Database or list versus message

B2B, differentiation, Marketing, messaging, segmentation, single target market

You know I keep talking about identifying a single Target Market to start with, a single niche in the market with a market in the niche.

One of the key reasons for that is because when you look at a small market then identifying the right people in your market to whom you will give the message becomes easier.

There are a lot of people who would bother about the message and spend a lot of time on tuning the message. My belief however has always been on identifying the right list/database/audience. In B2B if you can identify the right set of people to whom you can be messaging on a regular basis, then you have won half the battle.

To these people even if you were to give an average message, you will get a response. However an excellent message to the wrong audience will get you nowhere.

In my team, whenever a campaign doesn’t work, my first emphasis is always on first getting to identify if the database has been audited for the criteria on which we wanted it. Most expensive failures happen because we keep sending a message to the wrong audience. As Mary Ellen Tribby said “you can’t sell lingerie to a lumberjack”.

In B2B messaging there are multiple people in multiple departments, at multiple levels, who need to be covered with your messaging. Get that piece right for a small audience and then scale and you are on your way to success.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Creating dissonance in the B2B buyer’s mind – Part 2

B2B, Business, Marketing, Marketing Stamina, persistence

In my post of 12th April I had written about how B2B sales are not impulsive in nature. If you’re selling something which is a hot new technology and the buyer is a technology fan then you might be able to sell based on just the technology being new.

On the other hand , most B2B businesses have different levels in a buying process for any kind of product or service, especially if you are looking at a mid to large to extremely large companies. In these kind of companies the inertia itself is very large and the processes complex, so getting a process initiated itself is a task.

So until and unless there is a real challenge with a vendor no one wants to change, even if you have done the perfect segmentation and identified them as your ideal customer.

In the post on 12th April I wrote about how your messaging should keep targeting some areas of dissonance. However you cannot create dissonance with one piece of messaging, it will never stick. The longer a vendor has been providing the services to an organisation the bigger is the chance that the vendor’s issues will be ignored. Also not all issues – using an example from calculus – tend to cross the limit/threshold – where the customer snaps.

So when entering with a regular product or service you need to look at a long term time frame of say 2 years – it could be longer depending on the product or service – airplanes as an example – people may take 5-10 years before deciding on moving from say Boeing to Airbus .

Then you need to keep at sending out a weekly mail/postcard or whatever to be in-front of the buyers so that when the limit / threshold is reached they call you out by default. This persistence in marketing or as Dean Graziosi calls it – Marketing Stamina helps you pick up business in the long term.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Making it worthwhile for your partner to partner with you

B2B, Marketing, Marketing Ecosystem, Partners

I have been speaking about using partners to help you break into the B@B ecosystem of the customer, faster.

But why should the partner want to do business with you. What’s in it for her? for any partnership that’s a key question that you need to be aware of and have a worthwhile answer.

When the partner is willing to take you into their customer base, they have a risk that if you mess up, then they will end up losing the customer forever. Another fear is that you may end up taking over their customer and pushing you out of that account.

Since most companies have fewer customers than they can handle they are always scared of losing a customer. Even if someone did have enough customers, they wouldn’t want to lose any.

So its imperative that you need to assuage all these fears that the customer may have by first “giving” from your side. It could be in terms of either getting customers or getting leads to give to the partner. That will help build trust. Once the trust comes then things become easier.

So while I do mention that entering an ecosystem is always better when you have a partner, building trust with the partner also takes time. If the partner is a large MNC company then the layers of people you have to manage is immense. The inertia of dealing with MNCs can leave you frustrated.

While you identify who else already sells to your customer, avoid very large companies for that role.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

“Where” to meet your B2B buyer -2

B2B, Marketing, persistence, Positioning, Sales, segmentation, single target market

In my last post I wrote about how “intent” data could help you find the buyer or you could set up Marketing Joint Ventures with people who either sell before or after your product or service is needed.

Inspite of this however you need to figure out “when” they will buy, what will be the trigger to buy so that you can meet the buyer at that moment in case you have not been able to identify them in advance.

One of the key triggers in a B2B buying process is when there’s a change at the Executive level. Depending on what you’re selling, the Executive level could vary, sometimes a V.P level, sometimes a CXO level.

Whenever someone new comes in they always have an agenda to achieve in the next 1 year. If what you have to offer is part of the 1 year priorities then you can essentially get a reason to be in touch.

Keeping a track of new joiners at the executive level can help you identify the “where” to meet your targets.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!