This is part 1 of a series on the challenge of targeting SMB markets and how the use of target buyer modeling and buyer-based marketing help organizations to grow their SMB customer base.
As we continue to come out of the deep freeze over the last few years, we are beginning to see encouraging signs of an economic recovery. However, the purse strings are still drawn tight and new patterns of buying has created an atmosphere of even more exacting pricing pressures from enterprise-wide level buyers and accounts. This means less room for revenue growth to come directly from the fabled 20-30 percent of large customers who typically have made up 70-80 percent of total revenues. This is how a VP of Sales in the software industry put it to me recently in my research:
“Here is what it looks like…we are actually selling more of our product into our larger accounts than ever before….but…over the last three years we've faced stiffer competition that has driven our pricing down. So the net-net has been that we are just holding on as best we can to these larger accounts. Another words, we are not getting significant real... Read more
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Your Top Priority Is Growing The SMB Revenue Base – Now What?
Tags: B2B email marketing, b2b marketing, B2B Sales, branding, buyer experience, buyer persona, buyer personas, buyer research, buyer strategy, buyergraphics, buyerology, content marketing, demand generation, marketing, Sales, selling, small business, small business marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Targeting
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Email, Emerging Platforms, Media Planning & Buying, Opinions, Search, Social Media, Targeting | No Comments »
4 Ways the Power of Buyer Choice Will Transform Business Marketing
This is part 5 and final article of a limited series on why buyer choice modeling is the new view B2B Business must adopt to improve revenue performance and develop long lasting relationships with buyers.
How buyers make choices today, in large part driven by empowering new technologies, will transform how B2B businesses will view buyers as well as redefine what is meant by business marketing. The rigid funnel will no longer serve as a workable means of communicating unique views of buyers and their buying behaviors. This not to say that buyer processes, stages, and steps are no longer relevant but to highlight that buyers today no longer make choices neatly in the paradigm of the funnel. A rigid funnel view, whether it is drawn up horizontal or vertical, cannot provide the orbital view of choices being made continuously.
There are four ways that new buyer choice dynamics will transform the practice of business marketing and alter the view of what practices are relevant:
Predictive Buyer Modeling And Intelligence
As we covered, many B2B businesses are wrestling with the unknown and the invisible. B2B buyers are remaining invisible in their behaviors associated with exploring as well as establishing... Read more
Tags: b2b marketing, B2B Sales, buyer choice, buyer choice modeling, buyer experience, buyer insight, buyer persona, buyer personas, buyergraphics, buyerology, content, content marketing, demand generation, lead generation, online marketing, social, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Email, Emerging Platforms, Media Planning & Buying, Opinions, Search, Social Media, Targeting, Uncategorized | No Comments »
3 Ways To Connect With Today’s B2B Buyers
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This is part 4 of a limited series on why buyer choice modeling is the new view B2B Business must adopt to improve revenue performance and develop long lasting relationships with buyers.
Connecting with today’s B2B buyers is on the minds of most CEO’s and their teams today. Not too long ago, reaching and connecting with B2B buyers was a straight forward proposition. Depending on surveys from such sources as IDC, IDG Connect, DemandGen Report, Forrester, and more, we know that buyers are remaining invisible to B2B businesses and spend only a quarter of their time talking directly to sales when making purchase decisions. The idea of connecting to B2B buyers has gone from straight forward to major league complex.
There are plenty of debates regarding the best tactical means to connect with B2B buyers. The effectiveness of these tactical means, as reported by once again the likes of IDC and etc., show that many B2B leaders believe these tactical efforts such as content marketing and marketing automation may only be effective about a quarter of the time. It does represent a big gap and it begs for a rephrasing of the challenge – this... Read more
Tags: b2b buyer, b2b marketing, B2B Sales, Buyer, buyer behavior, buyer decision model, buyer insight, buyer modeling, buyer persona, buyer persona marketing, buyer personas, buyer strategy, buyergraphics, buyerology, Chief marketing officer, cmo, content marketing, marketing, predictive analytics, predictive buyer modeling, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Email, Emerging Platforms, Research, Search, Social Media, Targeting, Web Analytics, Websites, Word of Mouth | 2 Comments »
5 Ways New Buyer Behaviors Are Impacting B2B Sales
For many in B2B sales, from senior leaders to sales representatives, it may be a discouraging time. If you follow conventional and social media closely, the storied demise of sales has been told many times. You probably could buy a few lunches if you collected a dollar for every time you heard that buyers are in control and don’t need sales. To you, this sentiment seems like it is taking on mythical proportions. I am not so sure. If I ask myself three simple questions, I think my answers are clear:
Have buyers changed? Answer: Yes
Does B2B Sales need to change? Answer: Yes
Will buyers still require the assistance of B2B Sales? Answer: Yes
I suspect many of you will answer the same way. B2B Sales will continue to matter very much and it will go through periods of redefinitions and transformations over the next few years. Although, in the Social Age, it may seem that people want to be devoid of actual interactions with others in such buying settings, I for one believe buyers are actually seeking more. However, more of what has not defined interactions and relationships in... Read more
Tags: b2b marketing, B2B Sales, buyer experience, buyer persona, buyer personas, buyergraphics, buyerology, online marketing, Social business, Social Media, Targeting, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Search, Social Media, Targeting, Websites | 2 Comments »
The Research Methods of Social Buyerology
Image by smemon87 via Flickr
In my article, Social Buyerology: Understanding Buyers in the Social Age, I offered perspectives on the need for a new discipline in B2B Sales and Marketing related to understanding new buyer behaviors and interactions in the social age. This is a follow up article that looks at the methods for helping B2B to research and gain valuable insights about the social buyer. Coincidentally, my thoughts come at a time when the LinkedIn IPO and valuation has sent a ripple effect in the B2B business community. Undoubtedly bringing a heightened awareness to understanding the social buyer today. Whether the LinkedIn IPO impact is short lived or creates yet unforeseen outcomes, buyers have been impacted and will continue to be so by the advent of social technologies and social connection. Gaining insights into the social buyer will become an increasing imperative for B2B businesses in the global marketplaces of the Social Age.
Understanding the social buyer involves utilizing social research methods to gain deep insights into how buyer dynamics associated with networking, affiliations, influence, and decision-making are being impacted by the influx of social technologies and multiple channels. Multi-disciplinary approaches yielding new understandings will inform B2B organizations on adapting... Read more
Tags: b2b marketing, B2B Sales, Business-to-business, buyer experience cycle, buyer persona, buyer persona development, buyer personas, contextual inquiry, Decision making, Goal Centric, Grounded theory, LinkedIn, qualitative research, research, Sales, Social Age, social buyer, social buyer persona, social buyerography, social buyerology, Social Media, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Social Media, Targeting, Websites | No Comments »
