B2B Sales Has Changed:
Striving to Build Relationships & Trust
Your company is not going to succeed (versus the competition) if you’re waiting for prospects, or even the folks who attended your webinar, to call and express an interest.
Account Based Marketing
This is part one of a three part blog post. Here are the links to the other entries:
Account Based Marketing Series
Part I: The Best B2B Marketing Approach in the World
Part III: How To Get Started & Scale
Here is a quick view explaining why your B2B team needs to embrace an Account Based Marketing (ABM) approach. And how to start…in several parts. Here is Part I
Today’s modern marketing approach is to build community. Marketing and sales collaboratively focus resources on a defined set of targeted customers. Personalized campaigns are tailored to each audience of one. Forget “Brand Awareness”, today Sales and Marketing must work together to identify ideal prospects and provide content propelling buyers toward a deal close.
Customers want to feel their well-being is a priority. The key to succeeding is to build relationships with buyers and gain their trust.
Nothing kills that feeling faster than when a prospect is talking to a sales or support representative who has no idea who they are, and starts the conversation with “who are you”?
A Different Buying Process
It used to be that the buying power was a team of 1 (or max. 2), but today the number of people involved in making a decision is growing. For example, research from Gartner found that in a typical firm with 100-500 employees, an average of 7-8 people that are involved in the buying decisions.
Take a look at the buying process B2B buyers go through today:
- A person identifies a problem,
- They research it online
- They also conduct further research to discover all potential solutions
- They reach out to friends for recommendations, and check what others say about a particular solution on social media, forums, and other online sources
- They Google this particular solution and read online reviews
- During the sales process, they might also click an ad offering a solution, finally…
- Based on all this collected information they make a buying decision, and only then
- They might reach out to the company to complete the sale
Challenges for The Modern B2B Sales Teams To Overcome
The increase of available information allows prospects to go through the sales process by themselves, without any need for interaction with the vendor. This results in a diminished influence of salespeople over the buyer’s choice.
Sales and marketing teams become more misaligned, often confused as to their roles in the new sales process. Buyers become skeptical about marketing and sales messages, and the trustworthiness of sales in general. Social media, and peers, instead of salespeople, hold a strong influence over buying decisions.
The Case for Case Studies
Decision makers are much more responsive towards sales reps when they include case studies, industry articles and white papers in their sales outreach.
And if you still doubt how effective this is, consider the following:
- 95% of buyers select a vendor who provided them with ample content to help navigate through each stage of the buying process
- 68% of customers feel more positive about a brand after consuming content from it
- 82% of buyers viewed at least 5 pieces of content from the winning vendor
- And companies that develop sales enablement strategies typically win 13.7% higher contract value
The most successful B2B sales people are a hybrid of sales and marketing. They align with marketing to become experts on their industry, products, the buyer personas, and the customer journey. The need for sales people to be navigators, explainers or worse case order takers, is dramatically diminished. Only sales professionals who work as Consultants are in demand, partnering with prospects; helping them achieve their goals.
Make Sales Folks the Spokesmen (And Women) For Your Brand
Sales people need to become credible thought leaders. They’ll gain the trust of prospects and customers by being positioned as experts in the field. In fact sales people who send prospects relevant content will close more deals.
These are salespeople who create and share content that’s helpful, informative and relevant to the buyer’s pain points, for instance those who publish articles on company’s blog and repost on their LinkedIn profile.
Modern B2B buyers are skeptical about sales and marketing messages. They want to interact with salespeople who listen to their needs and provide them with relevant information. Sharing insights and information relevant to pain points encourages buyers to pay attention to these sales people. Now they’re considered experts, worth the time to engage.
All this is the foundation for Account Based Marketing or ABM. Companies can start small, piloting a program to prove its worth, then scale. Account Based Marketing is precise, targeted, personalized, measurable…and provides the highest ROI among B2B strategies.
You’re Invited!
Join me at our upcoming workshop…
“The Best B2B Marketing Approach in the World.”
Date And Time
Tue, March 24, 2020
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM CDT
Location
2112
4245 North Knox Avenue
Chicago, IL 60641
Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-best-b2b-marketing-approach-in-the-world-tickets-94848633817
Sales & Marketing Leader
Ron Shulkin has a storied history leading the successful marketing and sales efforts of emerging digital marketing technologies. Ron architected the roll out of DoubleClick’s CRM platform to multiple vertical markets. He partnered with IBM & Cisco to introduce the first enterprise, self-service on-line video system (MediaPlatform). Ron quarterbacked the global launch of CogniStreamer’s Innovation Portal (for new product development), EngageSciences’ Content Management System, Spredfasts’ Social Media Marketing platform and 3radical’s interactive, real-time Gamification system.
Today Ron collaborates with companies to identify their ideal markets and translate product features into solutions to business problem. Ron provides sales pipeline coaching, designs Go-To-Market Strategies, and architects major tactical content pillar assets. He takes great pride delivering actionable guidance with clear returns on investment while helping companies bring their offerings to market.