Posted by Jonathan Block on Fri, Jun 18, 2010 @ 09:31 AM
Research analyst Jim Ninivaggi joins Jonathan Block for a podcast on tips for selling to senior-level B2B executives (11.2MB; 9:45).
To listen to this podcast, please Click Here.
Posted by Jonathan Block on Fri, Jun 11, 2010 @ 08:58 AM
While methodologies and approaches abound for understanding where customers or prospects are in the social channel and how they use it, we've found no better guide than our buying cycle. I'll use this post to cover our buying cycle concept and the roles within it, while a future post will discuss how these notions should play a key role in your social strategy and execution.
If an organization doesn't understand — even at a basic level — the way prospects buy what it sells, it will never be able to use social media outlets and marketing to facilitate these decisions. This is due to the fact that as prospects move toward a purchase, the tone, message, offer and even communicator for a specific marketing effort should be altered.
Buyers don’t go through a straight-line process of getting information through the Web or social outlets, weighing one solution against another and finally making a decision. Instead, a typical B2B buying process comprises a series of smaller decisions involving a variety of audiences that move into and out of the buying process.
SiriusDecisions has created a model that describes six macro stages that B2B organizations typically go through (see diagram, below). These six stages can be rolled up into three higher-level phases: education, active buying and closing.
As you are identifying the distinct activity phases within a buying cycle, you should also be uncovering who the key “actors” are in each phase and the specific roles they play. Typical actors include champions, CXOs, influencers (can be external or internal to the company), users and ratifiers (usually purchasing, procurement or negotiations). It is common for groups to enter and leave regularly, and to play multiple — and very different — roles depending on the type of product or service being sold. While a CTO might play a significant role during the Exploring Possible Solutions stage in one case, he or she will wait for the Justifying the Decision stage in another. Users may be brought in early or late, while other executive groups play no role whatsoever.
An understanding of actors and roles by stage is a tremendous advantage to your sales and marketing teams; not only will they know whom to target (and who to ignore) and what channels (social or otherwise) to use, but messaging, programs and specific content can be developed and delivered at the right time. You also will avoid common mistakes such as targeting the CXO level with Loosening of the Status Quo and Committing to Change messages and demand creation efforts when these executives do not play any role at the beginning of the buying process.
Posted by Megan Heuer on Fri, Jun 04, 2010 @ 08:39 AM
Actually, I could have titled this post “so what” instead because that can be the sad fate of some marketing reporting. We’re seeing so many clients invest in improving their marketing reporting and analytics, and that is one of the most important steps to reaching high performance. Trouble is, sometimes all that hard work takes awhile to have the intended impact. Naturally this is frustrating to those who spend the time and invest the resources, but what’s a marketing operations team to do in the face of skeptics and inertia? Plenty! Read on.
Unlike sales, which has to live and die (and get paid) based on its numbers, marketing reporting is still developing as a management tool in many B2B organizations. It’s a fact that despite good intentions of marketing teams to improve reporting and dashboards, the gap remains wide between desire for better reports and the execution that delivers them — not to mention the skills to take that data and turn it into actionable advice. It’s even wider from execution to support for, and adoption by, marketing and senior management as the source of the truth, trusted as accurately showing marketing’s contribution to the business. It’s not hopeless, of course, and to help folks on the journey, here are three practices that stand out as the drivers of adoption for marketing reporting.
Lesson 1: Dashboard Adoption Takes Time. Our research shows that it takes up to 18 months for new reporting to be implemented and fully adopted in an organization. It’s taken a long time to build up the status quo, and it’s not going down overnight. Have a plan to communicate change and why it matters and how it will benefit the marketing function and the business, as well as to help people understand how you got to the numbers. Embed the dashboard where it can be used in daily workflow. Next, work the plan and be patient.
Lesson 2: Dashboard Trust Demands Management Support. New reporting that improves the ability to make fact-based decisions regarding what needs improvement and why will not be adopted unless it has support from the top. Ensure senior leadership within marketing (and sales) supports the effort for better reporting, or be ready for a long slog.
Lesson 3: Dashboard Adoption Requires Delivery of Value and Insight. It may be the case that senior management and the rest of marketing need to be shown exactly how better reporting can help. Use examples and internal success stories to showcase where quality insights delivered better outcomes. This can range from email deliverability diagnosis, to leads left in purgatory nurtured to become found wins, to identifying where sales tools will have the most impact on stalled opportunities. The key is to choose a visible action that will showcase how knowledge becomes power and delivers results.