text:
I've come to the conclusion that evolution is lopsided. Especially when it comes to B2B marketing vs. sales. It seems to me that either one or the other is evolving, but much of the time it doesn't seem to be both. At least not within the same organization.
The best marketers are on a quest to get to know their buyers. They're doing the hard work to create personas, develop content strategy and execute content marketing in a way that moves the needle by building relationships.
On the other side, salespeople who are in tune with their markets are spending the time to do research on prospects, learning how to apply the content that marketing is developing to supporting relevant dialogues with customers. And with all of this in hand, they're adding value to keep the progression established earlier in the buying process moving toward the decision to buy.
Then there's everyone else. What the heck happened?
Why is it that in so many companies these two ends of the buying process never join in the middle? It's like buyers need to cross the chasm on their own to get from one side to the other.
What makes you think they have the motivation?
I'm hearing a lot lately that marketing is doing great getting leads into the early stages of the buying process, but that there's a bottleneck in the middle that is somehow keeping them from moving farther.
Take a look and see if any of the below sound familiar:
There are a ton of things that could be represented in those bullets above. But each of them has one characteristic - the focus is on the company, not the customer.
When are we going to learn that it's not about what we want, but what our customers must have?
Our customers do not want:
What they do want is:
Relationships are the highest currency we can build in today's "social" business environment. I spend a lot of time failitating introductions for my clients to vendors who can bring expertise to the table that's not in my wheelhouse. They like this. It makes them feel important and they get darn good treatment from those I recommend.
Why is it that marketers don't facilitate introductions of highly qualified prospects to salespeople? Why is it that we don't help our sales team see the value in pursuing the leads we've worked hard to nurture to a readiness for conversation?
Why is it that marketers don't share the background of prospects with salespeople? Sure, marketing automation can help improve visibility to what they've seen or clicked on up to now, but do your salespeople know what other content you have that would enhance that prospect's experience moving forward?
There's a wide gap in B2B companies between the marketing and sales organizations. What are you going to do to close it?
Or are you relying on your prospects making the leap across the chasm on their own?
Feeling confident about that?
Arguably, content strategy is most often thought of as a marketing application. That's a great start, but it doesn't do the practice justice. In fact, that view tends to cause siloed efforts and limit the potential of content strategy.
Content is a part of everything a business does in regards to communicating with prospects, customers, and the industries their offerings serve.
Content is anything that says something about your company, brand, expertise, or point of view that forms an impression, including:
*Note the the focus of this blog post is on external audiences. But it also applies to internal audiences as well with another long list of formats and applications.
That's a lot of stuff. It's also why I wrote the previous post about why content should never be in a silo. Please note that much of this is created by the company, but some of it is not, such as referrals, and advocates. And some can come from the company as well as others, such as Tweets, status updates, and discussion forum participation. Regardless of source, it's still content that affects impressions about your company--good or bad.
(How content strategy applies to addressing content created by others about your company is another post)
The point I want to focus on today is that content strategy must address what lives beyond traditional marketing boundaries.
Two of the most prominent boundaries that must be dissolved are Sales Momentum and Customer Retention and Expansion.
Sales Momentum:
You may also think of this as Sales Enablement, but I don't like the term "enablement." Salespeople, by their very nature, should be enabled. The role content strategy can play with Sales is in helping them to continue to escalate opportunity momentum towards a deal, rather than stop it in its tracks if they step into the process out of sync.
I'm sick and tired of the battle for alignment between marketing and sales. There, I said it. Seems ridiculous if you ask me. I work with marketers everyday that are engaging salespeople in content strategy design and development because they realize salespeople are critical to the process. Not to mention that Sales really appreciates the help due to the constant change and shifting buyer attention in the marketplace today.Their position has changed, and they know it.
One of the interesting things I see when marketers involve Sales is that salespeople often have no real idea of what marketing actually does that may be helpful to them. This being said, just as marketers can no longer implement effective programs without getting to know their buyers, they also cannot help salespeople without knowing them, their priorities and what they're experiencing on the street that may be blocking or winning deals.
Marketers cannot provide the same content to salespeople that they provide to prospects. The context is different and the situation is different. The questions and obstacles are different.The interactions are different and so are the expectations from buyers on the receiving end.
By working with Sales, marketers can create content that salespeople will actually use to develop and engage late-stage opportunities. Once they see it's useful, valuable, and helps opportunities move to the next step in buying, marketers will find themselves inundated with requests for more. And that's a good thing!
Marketers must prove accountability. If they can do so by tracking use of content designed for sales interactions, their contribution to downstream revenues can be better substantiated. I hear a lot about salespeople taking credit for deals at the expense of marketing, but if the caveat to getting more content designed for them includes feedback on what's working, why it works, and what it helps them to accomplish, that will diminish.
Think about it.
Customer Retention and Expansion:
Most of what I see marketers focused on is new customer acquisition. But I often hear the lament that companies are having a difficult time expanding customer footprints. When I ask how their content strategy is designed to promote customer retention and expansion I hear things such as, we have an annual user conference or we send a monthly or quarterly newsletter. Or that it's someone else's problem, such as account reps or customer service.
Those are cop outs.
A few things marketers need to realize about customers is that their status quo is different than that of prospects. They solved their problem when they bought your solution, right? So what's next? What did solving that problem do to open up possibilities that can now be addressed?
That's where to start.
Expanding customer accounts is not about promoting products. It's still about solving problems - new ones. Why do companies think that rule changes once prospects become customers?
Do you have customer personas? Yes, they are different than buyer personas. See above.
Do you have content that helps them use the solution they've purchased to its fullest value? Have you made it clear why they should? Sharing your expertise should only increase in relation to customers. They are much more of a known value to you than prospects.
And I'm not talking about using feeds and features. I'm talking about business value. Think beyond the end users of your solutions to other impacts the results of using it make to your customers' businesses.
How can you tie that into their ability to solve new problems? What's the additional business value they can gain?
Growth doesn't just come from new customer acquisition. But, for some reason, companies seem to take their customers for granted by assuming they need less attention than potential new logos. That's not a good business decision.
Perhaps it's time to rethink your customer retention and expansion programs and how they fit into your content strategy.
Last week I was in Minneapolis speaking at Confab and attending AA-ISP. It's the first time I've gone directly from a conference focused exclusively on content strategy to an inside sales conference. Can I just say, Whoa!
It was like hoping from one island to another without a bridge.
First, a snapshot of my impressions of Confab:
Overall, it was inspiring! I thought, WOW, marketers are making a lot of progress. In a number of conversations, I met marketers who were rocking it, but weren't sure they really were. Yes - all of you, take note - you're on the right track.
I felt great - cake not withstanding.
Then I went two blocks down the street to sign books and attend the AA-ISP conference.
As a marketer, it was like walking into a foreign land. And I say this having worked and collaborated wtih a number of inside sales organizations on successful projects. I actually knew as many people at this conference as I did at Confab. Many of them on board with the alignment imperative between the two professions.
Unfortunately, what I found in several of the presentations that I attended was either a total lack or respect for marketing or no mention of them at all. In all fairness, many marketers don't mention sales much, but it does come up more often since marketing actually serves sales (or they should be).
Here's the part that really sets me back. There were a number of really terrific ideas presented at AA-ISP. Really good, with the potential to be great collaborative efforts with marketing in order to create higher efficiencies and greater momentum in the sales process. Wonderful opportunities for overlays.
But the emphasis was on sales owning, controlling and keeping all of these ideas on their island. No sharing.
I can't help but wonder that if this is what salespeople are learning at conferences, no wonder the subject of alignment is still as controversial today as it ever was. And going nowhere fast.
Which brings me to a question that my friend, Trish Bertuzzi (@bridgegroupinc) posed in a recent Focus roundtable we did together:
If prospects are spending up to 70% of their buying process with marketing, why is it that only 50% of sales reps are meeting quota?
Seems to me that both marketing and sales need to bridge this gap and work together if we're going to improve the prospects' experience during their buying process to the point that objectives are met on both sides of the equation.
I'm not placing blame on sales, I'm just noting that something's gotta give if we're going to reach higher levels of success for our companies. It really shouldn't be this hard. Ultimately we're all working toward the same goals...aren't we?
On the high side - I watched Anneke Seley (@annekeseley) receive her Lifetime Achievement Award and was proud to be there clapping and cheering for her. Congrats, Anneke!
Browsing my LinkedIn Groups today, I came across a discussion started by Holger Schulze on the B2B Technology Marketing Community that got me thinking. Holger asked:
Can you use ONE WORD to describe the biggest challenge facing B2B Marketing today?
Holger always asks these fantastic, insightful questions. At the time I checked, the question had received 85 one-word responses. Considering them in combination, I was intrigued so of course I entered them all into a spreadsheet and started doing a bit of armchair analysis. Here's what I came up with.
The responses (from my perspective) fall into four distinct areas of challenge for B2B marketers:
Even more interesting, when counting up the number of responses after I'd divied them up, management, execution and mindset each received 22. Market received 15.
The distribution makes me wonder if marketers are still overly focused on internal stuff rather than markets? However you look at it, the answers point to some clear indications of a few things that need to be ironed out.
Here's my interpretation of each of the four areas of challenge:
[*Note some words submitted by more than one person.]
The overall standouts in what I've labeled management fall into several clusters:
Proving ROI and the alignment of marketing spend with results have risen as imperatives for marketers and are obviously proving challenging. This can also be tied to technology challenges as well as the overall integration of marketing programs across the enterprise. Talent, time and teamwork are proving difficult to solve for marketing departments with limited resources and an ever-widening scope of responsibilities.
The words attributed to execution are evidence of difficulty in matching marketing programs to the challenges of management as well as to market receptiveness.
Relevance received the highest number of responses across the board. That only one person responded with content suprised me a bit, although a number of these could be reflective of the quality of content that's being produced. Importantly, what becomes obvious is that all stages across the entirety of the funnel appear to be challenging—from beginning to end.
This area shows evidence that marketing is changing so quickly and comprehensively that we need to do some work to help marketers adapt in order to equip them to resolve the other areas of challenge.
Marketers cannot be at their most effective when they lack confidence in what they are doing or realize that their skillsets don't prepare them to address today's markets. If you look at the third bullet, it's obvious that there's still work to be done to get to know our markets so damn well that the programs we create for them [not for us] will help us to overcome many of the challenges identified by Holger's question.
It's important to remember that these challenges were voiced by marketers and apply to their perceptions of what they think their target audiences think. Or even how they perceive the marketplace.
The ease of publishing has definitely made it a world of too much information. Audiences have changed and fragmented and the ability to gain more insight into vendors without ever speaking to them allows perceptions to form that may or may not be realistic. But, it's what it is and we've got to rise above it to do our jobs effectively and answer the challenges of the other three areas.
When you evaluate management, execution, mindset and marketing, you can see how one feeds into another. The best part of this analysis is that you can also start seeing paths to resolution.
The one-word challenges play off one another so that if you solve one cluster, it's highly likely that another will diminish. This said, I also find it interesting that personas or buyer knowledge didn't make the list. If that's resolved and applied, a lot of these words might vanish from the list.
It's also important to note that 4 marketers said their answer was a definitive NO. That there was not one word to define the biggest challenge to B2B marketing today. I agree with them.
What do you think?
Would you have arranged the one-word responses differently?
If I can add my own word (beyond NO) - I think it would be Interaction - but you probably could have guessed that!
There's a reason why B2B marketers have issues in alignment with their sales-oriented colleagues. It's really not all that hard to figure out. Basically it's about perspective.
Where marketing demand generation programs are focused primarily on the pre-sales stages of buying, sales is focused on what happens after a lead is qualified and, hopefully, a deal is imminent.
I'm a huge advocate for marketing and sales alignment and collaboration, but there are times were it's not wise to take salespeople's input as the gospel. It's not because they're wrong, it's simply that their areas of interest and focus are different.
This means that marketers have to develop their interpretation skills and evaluate what sales tells them in a way that allows their input to be more useful than harmful.
A few of the things salespeople have been know to say that marketers need to take with a grain of salt may include:
"We don't need to educate our prospects - they already know they need to solve the problem."
This is one of my favorites. Why? Because if the person doesn't know they need what the sales rep is selling, the sales rep disqualifies them as having too long of a horizon and goes looking for others who are closer to the buying window.
The problem with this assumption is that if your company's marketing programs are not educating prospects about the problem then you're not in the early conversation. Trust me, someone else is doing the education and it's likely your competitors. This means what the prospect learns about the problem is slanted in your competitor's favor.
And, if salespeople could back up their thinking, they'd realize that educating prospects is the precursor to "building the RFP." In other words, if you're not out there helping the market shape the conversation about what the problem is, how best to solve it and why do it now - you're just plain giving an advantage to competitors. And that means your salespeople need to work twice as hard to break through and get their ideas into the conversation.
So, salespeople are essentially making their lives harder by telling marketing that your prospects are already educated, so don't bother. I mean, really. Think about this. Then, if you still don't buy it, go read the section in Dan Ariely's book, Predictably Irrational, focused on anchors. That's what you want your company to be. The anchor for your prospects ideas about solving the problem.
"We want all the leads marketing generates, so give them to us directly upon opt in."
This one is predicated on the idea that sales reps don't want to miss any hot leads so they go after all the twitching contacts that marketing can find, regardless of buying stage or qualification. Gauging the readiness of new opt-ins is a solid idea. It just lacks something in the execution when left to salespeople. They're looking for one thing, and one thing only — a sales opportunity.
The problem with this approach to lead generation is that your CRM becomes a dumping ground for leads that sales reps choose not to pursue. They sit dormant and unloved. When you consider that, maybe, 15% of leads generated are in the later stages of buying, you're wasting a lot of lead gen spend. In essence, if you're generating 100 new leads per month, 85 of them are likely being wasted.
Change that. Make it a priority this year. Your accountability rating with the company will earn a major boost.
Based on culture, this is sometimes hard to do, but it must be done. Take those leads back and put them into nurturing programs. [The optimal process would be for marketing to score the leads and only transition those who match an agreed upon, ideal lead definition.] After all, 85% of the leads you generate have the possibility of becoming future sales — if you pay attention to them appropriately.
"Your content and collateral doesn't work. We'll create our own, thank you very much."
This is, unfortunately, very often true. However, given that much of the buying process now occurs prior to sales engagement (up to 70% according to Sirius Decisions), this attitude and process can halt buying momentum and create a fragmented experience for your buyers.
Well, that's if marketing is telling a comprehensive story mapped across buying stages.
Consider the scenario where prospects are moving right along, engaging with the content presented by marketing and have interpreted it as relevant and valuable to them up to the point they choose to enter a dialogue with sales. Then sales comes along and starts telling them a wholly different story. One that halts their momentum because they have to restart how they're thinking about the issue at hand.
This happens all the time. Trust me, salespeople creating content in a vacuum is as bad as marketing creating content in a vacuum. Two stories that orient your buyers differently do not speak highly of your company as in having the right hand know what the left is doing, if you will.
One key example of this is that salespeople like that slide with the hundred customer logos. They think it gives the company depth. Good marketing stories will focus on the scenarios that are most relevant to the prospect segment (persona) that marketing content is shared with. The logo menagerie is company oriented (look at us - we've got all these great clients) and the scenario version is prospect oriented (look at how someone like you is solving the same problem—and doing it successfully)
These are just a few ideas to get you to start looking at what sales says from their orientation and perspective and hoping you realize how what they say can serve to take your marketing programs off course. Sales has good ideas, but they need to be adapted to work the earlier stages of marketing.
Salt is your friend.
I get very frustrated when I hear salespeople talk about numbers in relation to sales. Like if you need $X in revenues, then you need to generate X number of leads because you'll only close X% of them. That kind of thinking gives permission to lose deals because a rep is only expected to close a certain percentage.
Seems to me that's setting most sales reps up to only ever make the X%. Research shows that only 50% of reps are making quota today.
What's interesting is that marketing's #1 challenge is generating high-quality leads. Likely because they've been tasked with front-loading the top of the funnel with as many "leads" as possible so that sales reps could make that convoluted formula work. Therefore, the focus on volume over quality has meant that they weren't defining quality, but rather a type of contact that might have some interest in acquiring something your company sells. And, dare I say, sometimes not even that.
After all, I get tossed to sales teams at the download of a white paper I'm accessing for research. If most of those companies ever bothered to look at my website they'd realize that I'm not, nor will I ever, become their customer.
So does this fascination with formulas keep sales and marketing from alignment?
Marketing is being charged with generating more qualified leads as well as accountability for doing so.
Sales is charged with meeting a revenue quota which many of them thinks is defined by a formula.
Yet one of the outcomes of generating quality leads means less volume because you've removed the unlikely candidates and extended the dialogues with those who remained. But it also means those leads will have a higher propensity to convert into customers.
What do you suppose that does to the sales formula?
If we turn it on its head, what will happen?
What if your company said to sales: Here's 10 high-quality leads. Close 6 of them. How would that change the sales process? What would it do to collaboration between marketing and sales?
What would it take to empower marketers to share a better story and for salespeople to have better conversations that provide more recognizable value to prospects?
What would it take for marketing to provide leads with quality high enough for sales reps to be able to close 6 out of 10?
I saw this Tweet from Adam Needles during Dreamforce and it's really bothering me. In all fairness to Stacey - I don't have the actual context, so I'm taking this at face value for this post.
@abneedles: "Good marketing doesn't matter. What matters is sales." via @staceyepstein at @Dreamforce #DF10 #B2B
My first knee-jerk reaction was something along the lines of, "Are you bleeping kidding me?" I couldn't believe that sentence would come from a VP of Marketing. Then I took a few (read a lot) of deep breaths and considered that perhaps what she meant was that if marketing doesn't result in sales, then it doesn't matter how brilliant it is.
Okay - that I can get behind, because truly at the end of the day, revenue must be the outcome of both marketing and sales. Then I saw this Tweet:
@abneedles "Salespeople feel they ... translate what they see as marketing's theoretical arguments into a practical message." @staceyepstein #DF10 #B2B
If this is indeed true, which could be illustrated by the hours that salespeople spend re-inventing or creating their own collateral, then marketing needs to step up. They're obviously missing the translation capability to get to the ground level of their buyers' perspectives.
This said, if salespeople really believe this, then why aren't they taking steps to show marketing how to translate? According to Sirius Decisions, buyers are 70% of their way through the buying process by the time they allow a sales conversation. If sales truly believe that marketing is irrelevant, then it would seem prudent to help them correct that misstep considering how much longer marketing has impact on the buying process before sales gets involved.
Why does it feel like marketing is the one who's supposed to do all the heavy lifting in the marketing-to-sales alignment endeavor?
Wouldn't it make sense to have sales actually help ensure that the 30% of time they get with a prospect is positioned to help them close deals? Or, even better, what if by working with marketing your salespeople could get into the buyer's process earlier - expanding the time they have to impact the buyer relationship? Ever considered that?
Marketing at 30,000 feet no longer counts. It's too far out of reach to be relevant to the people grasping with issues your offerings address. Vague pleasantries (as I call them) are from the old school of universal umbrella branding and awareness. The problem is time. There's less of it - a lot less. Specificity counts. Take that a step further to personalized specificity and you're a heck of a lot closer to content that buyers will find interesting.
Next up, the Tweet about a perspective that could put marketers back in the basement:
@abneedles Sounds like our session-track speakers int he sales/marketing alignment session see marketing in a sales-support role. Yikes. #DF10 #B2B
But, does it have to? The interpretation is dependent upon how "sales-support" is defined. If you consider that everything marketing does is focused on helping sales sell more by helping buyers buy (or it should be), then we are in a sales support role. However, sales support doesn't mean subservient. Adam gets to that with this Tweet:
@abneedles In a Web 2.0 world, #B2B marketing must become the leader of a holistic demand gen process -- not just tactical lead gen. #B2B #DF10
And, consider that sales doesn't have all the answers either. When exactly does that practical messaging translation come into play given this statistic?
KBlalock: RT @cahidalgo: 31% of reps r not prepared to speak to a prospect at time of first engagement via IDC #B2B #df10
Could this be due to a lack of respect for the work marketers are doing to get to know prospects well enough to catch and keep their attention for longer periods of time as cycles increase? Perhaps it's because many reps are schooled in products and solutions, but not so much about their prospect's reality, industry trends, influencers and competitive alternatives (Hint: Think beyond the obvious competitive choices).
This Tweet points out an interesting observation:
hoovers: RT @abneedles Sales-driven marketing is 'like driving with the rearview mirror.' via McAfee marketer #B2B #DF10
This is because salespeople are usually concentrating on the end-stages of the deal. They aren't paying attention to all that time prior to transition that's involved in the development of a sales-ready opportunity. If you only look at the buying process from the point at which sales will agree to pursue leads, you've missed a lot. (Read 70% of their buying process).
This Tweet gets to the goal. This is where marketing can create a noticeable impact. The skill sets that marketing needs to evolve are based on achieving this:
abneedles: Now listening to a top marketer at @InformaticaCorp talk about getting to predictable revenue via marketing. #B2B #DF10
As a final thought, consider that sales support is not just about your sales team. It's also about your buyers. Marketing needs to support the needs, priorities and interests of both. The more proactive they are about doing this, the more of a leadership role they can attain. Developing end-to-end lead management processes is a great place to start.
After all, isn't leadership about supporting the evolution and sustainability of success?
I missed being at Dreamforce this year. But, I'm thankful for all the Tweets that shared what was going on and made me think.
Earlier this week I wrote a post asking the question Does Sales Care About Alignment with Marketing? Some great comments were made about the fact that sales will LOVE marketing if they get QUALITY leads. But not much was said about what it takes to make that happen.
B2B marketing and sales alignment, sales enablement and integrating the pipeline into one end-to-end process won't occur just because your company needs to give salespeople qualified leads. It takes work. And, often this work requires shifting the culture for both departments.
For those of you making progress - Congrats! For those of you with a healthy Marketing VS Sales mentality, see how many of these scenarios are true within your company:
In case no one has mentioned this, operating your company's marketing and sales efforts as distinct, separate and siloed entities is self-defeating. Not to mention irritating to your prospects, buyers and customers due to the disconnects for them in their relationship with your company.
Alternatively, consider this scenario that can become a reality when marketing and sales work together:
Marketing generates net-new leads. They score the leads based on demographics and put them into nurturing tracks based on how they were sourced (subject matter interest) and who they are (personas).
Every couple of touches, the prospects are asked a progressive question on the landing page to help qualify them based on the ideal lead definition that marketing and sales have agreed upon.
When a certain score is reached, an inside sales rep is alerted to call the lead and provided with a follow-on content offer relevant to their expressed interests. This enables a conversation based on a topic of relevance to the lead. The inside sales rep either routes the lead to field sales as qualified for pursuit, or lets them remain in nurturing for futher development.
And the process continues consistently as marketing and sales work together to help prospects make progress across their buying process until they're ready to engage with sales.
The results?
Sales accepts 171% more leads than they used to.
Sales is able to increase their ability to connect with leads by 200% because leads feel like they know them due to relevant nurturing interactions.
Because the value the company provides is recognized by the leads based on education, expertise and evidence content, there is less discounting, resulting in higher revenue per won deal.
The time it takes to close deals is reduced by 30% from what it took before.
[These results are real as reported by Intellitactics and presented as a case study reported in my book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale]
If these improvements don't matter to your company, by all means, keep that Marketing VS Sales mentality alive and thriving in your company.
But, really, why would you want to?
Effective B2B eMarketing strategies must be built on knowledge—not gut instinct. The foundational knowledge that should drive all strategies must start with your prospects, buyers and customers. One of the best places to uncover this information is to—hold your breath—talk to your sales people.
The gathering and use of feedback seems to be a lost skill set and consistently rides very low on the totem pole of priorities. But, it shouldn't. It should be where marketers start and what you circle the wagons around on a regular basis.
Marketing is responsible for a lot of stuff. The thing about all the "stuff" is that it is all pointed toward customer acquisition and revenue production orchestrated by sales people. So why in the world so few marketers ever talk to sales people, let alone solicit the appropriate feedback, is a mystery.
Marketers who ignore the wealth of information sales people can provide that will help them improve the results they produce are shooting themselves in the foot (or worse places).
For marketers who want to improve their contribution to revenues, their relationships with the prospects they find it so hard to engage and their accountability to their companies, start by creating a feedback protocol to guide your efforts.
Suggestions for the type of knowledge you'll want to gather include:
What questions prospects are asking sales people?
Which content we give them is usable as is?
Are prospects as qualified as marketers think their score indicates?
What was the result of the initial meeting?
What else in addition to what marketing provided does sales need at the handoff?
What surprised the salesperson the most about the prospect conversation?
Who else is involved in the purchase decision?
What slide(s) did they wish they had in their deck at their last presentation?
What are the obstacles to moving forward?
The above questions and considerations are only a few ideas of feedback that marketing could solicit from sales to help them improve their work in generating high-quality leads worthy of sales pursuit.
By establishing a feedback protocol, marketing will be closer to measuring apples to apples and identifying improvements and areas that could be shifting for prospects that they need to refine. If the feedback requested from sales is not consistent, then it will be hard to know if progress is being made or if the adjustments marketing makes in response to the feedback are really working.
However, it's not just about generating sales-ready leads. It's about ensuring that your sales people have the content, collateral and tools they need to keep the momentum going. It's about maximising their time in sales conversations, not reinventing the materials marketing gives them or spending hours researching prospects instead of serving them.
Marketing can have a huge impact on sales success. If they put the effort into providing what sales needs, not just what they "think" they should provide.
B2B marketers are really digging in and working to establish plans and goals for their content marketing programs. This is terrific and I applaud you all. However, I'm seeing a trend happening when marketing and salespeople aren't collaborating to define these efforts together.
The issue that can arise is that—based on who marketers get direction and input from—they can be designing content marketing programs based on where the company hopes to be, rather than where they are right now.
Here's an example of what I mean:
A company decides they want to reach more decision makers at the CXO level. So they design a content marketing program for lead generation and nurturing to attract and engage those specific people.
The marketing team does their homework, creating personas and profiles that help them define pain points, areas of interest, motivating factors and content consumption preferences.
They create an editorial calendar and develop great content.
They generate leads, nurture them and pass them to sales when appropriate.
None of these potential deals seem to go anywhere.
What happened?
The sales team isn't prepared to have executive conversations upon account entry. They're used to going in at the line-of-business level and creating a champion who clears the path and guides them through executive conversations.
Sales is now frustrated and irritated with marketing and says - you guessed it - the leads they're getting aren't acceptable.
Marketing—by not collaborating with sales—has actually set them up to fail.
You may be sitting there thinking this isn't the case in your company, but I suggest you go take a look. Through probing, I often discover that marketing has identified decision makers based on who signs the contract, not on the people actually involved in the buying process.
Or it could be that there's an executive mandate to gain the attention of a specific target that they think will help the comapny circumvent longer sales processes by getting to the ultimate decision maker from the start. Sometimes this makes sense, and sometimes it doesn't.
If salespeople aren't prepared for the kinds of conversations marketing is getting them, then you have a problem.
Just as marketing uses personas to guide them about the kind of content a specific target market will likely be interested in, salespeople need to have the skills, insights and knowledge to develop those dialogues into conversations with traction toward purchase.
If your company wants to evolve those conversations, you need a plan for both marketing and sales to be successful. One without the other is wishful thinking based on where your company may want to be in the future, but can't yet manage in the present.
This is yet another reason marketers must involve sales in the definition of target markets, personas and better transitions at the handoff.
There's no reason your company can't evolve to capitalize on new markets or growth opportunities, just that you need to take it a step at a time by planning from how you define "now" to how you'll achieve that future state, together.


text:
Bill Nye Saves the World Season 3 Now Streaming Only on Netflix.
Don't worry, we won't share your details with anyone else.
PeerReach knows the topics you are most influential and authoritative in and ranks you within these topics. We call these rankings PeerGroups.Next
Of course you can still have influence in topics outside your PeerGroups. Here we show some of these topics and influential followers within.Next

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Through the Amber Glass
Bronwyn Rees
The Happy School Project Space
4 - 22 November 2015
Opening Wednesday 4 November, 6.30-8pm
Over the past 15 years of creative practice, Bronwyn Rees has focused on making richly textured prints that express her particular vision of Australia's landscapes and wilderness areas.
Throughout Through the Amber Glass, Bronwyn translates the visual qualities of place through etching and drypoint printmaking techniques. With meandering lines and expressive marks, the artist explores the emotional, psychological and spiritual experience of the natural world and her place within it.
Here, we find three printed images, torn down, merged, re-arranged, creating an element of confusion and displacement along with the odd and bizarre.


text:
Yann Martel is the author of Life of Pi, the #1 international bestseller published in more than 50 territories that has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, won the 2002 Man Booker (among many other prizes) and was adapted to the screen in an Oscar-winning film by Ang Lee. Martel is also the award-winning author of The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, Self, Beatrice and Virgil, and a book of recommended reading: 101 Letters to a Prime Minister. Born in Spain in 1963, Yann Martel studied philosophy at Trent University and travelled widely before turning to writing. He lives in Saskatoon with the writer Alice Kuipers and their four children.
'Dear Santa, Please Gift-Wrap The World.' Yours, Yann Martel


text:
John Phillips
JOHN PHILLIPS is a pioneer of Lane County, He came to this part of Western Kansas in 1885. Through his varied activities and experiences he has become one of the most widely known men of Lane County. In fact every one feels it a privilege to claim friendship and acquaintance with "Polk" Phillips, as he is universally called. He is not only a veteran Western Kansan, but also a veteran of the great Civil war and was very active in the Grand Army Post at Healy as long as it existed.
Mr. Phillips is an example of a man who rises above his early environment and makes a successful record in life by individual initiative and force of character. His people were all of the poor farmer class, and a few of them rose to financial independence. John Phillips was born in Orange County, Indiana, near French Lick Springs, December 23, 1842. His father, Leonard Phillips, came from North Carolina to Indiana with grandfather Phillips, who settled in French Lick Township of Orange County, Indiana. Grandfather Phillips spent his last years there, and much of his time was spent as a school teacher. Among his children were: William, who died in Orange County; David, who died in Knox County, Indiana; George, who was best known as a lover of fast horses and died, it is believed, in Ohio; John who lives near Terre Haute, Indiana; Leonard; and a daughter whose name is not now recalled.
Leonard Phillips acquired only a fair education. He had a small tract of land, cultivated it to the best of his ability, and did what he could by his family, but was a poor man when he died in 1874. He was then sixty years of age, having been born in 1814. He was a warm democrat and before and during the war was a Southern sympathizer, though all of his sons old enough went into the Union army. Leonard Phillips was not especially a religious man, and became a church member only late in life. He married Lucinda Leonard, who died in 1873. Her parents were Isaac and Lizzie (Taylor) Leonard, her father having been one of the early settlers in Orange County, Indiana, though he pursued farming with indifferent success. Leonard Phillips and wife had the following children: George, who became a private in the Twenty-Eighth Indiana Infantry, saw active service with Sherman's army and died near West Plains, Missouri; Bedford became a member of the Fiftieth Indiana Infantry in Company F, spent three years in the western army, much of his service being under General Steele, and he now lives in West Baden, Indiana; John; Isaac, a farmer near Mitchell, Indiana; James, of Indianapolis; Lucy Ann, who died while the war was in progress, and her husband, Newton J. Carr, died as an enlisted soldier of the Forty-Ninth Indiana Infantry, but had never left the state with the regiment; Elizabeth, wife of John Lynch, of Indianapolis.
John Phillips grew up on the farm of his parents in Orange County, Indiana, and the only education he and his brothers received were a few terms of three months each year. At the age of seventeen he left home and went to Knox County, Indiana, and was working on a farm at wages of $12 a month when the war broke out.
Notwithstanding his father's southern sentiments and inclinations John Phillips early became convinced that his duty was to the Union. In October, 1861, he was elected to Company F of the Fiftieth Indiana Infantry under Capt. John Hungatte and Col. C. L. Dunham. This regiment rendezvoused at Bedford, Indiana, went to Louisville, thence to Beardstown, and on to Camp Wyckliff, Kentucky. While at Camp Wyckliff he and his brother were stricken with measles, were sent to the barracks and soon given a furlough to return home. After sixty days at home John Phillips rejoined his regiment at Mumfordsville, Kentucky. The regiment soon reinforced General Wilder's command and took part in the fighting in that vicinity. The entire brigade was captured by Bragg's army but John Phillips managed to escape early the next morning. While standing in ranks ready to move to the prison camp at Bowling Green he asked the guard if he could not go to the river and fill his canteen. As he passed around a bluff to the river he perceived that he was completely out of sight of the entire Confederate forces, and then and there decided to make his escape. He had soon waded across Green River and entered the heavy timber and thickets of briars on the other side. That night he spent in a pile of leaves off the road. The following morning he begged his breakfast, and was hardly in condition to travel since he had suffered a severe chill as a result of his exposure. He arranged with a farmer for the loan of a horse, and proceeded horseback to a mill some distance away, and then started to walk back home to Indiana. Arriving on the banks of the Ohio River, he found a skiff locked to the bank, but he quickly broke the lock with a rock, and on jumping from the boat to the north bank of the river found himself once more in the land of freedom and in the state of Indiana. He remained at home until the regiment was paroled and furloughed, and he then went back to Indianapolis. When the reg ment received its exchange it was re-equipped with new guns, flags and other paraphernalia, was sent to Cairo, Illinois, then to Columbus, Kentucky, on to Jackson, Tennessee, and arrived at Corinth the day after the battle was fought. Returning to Jackson, the regiment took part in the chase of General Forrest, engaging the Confederate commander at Parker's Crossroads from 10 until 4 P. M. General Sullivan then came up with re-enforcements and the rebel army fled. The command of which Mr. Phillips was a member was soon ordered from Jackson to Meden's Station above Vicksburg. It remained there until the Mississippi stronghold fell on the 4th of July, 1863. He and his comrades then marched to Helena, Arkansas, and on to Little Rock, and drove General Price's army out of that section of the state. In the fall they returned to Louisburg, Arkansas, were again in Little Rock the next spring, and as part of General Steele's army took part in the engagement at Camden, and from there retreated to Jenkins' Perry, where the Federals beat off the Confederates. After the regiment was returned to Little Rock, Mr. Phillips secured a veteran furlough home. On rejoining his regiment, he was sent down the river to New Orleans, camped a week or more at Algiers, just across from New Orleans, was then sent to Lake Ponchartrain, and from there a vessel carried him over the Gulf to the defenses around Mobile Bay. He was in camp about Fort Morgan about ten days, was in the siege of Spanish Fort for thirteen days and nights, and after its capture the regiment was ordered to re-inforce A. J. Smith's army. He and his command then went aboard the Union fleet and steamed up the bay to Mobile, and after one shot had been fired from the gunboat the mayor delivered up the city. From Mobile they marched up the Tombigbee River and on the second day they were met with a flag of truce, the messenger bringing the news that Johnston and Lee had surrendered and that the war was over. Marching on to McIntosh's Bluff they remained there until the rebel fleet came along and carried them back to Mobile. Two weeks were spent in camp at Mobile, a boat then took them to Montgomery, Alabama, and Mr. Phillips and his command were then ordered forty miles south to Union Springs. They remained there until about the first of September and were then sent north to Indianapolis and given their honorable discharge September 15, 1865. Thus Mr. Phillips had been in the army almost four years. In all that service he received not a single wound, but endured the almost countless hardships of the soldier's life in the southern states. The first three years he was a private and afterwards a corporal.
After the war Mr. Phillips married and started out as a farmer on the renting plan. From his wages as a soldier he had saved $250, and that gave him his start in life. He continued to live in Orange County, Indiana, until September 15, 1869, when his and three other families started out with wagons and teams overland to Cass County, Missouri. Mr. Phillips remained a farmer in Cass County, Missouri, sixteen years. He managed to make a living, but very little more. In Cass County he married his second wife, and one of their children was born there.
From Cass County Mr. Phillips came into Lane County, Kansas, in 1885. He brought with him an old wagon and team, his family of four young children, and only $8 in cash. He entered as his homestead in Cheyenne Township the northeast quarter of section 19, township 17, range 29, and proved up on his "soldier claim." He spent two years there and then took a relinquishment on the northwest quarter of section 26, township 16, range 30. That tract was his home until 1904, when having been elected for a county office he removed to Dighton.
On coming to Kansas Mr. Phillips built a half dugout 12 by 14 feet on his homestead. On his preemption he built a soddy, and that dwelling gave shelter to himself and family for sixteen years. By personal experience he knows practically all the hardships and shifts to which the early settlers had to resort in order to live in the early days of Lane County. He dug wells, broke prairie, did freighting from Grainfield and was willing to accept any kind of employment that would earn a few dollars for the provision and supply of household necessities. As soon as he could he got into stock raising, and that proved the backbone of his business enterprise while living on the farm.
In 1904 Mr. Phillips was elected register of deeds of Lane County as successor of Caleb Dagg. He spent four years in the office and then returned to Healy, where he now resides. Since then he has given much of his time to dealing and trading in land. He now owns and has improved the south half of section 10, township 17, range 30, located a half mile south of Healy, and constituting one of the best individual farms in the county. Mr. Phillips has always been a republican. Besides his service in the county office he was trustee of the township.
He married for his first wife Martha Compton, a daughter of Larkin Compton. Mrs. Phillips died in 1882. Her children were: Frank, of Green Forest, Arkansas; Mary, who died in Lane County, leaving a daughter by her marriage to John Harris; Eva, who is the wife of William McClelland of Kansas City, Missouri, and the mother of five children; and John, who lives at Healy and has two children by his marriage to Cora McGee. For his second wife Mr. Phillips married Sarah Hagans, a daughter of James Hagans, of Cass County, Missouri; Mrs. Phillips died in 1910. Her children are: Leonard, of Healy; Harry, who married Eva Widekind and has one daughter; Chester, who lives in Lane County and has one son by his marriage to Amanda Widekind; Eli, who has become a "globe trotter;" and Theodore, a resident of Healy.
Transcribed from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. [Revised ed.] Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1919, c1918. 5 v. (xlviii, 2530 p., [155] leaves of plates): ill., maps (some fold.), ports.; 27 cm.Volume 4 & 5 of the 1919 publishing - Table of Contents


text:
Every September all University and College students ask the same question: "Where to buy my textbooks cheaper?". Although wealthier ones choose an easier way of purchasing new items, not all students can afford that. They choose better to rent their textbook or find a used copy of it than paying five times higher for a new book. If buyers choose to follow the same strategy and they don't want to overpay for their college textbooks, they never want to be fooled by unreliable sellers. That is why they choose not to rely on luck but to read reviews on preferred bookstores.
5 reasons to read reviews on textbooks bookstores:
- You get unbiased reviews of people, who've been using this site for a long time: You need at least two months to wholly explore a particular website. Or save your time gradually if you first read reviews of those, who've been using this site for a long time and then make your decision;
- You get a glimpse of a difference between prices and how does this difference hurt item's quality and completeness: Any review compares prices of used or rented bookstore's item to prices of new items discussing whether this difference is justifiable or not;
- You measure a timeline between processes of ordering and delivery: Sometimes it is hard to forecast, how long will your item travel to its buyer. Quality reviews always mention terms and costs of delivery and other important details which you may not find on a website;
- You will know exactly how special website features and options work: The sad truth is that a lot of websites do not deliver all special benefits (like free delivery or refund policy) the way they look at advertisements. If you want to know that information, you can only get it from past users or by website's reviews;
- You will make a just comparison of several bookstores and find the best one: Although you may have a temptation to make your choice looking at the highest rating, it will not lead you to the best alternative. Read all reviews on special website and carefully assess whether this alternative is good for you or not.
Are reading reviews enough for making the right choice?
Now there are a lot of bookstores offering miscellaneous textbooks for college and university students. Some textbooks may not be present while some might lack the latest editions. Anyway, buyers will never find an online bookstore accepting cash so they should have a credit card for making online payments. This is not the most important question but it might take some time to get this card. Obtain the list of required textbooks for this term, choose the best online store and find your item on the list of available items. This way you will purchase your textbook both affordably and safely.


text:
(Source: Getty Images)
Uneven 'St. Vincent' Has Its Moments, But Not Many
Want to Travel with Joel McHale, Rashida Jones, & Aziz Ansari? There's a Show for That
Steve Carell & Chris O'Dowd Are Actually Ruthless Killers
What's New in Theaters This Weekend: December 21, 2012
Zimbio Review - 'This Is 40,' Comedy at its Most Excruciating
Take a look at Chris O'dowd and share your take on the latest Chris O'dowd news.


text:
My little Millie, you're two weeks old today. A whole two weeks since you flew into our world and stole our hearts.
You are, without a doubt, the most precious little gift. A textbook 'perfect baby' who (aside from your 2am – 4am party setting) feeds and sleeps like a dream, rarely cries, and is fascinated by your little world and the people in it.
The main people currently in your world are me, your Daddy, "big brother" Zachy, and Nana & Granddad. Oh and Gobi, the naughty cat (who is actually going to be boarding the plane to the UK with your Nana & Granddad in a few days…)
How Are You Doing?
In short, thriving! You were born 3.5kg, and you weighed 4.1kg at your 10 day weigh-in. You're growing so fast! I am delighted, of course, but part of me wants to keep you tiny and perfect for longer. But I love watching your beauty develop with every passing day. From a swollen little ball with a bump on your head from an awkward delivery position (you came out sideways!) to a cute little pink-faced cherub with rosebud lips. Yes, part of me really can't wait to see what you'll look like as a bouncing baby in a few months' time. Your eyes are blue, your hair is brown. You're going to be beautiful!
You're a cuddly baby – you love napping on me, or your Daddy (when Zachy allows), and your Nana (Granddad too, if he can steal you from Nana!) You're also not too opposed (right now) to your cot, meaning the bedtime routine has been fairly breezy for us so far (the complete opposite when your brother was your age), which reaffirms my belief that you all come out with little personalities and preferences of your own. It's our job as parents to get to know these preferences and work it all out from there.
How Are We Doing?
You are perfection – I do not lie when I say I have adored every single second with you. Your brother, on the other hand, is struggling a little. A lot. His attitude towards you ranges from love and interest, stroking and singing to "baby Millie", to what I would probably describe as a seething dislike. Indeed there was a little fall-out yesterday when he threatened to throw one of his mud-kitchen pots at you while saying "I want to hit baby-sister". It's not been easy, he has brought me to tears a few times, but we're hopeful he'll settle soon.
Your Daddy adores having a gentle little daughter. He's already expressed his panic that one day he'll be walking you down the aisle!! He has had very limited paternity allowance from his work, which means he hasn't been able to spend the quality time he would have liked, but he has a full month off coming up which is going to be amazing.
And your Nana & Granddad? Well, they're just besotted!
The Next Few Weeks
Your Nana & Granddad leave this week (taking Gobi for my sanity to live at their house), Daddy will be at work, so it'll be me, you and Zachy at home until your Babcia and Jzadja arrive at the end of May. It's HOT in Dubai right now, reaching 40degrees on a daily basis. So aside from popping out for Zachy's toddler sense class, and maybe an odd run around soft-play down the road, I envision we're going to be a little house-bound. Not fun, but we'll find a way to entertain Zachy somehow I'm sure (baking, painting, hopefully napping!!)
We fly to the UK for two months in a few short weeks. I am salivating at the idea of cool weather, greenery, old friends, and the "park" around the corner for Zachy (he thinks it's the park…it's actually the village pub's beer garden – win-win!) We're just trying to arrange your passport now so you can fly too, baby-girl!
A Few Extra Words
Well that about sums up our first two weeks together, my sweet, gentle baby. Our perfect little bubble of naps and feeds.
I'm not going to lie, I didn't feel I had bonded with you in my tummy like I had with Zachy. My world has been so focused on your brother while you've been growing that I didn't always have the time or the mental space.
I loved you the moment you were born, but there is always that strange period of "hello, new little person, who are you?" – I definitely had that the first day. I can, however, pinpoint the exact moment I fell head over heels in love with you. It was our first night in the hospital – your Daddy was watching Zachy at home, so we were alone. It was around 9pm, it was dark, and you started whimpering in your cot (those strange plastic cots they provide at hospital). I picked you up, so teeny fragile in my arms, like a tiny little bunny. You settled immediately when I popped you on my shoulder, and you just made the most sweet, beautiful little newborn sounds in my ear. Affection, I would call it.
THAT is the moment you stole my heart forever.
I love you, baby Millie. Thank you for a wonderful first two weeks. Here's to many more…
Mummy x


text:
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) can have a major impact on your life. The anxiety disorder makes you feel the need to perform strange rituals in order to satisfy a need for order. It also makes you fear the consequences of not doing things a certain way; you may feel compelled to count your steps to work every day for fear that if you don't, something horrible will happen.
It's extremely difficult for most people with OCD to ignore the unreasonable urges and worries. Even children can be affected by the disorder.
Fiona Apple, a singer who has won a number of awards for her music, has bravely spoken out about having OCD. Apple talks about how OCD has limited her lifestyle and how she has improved over the years.
Read more about the performer's experience with OCD in the article below.
Fiona Apple Reveals Battle With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder – MTV.com
KOvideo (blog)Fiona Apple Reveals Battle With Obsessive-Compulsive DisorderMTV.comFiona Apple Reveals History Of Battle Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.Fiona Apple Opens Up About Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder BattleSpinnerFiona Apple: I have really bad …


text:
23andMe's Customer Care Team is here to help you. We strive to respond to all inquiries within two business days. In addition to our dedicated team, we have created a comprehensive Help Center to help you immediately find answers to your questions. Below you can find a list of the popular topics covered in each section of our Help Center and ways to contact the 23andMe Customer Care Team.
Browse our Help Center
Learn more about our services, or a specific feature, by browsing or searching the articles in each of our six main categories:
Before You Buy
- Information About the Services Offered By 23andMe
- Health Topics Not Included in the 23andMe Service
- Cancel an Order
- Refund Policy
- Request a Refund
- Family Considerations
- Detecting a Half Sibling vs Full Sibling Relationship
- Ordering and Shipping Details
- Add Reports to the Ancestry Service
- Privacy and Data Security Information
- Go to Category
Getting Started
Your Account and Registration
- Password Reset
- How to Register a Kit
- Information about kits purchased through CVS Pharmacy, Target, Best Buy, Walgreens or Walmart
- Confirm Registration Successful
- Add a New Kit to an Existing Account
- Edit Profile and Account Settings
- Add Surnames to Your Profile
- Research Consent, Sample Storage Consent, and Email Notification Preferences
- Block Sharing Invitations
- Access Reports Archive (applicable to select customers only)
- Information About 23andMe Raw Data
- Go to Category
- Getting Started With the 23andMe Reports
- How to Print Reports
- Setting an Ethnicity
- Information About 23andMe Genetic Health Risk Reports
- Information About 23andMe Carrier Status Reports
- Using the Ancestry Composition Report to Explore Genetic Ancestry
- Viewing the 23andMe Ancestry Composition Reference Populations
- Understanding Small Percentages Assigned in the Ancestry Composition Report
- Exploring Neanderthal Ancestry
- About the Haplogroups Report
- Information About Paternal Haplogroups
- Go to Category
Family & Friends
Contact Us
23andMe's Customer Care Team is here to help you. Below are a few ways you can contact us:
Online: Contact us online. Our Customer Care Team typically respond within two business days.
Social Media: For general questions, try contacting us on Facebook or Twitter. Our social staff typically respond within a few hours.
Phone: We are available Monday - Friday from 6am - 5pm and Saturday - Sunday from 8am - 4pm PST/PDT. If your question is not time-sensitive, we encourage you to contact us via Facebook, Twitter, or directly through our online form. See phone number.


text:
HIV's hiding places at last revealed by simple scan
IT'S LIKE using heat cameras to catch criminals on the run, except that HIV is the target. A novel scanning technique is enabling researchers to pinpoint where in the body HIV is lurking.
Today's potent drugs can eradicate HIV from the blood, but the virus returns when people stop treatment. This suggests that it survives elsewhere in the body – possibly by replicating very slowly or lying dormant inside immune cells at "sanctuary sites".
One strategy for eradicating HIV completely might be to "wake up" the hiding virus and then kill it, but little is known about which sanctuary sites might be the most important, what the virus is doing there and whether existing drugs can reach these sites.
François Villinger of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and his colleagues wondered whether PET scanning, which is used to show the spread of cancer, could also reveal the location of HIV. This idea was prompted by the discovery of an antibody that binds strongly to a protein called gp120, which is made by the monkey version of HIV.
To test the idea, the team injected a radioactive version of the antibody into three infected monkeys that were being treated with antiviral drugs. PET scanning, which detects radioactivity within the body, uncovered gp120 in a range of sites including the nose, lungs, gut, genitals and lymph nodes in the armpits and groin (Nature Methods, doi.org/2qx). The antibody could not get into the brain, however, which is thought to be another sanctuary site.
Post-mortem tests on the monkeys confirmed that the virus was present in immune cells from the areas identified by the scan.
This is the first study to visualise viral reservoirs, says Alan Winston of Imperial College London. "This could really help with the research for a functional cure."
This article appeared in print under the headline "HIV's hiding places revealed by simple scan"


text:
Published at Wednesday, September 05th, 2018 - 12:40:10 PM. Living Room. By Hanriette Charron.
Placing some statues will surely add to the aesthetic appeal of your house. Those of the marble kind are the most recommended, and if small, are best placed on tabletops. You may choose any theme for your figurines, but the most appropriate will be those formed in the shape of deities, people, etc.
Maybe you live by the water and nautical fits your style. In that case, blues, whites, greens and yellows may work for you. If you live in a downtown loft, you may want an industrial look with white and silver elements. If you're in search of the perfect country look - try some softer, blues, reds, browns, and maybe some yellows.
Fresh Posts
Tag Cloud
About ▪ Contact ▪ Terms of Service ▪ Privacy Policy ▪ Cookie Policy ▪ Copyright ▪ Sitemap
Any content, trademark's, or other material that might be found on the Csisweep website that is not Csisweep's property remains the copyright of its respective owner/s. In no way does Csisweep claim ownership or responsibility for such items, and you should seek legal consent for any use of such materials from its owner.


text:
Web ID: 2669194
Womens 1/6 CT. T.W. Lead Glass-Filled Red Ruby 10K White Gold Pendant Necklace
Protection Plans
$60$60 $95$95
Select all your options above to check availability
Womens 1/6 CT. T.W. Lead Glass-Filled Red Ruby 10K White Gold Pendant Necklace
Product Description
- Authenticity: Lead Glass-Filled Ruby
- Diamond Clarity: I2-I3
- Jewelry Closure: Spring Ring Clasp
- Link Construction: Solid
- Setting: Prong
- Stone: Ruby
- Stone Cut: Round
- Stone Mm: 6 Mm Length
- Diamond Color: I-J
- Metal Color: White
- Chain Length: 18 Inch
- Chain Width: .4 Millimeters
- Pendant Length: 20.8mm
- Pendant Width: 10.1mm
- Rounded Carat Weight: 1/6 Ct. T.w.
- Metal: 10k White Gold
- Chain Construction: Rope
- Care: Wipe Clean
- Stone Type: 1 Lab Created Ruby, 30 Genuine Diamond
- Country of Origin: Imported
Jewelry photos are enlarged to show detail.
Gemstones may be treated and may require special care.
Diamond total weights may vary between .01 and .08 carat.
Helpful Guides
General Information
Protection Plan Terms & Conditions
Limitations and exclusions may apply for watches and jewelry See details
Shipping & Returns
Convenient Shipping Options
Not available at your store? We can ship to you directly or to your favorite JCP location.
Easy Returns
Shop with confidence. Read our full, common sense


text:
In Lunar Logic we constatly learn new things and benefit from the resources that can be found online. Here are the things that we enjoy and that inspire us, spark the curosity and help us dive into specific topics.
Free courses on programming
HTML + CSS course for beginners (za darmo, po polsku)
15 min trial of what programming in Ruby is like.
Free, extensive web dev back end & front end course, from the basics up.
Developer fundamentals (free)
Shows how to develop and deploy real, industrial-strength web applications with Ruby on Rails (free).
Learn to code with free online courses, programming projects, and interview preparation for developer jobs.
A list of IT meetups happening in Kraków.
WebMuses is a Krakow-based community for people who want to explore what working in IT might look like. They share a lot of inspiration and events on facebook.
A community for women who love new technologies.
A summer program to learn programming in Ruby on Rails.
Twitter hashtag for 'code newbies'.
Strach dla początkujących, czyli jak zostałam programistką.
Great ted talk about teaching kids its ok to be imperfect, to take risks etc.
'Fake it till you become it' recommended for anyone at any life level.
If you think money would make you work better, well, you're wrong.
Youtube channel of Charli Marie - designer and front-end developer. She shares advice, tutorials and vlogs about working in IT.
Youtube channel of Mayuoko. She is a mobile engineer and shares advice and vlogs about tech.
How to build a blog engine in 15 minutes with Ruby on Rails.
It's Fine. Don't Fight It. Six Steps to Programmer's Zen.
If there's one book useful at work it's this one.
How adopting 'growth mindest' will help you achieve anything you want in life.


text:
Lakeshore Technical College is offering a pair of project management seminars beginning this April. Participants can choose to register for one or both seminars.
The first seminar being offered is Project Management.  This two day seminar will be held on Tuesdays, April 8th and 15th from 8am – 4:30pm on the Cleveland campus and will explain the role of projects and the importance of project management in business environments. Participants will also have the opportunity to create and develop successful proposals and learn the basic tools to planning, scheduling, organizing, and controlling projects such as product development, construction, information systems, and special events. Â
This seminar will also include major topics of strategy, priorities, organization, project tools, and leadership with the primary emphasis being on the project management process and tools such as work breakdown structures and networks for use in managing resources and schedules.  There will be a brief overview of Microsoft Project.  The cost for this seminar is $425 and the class number is 27460.
The second seminar being offered is Microsoft Project Introduction.  This seminar will be held on Friday, May 9 from 8am – noon on the Cleveland campus and will explore the basics of Microsoft Project 2010 and provide an introduction to the software features.  The concepts to be introduced include opening the application, navigating the project window, creating new project, entering tasks and durations, modifying schedules and calendars, linking tasks, modifying lag and lead time, and identifying predecessor and successor tasks.  This seminar will be particularly helpful for individuals who have never used Microsoft Project before.  The cost for this seminar is $105 and the class number is 27461.
To register by phone with credit card, call 1.888.GO TO LTC (1.888.468.6582) Ext. 1366. For questions or detailed information, visit http://www.gotoltc.edu/seminars or call Ruth at 920.693.1167, or e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com.
About Lakeshore Technical College
Each year more than 10,000 people enroll in courses at Lakeshore Technical College. They rely on LTC for job preparation, to earn a degree, upgrade a specialized skill, train as an apprentice, or seek a high school equivalency. LTC faculty and staff meet students where they are in life and help them get one step closer to achieving their goals.<.p>
LTC, a nationally recognized technical college, was recently named a top 10 Bellwether Award finalist. The college was also ranked the #17 trade school in the nation by Forbes, the #3 two-year college in the nation for adult learners by Washington Monthly, #9 in the nation for two-year college educational outcomes by WalletHub.com, and a top-150 two-year college for the fourth consecutive time by the Aspen Institute.
Close to 1,000 students graduate from LTC each year, and LTC's associate degree graduates earn a median salary of $46,800 per year. In addition to the Cleveland campus, LTC serves students in Manitowoc and Sheboygan, and offers classes at four additional sites throughout the district. Visit LTC at gotoltc.edu.


text:
Your shopping bag is currently empty!
Your shopping bag is currently empty!
Alexandra Jules 'Diamond Skinni Ring' takes on a new look with 1.01 carats carre-cut, collection diamonds, hand-set in our signature 18kt pink gold skinni bar.
Chic and stylish on its own or stacked with other skinnis!
Available in 18-karat yellow, white or pink gold.


text:
Woman, 18, critically wounded in Bridgeport shooting
Subscribe for unlimited digital access.
Try one month for $1!
Subscribe for unlimited digital access. Try one month for $1!
An 18-year-old woman was shot and critically wounded Sunday evening in the Bridgeport neighborhood on the South Side.
At 6:44 p.m, the woman and an 18-year-old man were standing on the front porch of a home in the 1200 block of West 33rd Street when another male fired shots from a gangway, according to Chicago Police.
The woman suffered multiple gunshot wounds to her body and a graze wound to her head, police said. She was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition.
No one was in custody as Area Central detectives investigated the shooting.
CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson lives about a block from where the shooting happened. Police wouldn't comment on whether Johnson or his security detail were at his home at the time of the shooting.


text:
We had such a wonderful trip!!! Thank you!!!
Carolyn Aliski
24 October 2018
We had a FANTASTIC trip! Such an amazing experience!
Sarah Harrington
Egypt & Greece
12 October 2018
We had an unforgettable trip with memories to last a lifetime. Thank you!
Matthew Green
10 October 2018
Such an awesome time! Absolutely beautiful! Thank you!
Brian & Annette Rita
Round The World Honeymoon
10 September 2018
A new experience to use a tour company from the internet. I couldn't have been happier!
Jean Bergfeld
10 July 2018
Couldn't have asked for anything better! Really liked our guides. Trip was perfect.
Anand & Alyssa Ramineni
Egypt & Greece Honeymoon
15 May 2018
Thank you Travelous! I really enjoyed the app. Helped a lot that I could use it offline.
Kassie Zhang
Greece - March '2018
1 April 2018
Without the planning by Travelous our holiday would not have been as enjoyable as it was!
Sara & Ummara Akram
31 August 2017
I would like to express our appreciation to your team for your preparation.
Meiriaty Soetoyo
England & Holland
17 July 2017
Cartagena was amazing and Im now planning my next trip with Travelous!
Stephen Krupnick
10 March 2016


text:
Category: Promoted Post
Branded video creators see 29% jump in Facebook engagement in 2017
Brief: The top 50 U.S. media companies saw video engagement rise 29% last year to 96 million across the 35,000 videos they posted to Facebook, according to a Shareablee study shared with Mobile Marketer. BuzzFeed and Turner were the top two video producers on the social platform by total engagements, a combination of viewers' reactions, shares […]Read More
Master Social Content Strategy with Shareablee's Paid Media Detection
You can't talk about social media strategies without discussing paid content. As engagement and network saturation continues to increase, it has become a challenge for brands & publishers alike to reach the audience that they have spent years building. As a result, the utilization of paid media promotion has grown across industries. This September, U.S. […]Read More


text:
Quotes of the day - Best of the Web!
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." – Dr. Seuss
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." Said Jefferson.
" It takes more than walking across the border to be an American." Duncan Hunter
"Supreme excellence in war is to subdue the enemy without fighting" — Sun Tzu
"Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end." (unknown!)
FRibberals. ;
100 posted on 02/25/2007 5:52:34 PM PST by hellinahandcart
Notice that Giuliani's biggest cheerleaders on FreeRepublic are the Bushbots and open borders crowd. I knew they weren't really conservative.
They wear it like a badge of honor and they stick out like a sore thumb on FR; we all know who they are.
336 posted on 02/25/2007 6:17:33 PM PST by MotleyGirl70
[Duncan Hunter] Lawyer, soldier, carpenter, farmer and kickass congressman.
47 posted on 02/19/2007 3:26:17 PM PST by pissant


text:
Ssangyong Musso Diesel Batteries
Dynamic Blue 334ONLY £ 86.99 including delivery and VAT!
Height (mm) 220 Charge Indicator Yes Width (mm) 172 Capacity (ah) 85 Length (mm) 301 Cold Crank Amps 630 Weight (Kg) 21.1 Warranty 2 Hold down type Yes
The Battery Guys sell a wide variety of Ssangyong Musso Diesel Car batteries for most models. To find your vehicle, just simply select from the choices below or use the battery finder above. All our Ssangyong Musso Diesel Car batteries carry a minimum 2 years extended warranty.
Many of our batteries come in a range of premium or standard. Premium batteries are made to last longer as such we provide a 4 year money back guarantee. This means any troubles that you may have in this time, simply get in touch and we will help you with your problem. Our friendly staff will assist you with any enquiries you may have.
For the newer ranges we also provide a corresponding start stop (agm) battery, this is required if your vehicle is equipped with a start stop engine.
We deliver Ssangyong Musso Diesel Car batteries on a next day service to 95% of the UK and our offer is simple: The right car battery at the right price with no hidden extras. The price that you see is the price that you pay, inclusive of VAT and delivery!
Find your battery today and you will be back on the road in no time at all. Can't see your Ssangyong Musso Diesel Car battery? Simply email us and our expert team will help you decide on the right battery to fit your vehicle.


text:
At the Forefront of Dental Education
Dr. Nejad and Dr. Stanley are at the forefront of dental education. They both teach at USC School of Dentistry with their world renowned mentor Dr. Pascal Magne.
Our Doctors:
- Teach Dentistry at USC
- Provided Continued Education Lectures (www.BiomimeticDentistryCE.com)
- Conduct Dental Research
- Are Key Opinion Leaders for World class Dental Companies
- Have been featured in multiple respected publications as a result of their expertise


text:
I am very interested in the entry-level position. I recently completed Master of Business Economics and am actively seeking employment with firms in the Middle East region. My courses in investments, finance and business have given me a solid base upon which I plan to build my career. During my college internships, I dealt with a variety of budgets and conducted market research while handling numerous administrative duties. The experience allowed me to learn important skills and to develop the confidence needed to succeed in a competitive environment.
I have enclosed my resume for your review.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
It would be a pleasure to interview with you and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Best Covering Letter
Labels: best covering letter, cover letter, covering letter, jobs, recuritment, resume
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Unlike Ranald MacDonald, this reinvented Tory Highland clansman, with his Jacobite ancestors and plaid-wrapped portrait, was able to afford a seat in the last pre-Reform parliament and died wealthy. Marrying a nabob's daughter and keeping a townhouse in Aberdeen rather than Edinburgh or London must have contributed to his prosperity, but location was probably more important. Whereas MacDonald's lands were truly marginal, Ogilvy's Angus estate, straddling the Highland Line, included rich pasture and arable ground; while his rugged glens were conveniently accessible for hunting parties.
Donald Ogilvy (3)
Back to index


text:
Dreams In Polymer Clay And Wire
Help Abused And Neglected Animals
The four cats and one dog that live with me are all rescues. The cats were strays and my dog was about to become homeless when her aging owners could no longer care for themselves. I've adopted many pets in my lifetime and would rather adopt from a shelter than buy a pet. Abused and neglected animals break my heart. The ASPCA strives to provide care and protection for these animals and needs our help. I've added an ASPCA Donation Box on the Freebies page. I've set a high goal - I want to raise $1,000. This could realistically be raised if every visitor to this site gave only $1.00 each.
Thanks so much.
Before Adoption Today


text:
Equilox #1 Slower Setting Formula Adhesive is an extremely strong resin that can be used for anything from repairing small quarter cracks to reconstructing an entire hoof wall, yet flexible enough for easy filing, shaping, and even nailing.
Set time: Sets in 6 - 8 minutes, final cure in 10 - 13 minutes at 70° Fahrenheit
Shelf life: At least 6 months from fill date (as stated on label) — or longer if refrigerated
Note: Equilox I Gold 14 oz. Side-by-Side Cartridge requires Gold Side-by-Side Dispensing Gun. Recommend Large Applicator Mixing Tips.
Item #: G90350-301, G90350-302, G90350-150, G90400-150, G90400-350, G90400-301, G90400-302, G90400-400
Prices are subject to change without notice.
We accept Checks, MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover/Novus
Copyright © 2003-2018 Pieh Tool Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved


text:
Tropical Island Style Key West Resorts
How could anyone not be just thrilled with a hotel stay here near the Southernmost Point Buoy Key West. go
Vacation to the Hyatt
Having such quick access to all of the local attractions makes it much more relaxing. go
Best Florida Keys Resort
We love the fun here! go
Coco Plum Beach Rental
Waterfront suites are by far the best way to go when vacationing on an island. go
A winner for the Swimming Pool
We spent so many fun hours at the swimming pool. go
What a Pleasure to Stay
There's no shortage of great accommodations in Key West and you will love this one. go
Go for a Really Entertaining Weekend
Wet shoes are great to pack so you can still get around during any drizzle or rain storms. go
Yippee-Yippee the Key West Water Activities
This let us use our vacation budget toward the Key West Watersports Adventures. go
Morning Scuba
I would recommend going to Google and search for the wind forecast for the particular day that you are gonna be in the area, and juggle your schedule accordingly. go
Sweet Teas Cafe
Everyone was so nice I just had to spread the news. go
Boat Dockage at Fiesta Key Marina
After the boating day, we buzz down to Marathon for the sunset parties and nightlife. go
Nautical Gift Shopping
If it looks cute just pull over or make a note of where the mile marker is and you can hit it on the way out of the Florida Keys. go
Marine Life Educational Center
It is amazing and worth your time, if you can just fit in from going out on the reef trips and the snorkeling! go
Sandwiches to Go
They do a super nuclear hot wing sauce. go
Top Rating for the Pizza
Famous for its traditionally late 4am closing time, seven days a week! go
Camping in the Florida Keys should be awesome. Camping is the way we were planning on enjoying a vacation down to the Florida Keys. We read some of the boating information on the keys, and wanted to know if you have any experience or suggestion on nice camping spots down in Monroe County. We are going to target pennekamp campground.
I'm really glad I invested in got a property down here in the Florida Keys. Having a Rental Unit is nice, but you have to keep the customer in mind. That sounds great. I am glad you are moving forward and I can't wait to see the sink. Yeah! Keeping things pretty and every form and fashion as they most important part. Where your guest parks the car, needs to be a nice beautiful parking lot. No trash, as people expect to have a wonderful time and not deal with any of the negativity. It just takes a little bit of work to keep the property updated. This means money, but if you are earning a decent amount on your daily occupancy rate, the guest should win in the long run because of the wonderful hotel maintenance. Thanks again for everything and we are so glad we are coming to the Florida Keys.


text:
I haven't a lot to say.
I know, I know, that's usually the prelude to my longest entries...oh!
If any of the journallers I read--- who also read me--- live in the
San Diego area, they might email me. There's a chance I might be out there in late December....and not alone, either.
I wonder how Eric will take a ride in a plane? He's usually good on bus rides...I guess, this is the only way to find out for sure...
I know why all the polls are showing that people are generally patient and reasonable under the uncertainty of the election. Why we're willing to wait.
The cessation of the political ads.
We are so grateful for the loss of those insulting, grating ads, that occupied every waking moment in front of the tube or the radio, that we're grateful for anything else---even if it's the news talking about the election. The venom seems reserved for the press conference and the courts, and not spilling onto us at all.
Today, in my Supervisor class, one of the best of the CEOs gave a talk. He walks everywhere, and I see him at least once a day---checking on everybody, never forgetting a name, keeping abreast on everything....
Well, today, I found out why.
He admitted he gets up at three-thirty every morning.
Every morning.
No wonder he walks everywhere in the three stories of the building. If he ever slowed down, he'd fall asleep...
The moral seems to be, the early bird gets the worm, work is the best way to get ahead, etc. I keep on thinking to myself, work smarter, not harder......obviously I'm not born supervisor material.
He also started out his talk by saying,
"Leadership is like that Supreme Court definition of pornography---'I'm not sure what it is, but I know it when I see it...'"
So what did I get out of his talk?
That "leadership is like pornography" is all that immediately comes to mind...
Like I said: not born supervisor material.
Xoom/ncbi where I store the individual entries seems to be entirely down. So though I'm writing this now, who knows when I'll be able to upload it?
So I might as well tell the story of the movie I successfully avoided seeing.
Last Saturday, Barb and I had to go visit some friends, and Barb said, as we were going out,
"Brian, would you mind watching Eric while your Dad and I saw a movie, too?"
"No problem."
I said to her,
"Which movie?"
Now, I knew the answer, but sometimes you hope against hope that you're wrong. So I said,
"BILLY ELLIOT...what's that about, again?"
"That's the British movie about a miner's son who's taking boxing but takes up ballet instead. Critics are raving about how good the performances are."
A ballet movie. She seriously wants us to see a ballet movie. Together.
Now, I will be the first to admit that ballet dancers can be the world's greatest atheletes. That some male ballet dancers are studs that would put Harlan Ellison and Warren Beatty at their randiest to shame. There is nothing unmanly about being a ballet dancer...
But geez! whines the ten-year-old within me,Do I gotta watch it?
I can watch opera. I can watch classical Shakespearean theatre. I can watch musicals. I can even watch disco.
Yet deep within me, something ---revolts--- about watching ballet. Everybody has a weakness. Ballet is mine.
How to tell Barb? This is the first time we'll have seen a movie together in weeks. She's already seen CHARLIE'S ANGELS, and I didn't really want to see even that---although I'd rather see Drew Barrymoore use karate moves on a bad guy than watch ballet.
Ah...that's what's wrong with ballet, at least in my twisted point of view. They jump and they spin but they never do anything with their bodies that seems useful. If in THE NUTCRACKER SUITE all the sugar plum faries would suddenly unleash a kung fu kick at the Rat King or Mouse King or whatever he is, it would stop the tedium.
What I really want is--- ballet fu. Where in the middle of it all, Barishnikov gives a Bruce Lee screech, and then uses one of those long leaps and kicks to flatten the bad guy.
After we got through with our friends, we got back in the car---it was about three in the afternoon--- and I checked the times.
"Bummer. There was a one o'clock showing, and there's a four-thirty showing---but nothing on anytime soon."
"Oh, well, we can go another time."
"Yes. What a shame."
The next day, she wanted to go see it, but only had minutes to make the first one'o'clock performance, and we had just gotten back from church and I was half-undressed.
"You mind if I go on to BILLY ELLIOT without you? I won't make it otherwise..."
"I'll manage," I said, trying to keep from grinning. "Have fun."
The happiest of marriages sometimes have these little hypocrisies in them....
....But at least I got out of watching a ballet movie. The ten-year-old within breathed a sigh of relief.
 : : :
Make a prediction about the far future.
Or you can answer...
Have you ever felt your vote was wasted?
What are YOU an ingrate about?
Place your bets: how long before we know who is REALLY going to be President?
Okay, what HASN'T happened this political season?
 : : :
Previous Entry | Next Entry
one year ago today : A HORROR OF HIGH SCHOOL
two years ago today : (Better viewed in Netscape or IE 5) ILL LUCK
Three years ago today: (Better viewed in Netscape or IE 5) OUR DOCTOR, THE KEEBLER ELF
Those interested with comments, suggestions, things I have forgotten, things I
messed up, contact me at...
Return to NOVA NOTES
Return to AL'S COSMIC COMIC HOME PAGE
Text and art Copyright © Al Schroeder.


text:
Tanja Woyke: 2015 Women @ Berkeley Lab Honoree
Erika Lindquist: Reflections of a Berkeley Lab Veteran
Studying Drought Tolerance in Sorghum
Diversity & Inclusion Socials: Fostering Workplace Culture Change over Coffee and Conversation
Sullivan on VirSorter in WIRED
Sequencing all the DNA in a sample is pretty straightforward—except then you have to sort out the DNA. "It's almost like you took hundreds of different puzzles and threw all the pieces together," says Tanja Woyke, a microbiologist at the DOE Joint Genome Institute and project contributor. "Now you have to put those puzzles together and figure… [Read More]
DOE JGI Interns Share Their Summer Experiences
2015 Call for ETOP Letters of Intent
1. INTRODUCTION The University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ("University" or "LBNL") is soliciting Letters of Intent for the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) Emerging Technologies Opportunity Program (ETOP) 2015 award. This is a solicitation for Letters of Intent to participate in the ETOP. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation. The University… [Read More]
Banfield collaboration in Quanta magazine
"We used to think there were just plants and animals," said Edward Rubin, director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute. "Then we got microscopes, and got microbes. Then we got small levels of DNA sequencing." Quanta magazine focused on a recent project led by Jill Banfield in Colorado, one that significantly increased the known… [Read More]
Collaborator Janet Jansson in Quanta magazine
"[S]oon after the turn of the century, new high-octane DNA sequencing methods made it possible to sequence thousands or even millions of genes almost instantly. These new, speedier methods meant researchers could easily sequence the collective genomes of the sample, known as a metagenome, for the first time. Suddenly, it was possible to scan the… [Read More]


text:
Anyone who's watched an episode of "Iyanla: Fix My Life" knows that Iyanla Vanzant tackles some tough topics. From sisters battling dangerous weight problems to a couple in a sexless marriage to a rap star struggling with addiction, Iyanla digs deep into the issues affecting families, individuals and celebrities in need of help.
In this parody video from "Wanda Sykes Presents Herlarious," a very devoted "Iyanla" takes on another broken guest… a flat tire in Chicago. In Iyanla's signature style, "Iyanla: Fix My Flat" features a healing retreat, a family meeting, a series of probing questions and more than a few puns.
Will the tire be able to heal its "inner tube?" Will Iyanla be able to help the tire reach an all-important breakthrough? Watch what happens when Iyanla steps in to fix this flat.
The real "Iyanla: Fix My Life" returns with new episodes beginning Saturday, July 27, at 9 p.m. ET.


text:
EDITOR'S NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Michigan Wrestling Organization. Some dialog may not be suitable for readers of all ages.
Throughout the history of the Michigan Wrestling Organization, there has been many a conflict between family members that at one time or another had to be settled in the ring. Some of the family squabbles were more of a personally feud between the two rather than the spirit of competition in hopes of achieving championship success. The Clouses, the Steeles, the Blackwells, Rex Havoc & Laura Phoenix. Every feud involving the members of these families all have one thing in common: the foundation of each conflict was founded on personal animosity. But in the case of the latest family fallout within the MWO, all the other family feuds look like a minor disagreement over what toppings should be ordered on the pizza they'll be sharing at dinnertime compared to what may be coming in late October.
The Dean Boys, Tyler and Tyson, have spent the last few years delighting MWO fans with their brand of high-flying offense and an unmistakable drive that ultimately led them to the MWO Tag Team Championship. Known as today's rendition of The Underdogs team (yeah, I went way back to 1998 for that reference), the Deans became two of the most popular wrestlers in the Michigan Wrestling Organization. When they finally captured the titles, it was a crowning achievement that the fan base celebrated with Tyler and Tyson. That's not to say that their attention on their fans hadn't cost them a win or two, but the Dean Boys were known for giving back the love to the people who cheered for them. The "Cinderella story" of the Deans' rise to the tag titles slammed into an immovable wall in the form of the Disciples of Darkness. And as the Dean Boys prepared to defend their titles at Slam-a-Thon, they were in for the fight of their lives against Jack Teryn & Victor Cross. It wasn't the fact that Teryn & Cross dominated the match and won the championships from the Deans that made it headlines, it what would happen following the June supercard.
After the Disciples dominated the defending champs, the faction would continue to punish the Deans until they decided to physically carry Tyson out of the MWO Studio. It would be months before Tyson would be seen again. Meanwhile, the unknown was tormenting Tyler to the point that it began to affect his performances in the ring. In July, he was clearly distracted during his rare shot at the MWO Championship title during the live event at Soberfest. While Tyler had been pleading for the return of his brother, or at the very least some sort of update on his wellbeing, the Disciples of Darkness had apparently been pushing their vision and influence on Tyson. When the missing Dean finally reemerged, something was clearly different. Not just his physical appearance, but something inside Tyson has changed. For Tyler, it's not the change he was hoping for.
The Disciples of Darkness are in control of Tyson Dean in some way. Skullz and Tragedy Ann are at the controls of Tyson as if he was a character in a video game, and the Ruler and Duchess of Parts Unknown as pushing the buttons. Tyson has ambushed Tyler on a few occasions, but for whatever reason Tyler has refused to fight back. Until now, anyway. The brothers will be on opposite teams at Trick-or-Slam in the elimination tag team match, but before then they will fight on October 21. The one match that Tyler Dean did not want to be involved in is the one he must win the most. For Tyler, it's believed he can save his brother from the evil clutches of the dark faction. But in reality, is he capable of such a feat?
Here's the thing, Tyler Dean's care for Tyson is admirable. It really is, but if he thinks he can wage a one-man war against what's probably the dominant group in the MWO and be successful, he's sorely mistaken. Going into Trick-or-Slam he may have the support of THEE Cody Leedy, Blackwell, and the Creature Feature John Campbell as his teammates in the 8-man tag match, but what happens after October 27? Are Blackwell, Leedy, and Campbell going to forego their own aspirations to help Tyler try to liberate Tyson from the Disciples? Blackwell and Leedy may be the closest thing to regular allies for Tyler, but that's only because they're current the top-ranked contenders to the MWO Tag Team titles, held by Teryn and Pure Fury Jeff Clouse.
And besides, who's to say that Tyson Dean wants to be "saved" from the Disciples? The impact that the faction has had on former tag champ has been pretty remarkable. For example, Tyson Dean went one-on-one with Triple Crown champion John Campbell during a recent event at the MWO Studio. Was that kind of opportunity going to be presented to Tyson without the influence of the Disciples of Darkness? Hard to say but more than likely, the Dean Boys probably would've remained in the tag team division. The way things are now, maybe the Disciples brainwashing Tyson was the best thing for both of the Dean brothers.
But it's unlikely that's how this story will unfold. Tyler Dean is preparing to risk it all for the sake of his brother. What he may lack in basic intelligence with the mindset of taking on an army by himself, Tyler makes up for with his heart and determination. That cannot be overlooked or denied. But in the grand scheme of things, is this a war that the Deans really want? Time will tell.