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Personal Customer

Business Buyers are People Too

Dec 2016/in , , , /by

Finalizing your 2017 B2B Marketing strategy? Make sure you check in on what your B2C colleagues are doing too. In the annual “State of the Connected Customer” report for 2016 by Salesforce Research, surveyed marketers identified getting smart about personalization as a top requirement for meeting their marketing expectations in 2017.

Personalizing consumer messages has become the status quo for most B2C marketers. I have nearly a dozen emails sitting in my inbox, from this weekend alone, recommending cosmetics for my personal skin type and mobile apps for my personal habits. However, personalized messages aren’t just for B2C. Even for B2B, buyers increasingly voice that they want to be treated like humans, not numbers.

Forbes predicts that in 2017, B2B marketing focuses will include:

  • Data management and analytics
  • Personalized message creation and delivery

The two trends aren’t so separated. The answer to humanizing B2B messages with personalization can actually be found in those new data and analytic technologies. In the coming year, personalized experiences for business buyers will emanate from multiple channels including deployment of digital content, social interaction, and user communities.

The 2016 “State of Marketing” report by Salesforce Research shows over half of marketing leaders worldwide are set to increase spending on marketing tools and technology over the next couple years. The investments are driven directly by customer demand. For example,

70% statistic

Image: “State of the Connected Customer” Salesforce Research

For a tangible representation of this statistic, consider the possibilities of personalized, B2B marketing.

Targeted Messages and Target Markets
Your internal data reveals businesses are more likely to invest in your consulting services within a quarter of a new COO coming in. Using external data analysis of executive movements, you can deliver personalized messages to your target customers, automatically and effectively.

Engagement and Relationships
Your hospitality special events team is looking for opportunity indications around a prospect such as new industry conferences or changes in marketing spending. Events are automatically discovered, enabling your personalized messages to potential buyers that encourage your hospitality services over those of your competition.

With in-depth data and analytics becoming increasingly available, effective and personalized B2B marketing has become possible. It’s time to see your business buyers as more than just businesses.

Mega Trends

Staying Ahead of Sales Mega-Trends: Consumer Expectations

Jul 2014/in /by

This is part 3 of a 4-part series addressing how Personal Business Analytics help our customers respond to the emerging mega-trends set forth by McKinsey on the Salesforce blog.

B2C-inspired customer expectations

With the proliferation of mobile in consumers’ everyday lives, as well as increased expectation of BYOD workplaces, both B2B employees and customers are coming to expect the same level of personalization that they get as consumers. In order to meet these B2C-inspired consumer expectations, “sales leaders need to develop frictionless and personalized models to connect with the customer across any channel.”

The need to understand how to really connect with your customers has led to the rise of CRM and enterprise collaboration platforms, but employees tend to resist change in their existing workflows—which can result not only in stagnating customer relationships but also in slowing sales cycles. The answer is to place intelligent guidance right where sales already lives, while providing value-based information stickiness in the tools you need them to use. This can be done with very specific, granular insights based on their role, product lines they sell, regions they cover, industry focus and market and competitor relationships.

Connecting with your customer anywhere, anytime is a priority—and as our FirstRain usage stats show across some of the biggest global sales organizations, mobile is the fastest growing platform to connect sellers with buyers’ needs. But for many organizations, gathering the customer intelligence needed to turn the sales team into customer experts is time-consuming. They are simply unable to create very personal experiences with basic sales intelligence tools they may have previously invested in, many of which don’t even have native mobile apps. Consumers today have access to almost everything they need on their mobile devices, from banking to finding their next date, so consumer expectations now mean having the same experience when it comes to customer intelligence. They want their phone to help them build better relationships with their customers so they can win more deals; so, when selecting a tool to match the needs of these sellers, consider:

  • Are your current sales intelligence tools available as highly personal solutions in both native mobile apps, as well as integrated into enterprise workflows like CRM, enterprise portal and collaboration platforms?
  • Can your sales teams quickly create a very personal and intelligent view into their full customer revenue cycle, from initial sale to renewal?
  • Are you meeting consumer expectations by giving them specific, granular insights based on their role, product line, region, industry, market and competitor relationships?

Drop us a note if you’d like to learn more about enabling your sales teams with frictionless and personalized views that help them connect with your customers.

Video_Camera

How to use video for lead generation

Jan 2014/in , /by

Video is a fun and engaging way to find sales opportunities, and it’s not just for B2C anymore. B2B companies can harness the power of movie as well. According to Janine Popick for Inc., 92 percent of B2B customers watch videos online, and 43 percent of B2B customers watch videos when researching products and services.

You don’t have to outsource a video production company to make a great video, although that’s certainly an option. You just need to create content that people want to watch. Put someone in front of a camera, and demonstrate what a font of knowledge they are. Sales reps are generally pretty dynamic individuals, so get one of them to be your spokesperson. Having a genuine employee in front of the camera will also make you appear more authentic.

Here are some tips for engaging your customers and generating leads with video:

Create awesome content

If you can’t come up with a reason to use video marketing, you probably shouldn’t do it. If you don’t have a wealth of information you’re dying to share, video is useless. However, if you have tons of ideas and need an engaging outlet to reach your audience, video is perfect.

If you need ideas, using customer intelligence analytics can help you determine what kind of information your customers really need. The best content will anticipate the problems customers have and provide them with solutions.

Make the video engaging

According to Jeff Molander in Target Marketing Magazine, many marketers fail using video because they overthink what they are saying and forget to consider how they will say it. It may be easier said than done, but in order to be successful on this channel, you need content that really says something interesting while keeping the viewer’s attention.

Try telling a story. The human brain is programmed to respond to narratives, and they tend to be more memorable than straight facts. In the Salesforce Blog, Jeff Ogden notes how popular television show The Walking Dead consistently gains more viewers than the NFL. This compelling narrative of a small group of survivors outrunning bloodthirsty zombies tells a story that is both gripping and visually engaging. Just remember, you don’t need gore to create videos that users want to watch.

Generate leads

Finish off videos with a clear call to action to find potential buyers. Once you’ve hooked users on your fantastic video channel, you can even require a user registration so that visitors have to give you an email address in order to continue. YouTube allows you to overlay ads if you are a Google Adwords advertiser, according to Popick.

new years

Make content your New Year’s marketing resolution

Dec 2013/in /by

Content marketing is the probably the biggest marketing trend of 2013. It seems likely that content will remain the biggest marketing industry buzzword going into 2014. Do you have a resolution for the New Year? Maybe it’s time for your marketing department to come up with a collective resolution: successfully implementing a content marketing strategy in 2014.

You may be thinking content marketing doesn’t work for B2B, and you’re not exactly wrong. A lot of companies haven’t figured out how to get content marketing to work efficiently for them. The truth is, B2B content marketing brings a unique set of challenges. However, provided you know what you’re in for, the return on investment can be just as high as it is for B2C.

The challenges of B2B content marketing:

  • Not all traffic is good - While a lot of B2C companies can benefit from easy content that simply drives traffic, B2B content needs to be engaging, thoughtful and demonstrate expertise. When done right, B2B content will be aimed at aimed at industry experts. Bad content can attract a whole lot of the wrong audience. You may be getting more traffic, but if it’s not improving your sales prospects, there’s really no point.
  • Getting your voice heard - In the past, things were much simpler. You knew exactly where your content would go, and who would get it. Basically, marketers would write articles for glossy industry magazines that would go out to a list of subscribers. These days, content sources are free and marketers often struggle to be heard over the din of voices.

How to implement a successful content strategy

Because of these challenges, it’s not surprising that about half of companies surveyed by Content Marketing Institute reported they had no content marketing strategy. Given the lag in adoption of this marketing channel, those firms that do find a way to implement a successful content marketing strategy will be ahead of the game.

Here are some tips to get started:

  1. Get to know your consumers - Use customer intelligence to learn as much as you can about your consumer base. You can’t generate great content without knowing who should be reading it and why your services matter to them.
  2. Generate awesome content – Be a resource for your consumers. Write informative content targeted directly to prospective buyers. As Leigh Hoops writes for Forbes, consumers are constantly bombarded with information, and they’re getting sick of it. She also says if a piece of information feels too valuable to be giving away, then you’re doing it right. On the other hand, make your content as readable as possible. Your prospective buyers are busy people too.
  3. Find your consumers - Having trouble finding your audience? You’re probably not looking in the right place. Social media may be great for B2C, but if your company is using Facebook and Twitter, you could be throwing hashtags into the void. Of the companies that do use content marketing, 91 percent are on LinkedIn, according to Content Marketing Institute.
  4. Don’t give up - Continuous content is a must. Don’t disappoint your newly enticed prospects by neglecting your blog. According to Holly Chessman for Social Media B2B, the biggest reason corporate blogs die is because people stop writing them. To make sure you aren’t putting your content strategy on the back burner, it’s a good idea to create an editorial calendar. Make writing part of your daily duties. If you have trouble figuring out what to write, it’s okay to delve back into old content and put together a “greatest hits” collection.

When done right, these strategies will help you generate better leads for your sales team. Don’t let your fears hold you back from the jumping on the content marketing bandwagon.

relationships

Improve relationships between sales and marketing departments

Dec 2013/in , /by

By Ryan Warren

Sales and marketing departments often butt heads. Despite them working toward the same goal, the lack of communication between employees in these divisions can often lead to decreased efficiency.

3 things salespeople wish marketers knew
Sales can be a difficult job. If salespeople could put one thing on their holiday wish lists, it would probably be that marketers try to empathize with their position more. Instead of buying your sales colleagues ornaments or chocolates this year, try giving them something they really need: a little more understanding.

1. Selling is difficult
Salespeople love to sell, but it’s a hard job. Selling is personal, says best-selling author Seth Godin. When a salesperson makes a promise, he or she has to keep it. In a similar vein, selling is highly interpersonal. Sales is like a long conversation. The salesperson can’t always tell you when a prospect is ready to buy. Often, no one knows.

2. There’s a huge difference between inbound and cold calls
No one wants to be in a situation where they have to make a cold call. As Godin puts it, the marketer’s job is to prevent a cold call scenario from ever taking place. Given how rude people in the U.S. can be over the phone, it’s no surprise that salespeople would want to avoid cold calling. A recent poll from The Atlantic Monthly demonstrated just how foul-mouthed Americans tend to be on the phone, particularly Ohioans.

3. Salespeople enjoy a good conversation-
- especially with you, the marketer! Salespeople tend to learn from conversations with each other. In turn, marketers stand to learn a lot from the salespeople who are down in the trenches.

What’s on the wish list in your sales department?
It all boils down to one big wish, and that’s known as lead qualification, according to Jeff Kalter for Business 2 Community.

The job of marketers is to generate leads, which salespeople then follow up on. However, the marketer’s job shouldn’t be over as soon as he or she has generated some interest in a product or service. As Kalter notes, this situation is lose-lose. When marketers hand over too many leads, salespeople are only able to call a few of them. Panicked about wasting time, the salesperson then throws out the rest of the leads, confident he or she can save more time by just starting over.

Instead, marketers can work to alleviate the burden by talking to leads themselves.

  • Think ahead – Determine whether prospects actually have the budget, need or timeframe to buy.
  • Score leads – Rate sales prospects based on the above criteria and assign a rating based on a system you decide.
  • Create a short list - Only send along the ones that qualify based on their ratings. Ideally, this shouldn’t be that many. As Kalter puts it, 10 dependable leads is better than 100 of questionable value.

Building the sales-marketing relationship
First of all, realize the two departments can learn together. Both sales and marketing can benefit from B2B market research. Market insights are invaluable to understanding the customer base. Both marketers and salespeople need this knowledge to maximize performance.

Schedule regular meetings to make sure sales and marketing are both in the loop. If you already have meetings, organize break-out sessions with small portions of each team, Brad Miller suggests in an article for Search Engine Watch. In these meetings, focus on the positives. Use the time to talk about which leads the marketing department provided actually led to a sale. It’s fun to talk about success, but it’s also beneficial. Figure out how both teams can reproduce these results.

The hyper-connected digital buyer has a greater knowledge base than ever before. Sales and marketing teams need to keep up. Consumers will probably have researched your product long before you ever speak with them. This is an area where marketers can really help out their sales teams.

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