Part of a small current assignment is looking for a simple ERP system for a SME client, now too big to rely on spreadsheets and simple accounting packages.
Automatically, I went to the web, looking for user groups of similar software, and it got me thinking.
The web is the first place we look for something, from a complicated bit of technology, to a phone number, and this has come about so fast we do not think about it.
The standard early stages of the B2B marketing processes have been replaced by peer contact facilitated by the web, research is done on line, no longer relying on the vendor to do anything more than fill in the gaps, and provide a price.
For some time, I have been on the e-mailing list of an ERP vendor, I just never bothered to click the “off” button, to de-register, but I cannot remember their name now I need their product, or similar, just like old fashioned advertising, until you need it the ad is totally forgettable most of the time.
It seems theB2B game now is to create leads that have been motivated in some way before you get to them, and the sales role is being truncated into the closure, implementation and follow up stages.
StrategyAudit 
awesome! had a look at some other posts, will add to feed!