This week we got out our thesaurus and sent a proper professional-sounding connection request to snag the attention of Mimi Turner, Head of LinkedIn’s B2B institute for EMEA and Latin America.

With more strategic know-how in her little finger than a yurt-load of gurus, Mimi has worked as Director of Strategy, Messaging and Research for The Liberal Democrats and Marketing Director for Lad Bible, before moving to her current role at LinkedIn where she champions brand as a key growth driver for B2B businesses.

One of B2B’s biggest brains and boldest bullshit busters, Mimi shares her thoughts on the ancient origins of strategic thinking, journalism’s tendency toward self-harm, the common mistakes B2B marketers keep on making and why B2B is just one big game of hide and seek.

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Follow Mimi on LinkedIn
Read Mimi and Jann Schwarz's eye-opening research The real job of B2B Marketing is to give the Buyer Group permission to agree
Tune in to Mimi's Nudgestock 2023 talk Every Product Needs a Promise

Timestamps
(02:23) - Quick Fire Questions
(07:14) - Mimi’s Early Career
(08:43) - The early days as a student journalist
(10:52) - The world’s worst chambermaid
(12:09) - Sequencing operations in Burger King
(15:48) - Hospitality Skills in Marketing: Leaders should be waiters
(21:35) - Mimi’s route into marketing
(24:50) - Playing to win and solve the strategic problems
(29:31) - B2B marketing: The challenger to B2C marketing
(32:29) - Joining the B2B Institute at LinkedIn
(33:55) - Who is making the decisions in B2B buying
(37:03) - In B2B Brand is a decision insurance
(46:03) - This quarter’s sales will be won or lost on brand
(49:26) - Target B2B’s hidden buyers
(57:16) - Advice for CMO’s fighting for investment
(01:01:46) - Target your customers, go after the buying group
(01:04:43) - Differentiation and distinctiveness: The job of creativity in B2B brands
(01:11:23) - Pertinent posers

Mimi's book recommendations are:
The Penguin Book of Modern Speeches by Brian MacArthur

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Girlhood (Taylor's Version)