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The quest to uncover how and why people and businesses engage in the act of buying is becoming an endurance race. Spurred on by increasing social technologies advances. The result is many organizations, whether academia or business, have focused on the science of buying. What we may be losing is critical understanding of the art of buying.
What we are witnessing in the new digital age is the old rules of near total dependency on understanding processes and rules associated with buying is no longer the sole winning ticket. Buying processes and rules have been dissected and analyzed many times over throughout the past few decades. We clung to the belief of knowing the how will lead us to systematic knowledge of how to close more business with buyers. The problem marketing and selling organizations face today is the how – processes and rules – are not as easily defined or structured as in the past. Social technologies have made it possible for new networks and collaboration amongst buyers – causing plenty of flex in processes and rules.
The Why of Buying
If the science of buying has focused on the how of buying, the art of... Read more
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The Art of Buying
Tags: b2b marketing, buyer persona, buyer personas, buying behavior, Digital Marketing, marketing, marketing effectiveness, qualitative analytics, qualitative research, Sales, sales effectiveness
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One Thing That Can Get You From Here to There in 2012 and Beyond
In the world of B2B management, there are numerous head scratching efforts going on as we peer ahead into 2012 and beyond. Primarily, it has to do with how to get from here to there. One of the issues faced by B2B companies with the high degree of uncertainty, global economic turbulence, and a rapidly changing buyer driven and social world is figuring out where the from here to there actually leads to.
Recent buyer and management interviews tell me a lot of head scratching continues to go on. Plenty of internal angst and debate is taking place on how to get from here to there, what is needed, what should be done, and what a lot of people think. The what to do aspects of internal planning usually center on strategy and tactical questions such as:
How do we grow revenues?
What can we do to generate more leads?
How do we expand business with existing customers?
What type of content will drive more traffic to our web site?
Should we get more active with social media?
Do we need to improve our product quality and offering?
Should we boost marketing and sales budgets?
Do we need to hire more people?
What should our pricing... Read more
Tags: buyer experience, buyer insight, buyer persona, buyer research, buyergraphics, buyerology, content marketing, marketing, qualitative research, socialmedia, Targeting, trends
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Understanding Buyer Priorities and Goals in an Uncertain and Chaotic World
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We are living in a world that is fraught with uncertainty. The degree of uncertainty for businesses today probably is at the highest level in decades. Resulting in a chaotic world for sellers and buyers looking to make sense of what the future may hold.
This high degree of uncertainty and chaotic environment is showing up in many forms for both buyers and sellers. Whether it is sellers suffering from significant skill gaps as recently pointed out in surveys completed by DemandGen Report and Sirius Decisions or buyers in recent compiled reports indicating lack of knowledge and information that helps them to make purchasing decisions – uncertainty and chaos reigns at the moment. This perfect storm of uncertainty and chaos making the ability of marketer’s to communicate with buyers extremely challenging and causing sales organizations to struggle in being relevant to the buying process. So how does an organization get a hold of itself in such times?
Adaptation Begets Patterns
Organizations and buyers are highly adptable albeit some adapt quicker while others lag. Oftentimes, those who do lag are left off the train with some just barely grabbing a hold of the last caboose that is pulling way. When adaptation in industries and markets occur,... Read more
Tags: behavior, Buyer, buyer behavior, buyer behaviour, buyer experience, buyer goals, buyer persona, buyer personas, buyerography, buyerology, Consumer behaviour, content marketing, demand generation, DemandGen, DemandGen Report, Goal Centric, Organization, qualitative research, Social Age, Social Media, Social sciences, Tony Zambito, Understanding
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Experiential Buying Behavior Takes B2B Center Stage
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In my previous article, Enhance the Buyer Experience with Intelligent Engagement, I referenced a trend I called Experiential Buying. Buyer behaviors in B2B marketplaces are shifting tremendously towards more holistic experiential expectations that defy the conventional straight re-buy, modified re-buy, and new buy behaviors of the past. Buyer expectations have increased with regards to the experiences they undergo as well as desire.
In simplistic generalities, we can take a view of two experience categories that B2B buyers may seek:
Self-Enabled Buying
In this situation, a buyer may want to experience a re-buy that reaffirms his or her decision to continue a relationship. Even in modified re-buy situations, the buyer may be looking for an experience where they can perform the modifications themselves. The difference in the modern social age is that buyer expectations have changed. If companies have not adapted their businesses to enhanced online and social capabilities, they may very well be placing artificial barriers in front of their buyers who are seeking an entirely different straight re-buy or modified re-buy experience than in the past. As consumer-like experiences become more desired in business marketplaces, companies will need to rethink many aspects of their sales and service... Read more
Tags: business, Business-to-business, Buyer, buyer behavior, buyer behaviour, buyer experience, buyer persona, buyer persona development, buyer personas, Company, content marketing, experience, Experiential education, Goal Centric, marketing, qualitative research, Social Media, Tony Zambito
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Social Buyerology: Listening to the Social Buyer
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This is the third installment of my reflection on Social Buyerology. The first article, Social Buyerology: Understanding Buyers in the Social Age reflected on the need for a new science of examining buyers in the social age. The second, The Research Methods of Social Buyerology, reviewed the types of research methods needed to attain a deep understanding of the new social buyer persona. In this third installment, we look at how Social Buyerology can be designed to listen to revealing insights about the social buyer.
One of the first premises of Social Buyerology is that it must reside within a social organization. There has to be a degree of openness and courageous leadership to accept that there is a new social buyer persona on the horizon and that an organization must adapt. Even if an organization has not started efforts to address social marketing and social selling, there must be a conscious agreement that the first step will be taken down the path towards becoming a social organization. Only then will insights be listened to and responded to.
Behavioral Listening
In my previous article, The Research Methods of Social Buyerology, I covered the many various qualitative approaches that can used to... Read more
Tags: buyer experience, buyer persona, buyer persona development, buyer persona insight, buyer personas, Facebook, Goal Centric, LinkedIn, qualitative research, research, Social Age, social buyer, social buyer persona, social buyerology, social marketing, social marketing to the business customer, Social Media, social media marketing, Social network service, Social relation, Social technology, Tony Zambito
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