The thinking

B2B buyer psychology, industrial marketing strategy, and what it takes to reach the people behind the roles. Research, patterns, and real observations from inside complex buying journeys.

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The Shelf, May 2026: 5 books, podcasts, and studies on why B2B buyers nod and go quiet

There's a specific kind of quiet that comes after a B2B sales call you thought went well.

The Shelf, May 2026: 5 books, podcasts, and studies on why B2B buyers nod and go quiet

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illi | B2B Brand Engagement Industry Perspective | 2026 | The Answer Was Already Written

Why industrial companies keep getting passed over by AI and what it takes to build the kind of authority that gets cited before a buyer ever picks up the phone

illi | B2B Brand Engagement Industry Perspective | 2026 | The Spec Was Already Written

Why industrial companies keep arriving after the critical decisions have been made — and what it takes to get into the room before the spec exists.

The Shelf, May 2026: 5 books, podcasts, and studies on why B2B buyers nod and go quiet

There's a specific kind of quiet that comes after a B2B sales call you thought went well.

How to decide what content belongs in each layer of a GEO strategy

Our quarterly trends report went out last week, and I've gotten a handful of DMs about one part of it specifically.

The one sentence every B2B buyer is scanning for in your content

Every technical buyer is scanning your content for one thing before they decide whether to keep reading.

Most fear-based B2B campaigns are manufacturing compliance, not trust

Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions, the most widely cited model in emotional psychology, often gets misread in marketing circles.

Why B2B companies that sound like every other vendor keep losing deals on "fit"

The reflex in B2B is to stay neutral. Don't take sides, don't risk losing anyone in the committee. The data says that's exactly what makes you forgettable.

What I've learned about building communities that members stay in

Most B2B communities stall not because of bad execution but because they were designed to serve the brand that built them, and members can tell.

The structure that built the business isn't the structure that serves the buyer

There's a conversation that keeps coming up in manufacturing circles right now. On LinkedIn, at industry events, in the forums where engineers and plant manager

Your buyers are forming opinions before you ever speak to them

The b2b companies winning AI search aren’t the ones with more content. They’re the ones who finally understood what their buyers were asking.

Plowing vs. Planning: The Leadership Balance Most of Us Learn the Hard Way

I have been thinking a lot lately about what happens when high performers get promoted into roles that don't suit their skills.

The Biggest Gap in B2B Marketing Isn't Content. It's Buyer Empathy.

Gartner and Forrester have done essential work mapping how B2B buying happens. They've even acknowledged that emotion matters.

Cohesion Is Infrastructure. Brilliance Is a Feature.

Bottom Line Up Front: At a certain scale, treating individual brilliance as your core infrastructure actually slows you down. The counterintuitive move?

What AI Can't Do for B2B Marketing (From Someone Who Uses It Every Day)

I wrote recently about how B2B deals die from fear, not competition. Since then, I've gotten a version of the same question from a dozen marketing leaders:

You're Not Losing to Competitors. You're Losing to Fear.

Thirteen people just said yes to your demo. Zero said yes to the deal.

Why RFPs Should Be Requests for Partnership (And What Changes When They Are)

If your agency is only asking surface-level questions, you're only going to get surface-level results.

We succeed when you succeed. No secrets.

We just spent two days sitting side-by-side with a Fortune 500 brand, sharing and workshopping our entire strategic and creative process.

The thinking

The Shelf, May 2026: 5 books, podcasts, and studies on why B2B buyers nod and go quiet

illi | B2B Brand Engagement Industry Perspective | 2026 | The Answer Was Already Written

illi | B2B Brand Engagement Industry Perspective | 2026 | The Spec Was Already Written

The Shelf, May 2026: 5 books, podcasts, and studies on why B2B buyers nod and go quiet

How to decide what content belongs in each layer of a GEO strategy

The one sentence every B2B buyer is scanning for in your content

Most fear-based B2B campaigns are manufacturing compliance, not trust

Why B2B companies that sound like every other vendor keep losing deals on "fit"

What I've learned about building communities that members stay in

The structure that built the business isn't the structure that serves the buyer

Your buyers are forming opinions before you ever speak to them

Plowing vs. Planning: The Leadership Balance Most of Us Learn the Hard Way

The Biggest Gap in B2B Marketing Isn't Content. It's Buyer Empathy.

Cohesion Is Infrastructure. Brilliance Is a Feature.

What AI Can't Do for B2B Marketing (From Someone Who Uses It Every Day)

You're Not Losing to Competitors. You're Losing to Fear.

Why RFPs Should Be Requests for Partnership (And What Changes When They Are)

We succeed when you succeed. No secrets.

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