Nicholas Biron
Chief Executive and Research Officer
nbiron@3sixtyinsights.com

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With over 25 years of experience in high tech and enterprise software, Nick has built a career focused on corporate sales, organizational growth, and market strategy across the technology research and enterprise software sectors. For nearly two decades, he has specialized in launching and leading high-performing teams within the enterprise research space. At Aberdeen Group, he played a key role in establishing new research areas such as Wireless & Mobility, Network & Application Performance Management, and Unified Communications. As Co-Founder of Blue Hill Research, Nick led the firm’s launch and growth, overseeing Sales, Marketing, and Operations. He later served as the business lead for the US Northeast and UK regions at Mercator Advisory Group, where he directed account strategy and research initiatives. Leveraging his broad industry insight, Nick founded 3Sixty Insights to improve the software buying experience and help organizations make more informed, efficient decisions. At 3Sixty, he steers research direction, focusing on sales and marketing enablement, business efficiency, and human capital management.

The Marketing Magic of Beats by Dre

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Beats by Dre is arguably one of the most successful marketing stories in recent history. Sure, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are very successful businessmen and music producers, but what really made the sale to Apple was their success in how they marketed the headphone company to the consumer market. At the end of the day, Beats by Dre are nothing more than an estimated $16.89 pair of weighted headphones that Apple paid an estimated $3 Billion to acquire. How Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine made it to this point was nothing more than marketing genius. Founded in 2006, Beats became a household brand in a matter of months as a result of a marketing plan pushed by the duo. As Beats were just hitting […]

The Fall of Big Box Retail in Calculator-Driven Economy

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A few months back, United had experienced some troubled times. And after having time to reflect, it brings a few certain thoughts to mind around how the world has changed for both consumers and big box retailers. As of late, big box retailers have become increasingly calculator-driven, so much so that they have almost forgotten about the customer service aspect of business. As a result, consumers are voting with their wallets, and big box retail corporations are crumbling all around us: Sears, RadioShack, and J.C. Penney are just a few that have announced closing stores, bankruptcy, or both. In the case of United, one article points out their loss of more than a billion dollars in evaluation happening practically overnight. These corporations need to realize […]

How to Properly Measure Marketing in Today’s Market

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You wouldn’t believe how many businesses do not properly measure their marketing progress in today’s market. Often I still read articles insisting that marketing’s key measurement of progress should be the quantity of leads generated or community growth. This in my opinion is short-sighted. The true success of marketing is measured on multiple levels that align them closer to the sales teams they support and the ultimate goals of the business itself. Businesses struggle with how to properly measure marketing activity because so many marketing activities have indirect results. Consider: how does one properly quantify the end results of a social media campaign or magazine, newspaper, or TV ads? Before a marketing department can set proper goals, it needs a starting point. In order to […]

When in Doubt Take it to A Vote

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When in doubt take it to a vote! It’s a simple but effective management tool that I’ve used over the years to help make some fairly strategic (and quite small) decisions time and time again. I’ve found over the years, that business leaders do not always have all the “right” answers but they always do tend to have answers. Let’s remember, good business leaders typically do not make it to where they are today without knowing a thing or two. Most of the time, they are able to use their extensive knowledge for good strategic decision making. However, I’ve found that not all decisions are cut and dry…. Some decisions put business leaders on the fence, struggling to make a decision one way or another. Sometimes, […]

Changing of the Sales and Marketing Funnel in the New Age of Business Buyers

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A few weeks ago I read a Blog article [How the Marketing Funnel Works From Top to Bottom, by Rebecca Lee White with TrackMavern] describing the changing dynamic of the technology sales and marketing funnel, shifting responsibility about 80% of the funnel to marketing. The essential argument was that overall responsibility for the funnel now rests on marketing’s lap. I tend to agree and don’t know many marketing executives that would say otherwise. The point that often gets overlooked in these sorts of discussions is that sales responsibilities have undergone corresponding changes with the times as well. Ten years ago, the buying process was fundamentally different. The CIO received a budget and was left to make use his or her best judgment to direct technology purchases for […]

The Morale Killing Compensation Plan

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As fiscal budget planning comes to a close for most businesses, I wanted to share a little food for thought as compensation planning comes into full swing. Over the years, I’ve seen more than a fair share of commission and bonus structures (Some good, some bad). Historically I’ve found best plans to be ones that do not require an abacus or legal degree to comprehend. However, there is one type of compensation plan that I always urge caution around developing…. The “all or nothing” compensation plan: hit 100% of your metrics – get your bonus, miss by 5% – get nothing. Nothing can kill the morale or demotivate a team more than the feeling of working for nothing. There are few core reasons “all or nothing” […]

16 Tips to Being A Great Leader

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The other day I was having conversation regarding how a great leader can make work life that much better, greatly affecting the business as a result. Regardless of the company, leaders are the ones that can directly impact the individual’s everyday lives. Great leaders can make people look forward to coming into the office and want to work that much harder. On the flipside, a bad leader can make work a miserable experience. Where people count the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the end of the week… Great leaders can have significant impact on the business; happy employees = higher productivity. In the same breath; bad leaders can have detrimental impact on the business. Resulting in lower team performance and increased employee turnover, significantly […]

What Makes Your Business Different?

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The other day skimming though LinkedIn and came across a post getting a great deal of attention. It was someone complaining about a response they received from a CEO after sending three prospecting emails…. The response from this CEO was fairly blunt, telling this person to stop wasting their time and the rep was offended by this response. While reading, I thought to myself most reps tend to forget there is big world out there and everyone is fighting for executive attention. Just think, how many times has sales management said that in order to win “you need to be at the executive level”? As an example of the current state of the market; this article points out over 700 Sale Enablement Technology providers out there […]