Are the buying process maps of how your customers buy out of date? If so, this can impact the success of how and where you allocate resources:
How do we generate more leads?
How do we acquire more customers?
How do we message to our customers?
How do we improve our brand?
A tool to focus your limited resources in the highest impact area(s) is to map the customer’s buying process to identify gaps.
Are You Behind the Curve of Buyer Evolution?
Recent surveys, such as the one conducted by CEB’s Sales Executive Council in 2011, show that more than 50-60% of the buying process is being conducted without the help of a sales representative. It’s a fact that buyers have radically changed their buying behavior. This must be tied to execution changes in both marketing and sales. The rise of demand generation, inbound marketing, and content marketing have been marketing responses to connect with a new informed buyer. You can learn more about what research has revealed on rapidly changing buying behaviors and how your peers are allocating resources here.
Have We Considered These Recent Developments?
Is the buying process changing at a more rapid pace than the needed adaptations in marketing?
Who makes... Read more
Tags: buyer insight, buyer journey, buyer persona, buyer persona development, buyer personas, buyer research, campaigns, content marketing, Lead, marketing, marketing plan, sales and marketing alignment, sales enablement, Tony Zambito
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This is part 2 of a series on the challenge of targeting SMB markets and how the use of buyer modeling and buyer-based marketing help organizations to grow their SMB customer base.
In the first article of this series, we visited two new realities. One, that many Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 organizations are turning a focused eye towards growing their SMB customer and revenue base. With revenue growth potential shrinking in larger strategic accounts due to budget and pricing pressures, many are dedicating attention and resources with more determination than in the past. The second reality is that they are finding a very different buyer this time around than in the past. Simply put, SMB buyers are more social, more sophisticated, more connected, and are transforming their buying behaviors at an accelerated pace. New technologies opening their world to advantages only once afforded to large enterprises.
Waking up to these new realities has set up another challenge for executive leaders. That is of how to get to know the new SMB buyer. Here’s how one sales executive put this to me recently:
“One of the things we realized is that we have got to... Read more
Tags: buyer experience, buyer modleing, buyer persona, buyer persona development, buyer persona marketing, buyer personas, buyer research, buyergraphics, buyerology, content, predictive buyer modleing, small business, small business marketing, social marketing, Tony Zambito
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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
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 »
The good news is that CMO tenure continues to rise. Spencer Stuart, the executive search consulting firm, in their study released early last year reported that average tenure rose to 42 months. Up from 35 months two years ago and up from 27 months in 2007. The bad news is that the CMO position still churns and remains one of the riskiest positions in corporate business. Additional bad news is that the rise is largely due to economic instability and CEO’s desire to stay the course during uncertain times according to Spencer Stuart. Not the best reason for a rise but nevertheless it presents opportunities for CMO’s to succeed in longer tenures.
Economic instability and uncertainty will remain constant variables I believe for the next two years. Compounding the complexity for CMO’s is the state of the buyer. Or, a better expression may be - the ever changing and unsettled state of the buyer. CMO’s can and should play an instrumental role in leading organizations out of economic instability and providing a clear picture of the state of their company’s buyers. There are several guiding ideas that CMO’s can consider to ensure... Read more
Tags: business, business buyergraphics, Business marketing, buyer experience, buyer personas, buyer research, buyer strategy, buyergraphics, buyerology, Chief marketing officer, Chief Sales Officer, cmo, content marketing, CSO, marketing, predictive analytics, predictive buyer modeling, predictive modleing, Targeting, Tony Zambito, trends
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Social Media, Targeting, Word of Mouth | 2 Comments »
B2B Buying Process Today © All rights reserved by Kenny Madden
In the business-to-business world, the quest to connect with decision-makers has been and most likely will continue to be the main challenge confronting B2B leaders. Meeting this challenge successfully is the essential lifeblood of survival for many B2B companies. While today’s continuing convergence of the Internet, social technologies, and Enterprise 2.0 platforms are increasing B2B visibility like never before, connecting with buyers and decision-makers is becoming increasingly elusive.
For decades, B2B sales and marketing has relied on business information of the likes of Hoovers, Dun & Bradstreet, and others. They provide the critical view of market segments and the companies that fall within those markets. Business information also plays a role in providing B2B with a level of company profiles and firmographics data about organizations within markets. Business information services also serve a valuable role in drilling down to help with contact information, such as newcomer Netprospex, to provide B2B with potential decision-makers they can reach. On the other end of the business information spectrum, B2B leaders have relied on business and market research reports that help them understand strategically trends in markets and how... Read more
Tags: business buyergraphics, buyer behavior, buyer decision journey, buyer decision model, buyer experience, buyer insights, buyer journey, buyer persona, buyer personas, buyer research, buyer scenario model, buyergraphics, buyerology, marketing
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