPs that resonate with your target audience. By ensuring a steady influx of leads, your business can better withstand the ups and downs of the market.
Implementing Agile Marketing Strategies
The book also emphasizes the importance of agility in your marketing efforts. In a volatile market, the ability to pivot quickly and adjust your strategies in response to changing conditions is crucial. ‘Imposters On The Zoom!’ provides frameworks for developing flexible marketing plans that can be adapted as needed, helping you stay ahead of the competition and seize new opportunities as they arise.
Strengthening Customer Relationships
While diversifying your customer base is important, ‘Imposters On The Zoom!’ also stresses the value of nurturing and strengthening existing relationships. The book offers strategies for deepening client engagement, improving communication, and providing exceptional value. These efforts not only help to secure long-term customer loyalty but also create opportunities for upselling and cross-selling, further boosting your revenue.
Conclusion: Securing Long-Term Success with Actionable B2B Strategies
These solutions are not only insightful but also actionable, designed with the urgency and practical needs of B2B companies in mind. The challenges faced by businesses today—whether it’s navigating an oversaturated market, retaining valuable clients, or managing high employee turnover—demand immediate and effective strategies. ‘Imposters On The Zoom!’ is crafted to meet this need by providing a clear and comprehensive roadmap that leaders can follow to drive real change within their organizations.
Get Your Copy Today
'Imposters On The Zoom!' is more than just a book; it's a comprehensive guide designed to help B2B clinical lab equipment manufacturing and distribution businesses navigate the complexities of marketing and sales in today’s dynamic environment. By applying the strategies outlined, you can create a more resilient, efficient, and profitable B2B business.
For a detailed blueprint on transforming your B2B marketing and sales, get your copy of 'Imposters On The Zoom!' on Amazon.
Connect with Us
Connect with John and I (Jason) on LinkedIn or schedule a Zoom call to discuss how we can help you achieve your business goals. Whether you’re looking to improve your lead generation, enhance your sales funnel, or gain new insights into B2B marketing and sales, we are here to help.
'Imposters On The Zoom!’ is also featured in Inc Magazine, Forbes, AP News, Fast Company, and Business Insider. Don’t miss out on the insights that are helping B2B leaders like you turn challenges into opportunities for growth.