Sirius Decisions, last week, ripped up the B2B playbook as it relates to marketing and sales. At their annual conference in Nashville, the analyst firm boldly stated what many of us have recently suspected: that buyers are not a group to be stereotyped and also that "the buyers are 57% of the way through the decision journey before engaging Sales" thought process is over-simplified. Reps are connecting in at all points in the buyer's journey (puzzle?) and need to be ready to position themselves accordingly. Yes, Marketing must engage early and often. It needs to collect information, analyze it, and spit it back out in the form of personalized content. Furthermore, it needs to arm sales with the ammunition to connect and convert at all stages of the journey. Similarly, Sales needs to be inquisitive and curious, helpful, knowledgeable and relevant. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Buyers are individuals or part of a team and that team will have potentially divergent needs, challenges and pain points. Sales needs to dive in, identify, build consensus and conquer.
And it all comes down to creating a personalized experience with content playing an even greater role. With this in mind, a new approach to the B2B equation is taking form. Here are a few thoughts:
1. Safe is Too Risky: David Meerman Scott in his popular blog states that there is a real risk in playing it safe in content marketing. Mixing in some provocative content pieces may be required to break through the noise. Don’t be afraid to try something that’s not considered a best practice. If you see your audience is not responding (or response rate has gone down), try something different--even unorthodox, says Adobe. "If you’ve been sending thought-leadership and issue-oriented content because you think your audience is early in the buyer journey, then send them something about your brand and offering (case study, product video, etc.) If your audience isn’t responding to product or offer material, try sending a survey or thought-leadership piece to elicit response."
2. Customer As The StoryTeller: 92% of marketers hold creating high-quality content to be valuable or very valuable, but only 54% can actually execute effectively on that perceived value. If you want your audience to get the most value out of your content, you need to have a good story to support it. Storytelling is important. Even better, visual storytelling is king. Guy Kawasaki recently said "if a picture is worth a thousand words, a demo is worth a million slides." To go one step further, let's add that the story needs to be told in the customer's eyes and better yet, let the customer create the story with you. Alinean's Value Story does just that. It enables prospects to interactively create their own story, self assess against their challenges and then learn how they can improve their current situation. The result: an average of 25% revenue increases using this approach.
3. Are You Ready For The Binge Watcher? A prospect might want one piece of content from you per month or they may want to 'binge watch' all of your content. In addition, they may be open to your suggestions as to other relevant pieces of content based on their current consumption levels. It's the Netflix approach to content. Following this approach, you should deliver a ton of it, more and more of it original but also mixing in curated, and be ready to serve it all up if asked. Yes, too much content still goes unused, but that one piece of forgotten content may be just what closes a new customer 6 months from now. Grow your library and be at the ready.
4. Humanity Is The Killer App: Despite all the tools, data and channels at our disposal it's people we are marketing to and not machines. Digital marketing thought leader Brian Solis tells us that with all of the technology around us, it is easy to forget that we are marketing to other people and not robots. It means that Marketers need to viewed as human and connect emotionally with buyers. And while this is a topic for another post, a few important kernels: What is your public image? How is your organization perceived? Are you talking more about yourself or about your customer? Are you listening enough? Solis says that "in the age of machines, humanity is the killer app"
Bryan Kramer http://www.bryankramer.com/book/ says to abandon the B2B and B2C monikers altogether. H2H is the way to go. Marketers need a new approach. "...instead of creating a simple framework for dialogue between humans, Marketers are using words like “synergy” and “speeds and feeds” to tell the stories of products and services to their buyers and partners. The fact is that businesses do not have emotion. Products do not have emotion. Humans do. Humans want to feel something"
The buyer-seller equation is rapidly evolving. And while there is a ton of complexity to it, there is a lot to be said for simplification, for connecting emotionally and delivering what the customer wants when she wants it. It's collaboration with your customer at the center of the universe, the marketer as the facilitator, and Sales providing value throughout. Is H2H the key to success in the future?
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