Business Bedrock

Morbid 2014 B2B sales predictions

No doubt this is the time of year where we are inundated with predictions for what will happen in the coming 12 months

Depressingly, it's not difficult to predict what WON'T change when it comes to B2B sales practices.

A morbid post - although if we can all agree on what's wrong, at least that gives us an agenda of what to fix up!

Here's my list - let me know yours and then we're going to write all the contributed predictions up into a whitepaper for next week's newsletter (with full credits of course):

1. Late engagement - most B2B salespeople will wait until the customer knows what they want to buy before they engage - or even worse until the customer contacts them.  This increases competition, lowers margins, and reduces win rates.  Engage with the customer early - before they know what they want - in fact give them an insight that actually STARTS them on their buying journey (and then walk with them on their journey).  Review our notes on "sales triggers" to understand what starts buyers on new buying journeys.
2. Selling products, not outcomes - noone needs a sales person who is just a "talking brochure".  Real value for customers from sales people comes from their ability to "build the bridge" between the products they sell, and the business value these products/services can create for each individual customer.
3. Show up and throw up - research indicates that, on average, on early stage sales calls a sales person talks around 80% of the time.  This is inversely proportion to what should be happening.  Active listening, questioning - these are the critical early stage stage skills.  2 ears, 1 mouth - let's use them in that order.  Customers are impressed by your knowledge of THEM - not of your company and/or your products.
4. Sales and Marketing silos - IDC research indicates that B2B sales teams reject up to 90% of what Marketing comes up with.  Sales and Marketing need to walk arm in arm with the buyer along their buyer's journey.  Focus on the buyer and what they need at each stage of their journey - much will be solved.
5. Asking customers what keeps them up at night - this solution selling approach has been terrific, but now every sales person is asking the same question.  Modern buyers believe (rightly or wrongly) that they can figure out the solutions to their problems themselves.  What they want is to be educated - the modern sales organisation needs to come up with unique insights to challenge customers' thinking.
6. Relying on relationships - per the last point - customers want to be educated, and they don't need a relationship built to have this happen.  Research indicates that the "relationship builder" is the POOREST performing sales profile - if buyers want a relationship they should buy a dog.
7. Believing customers - the nicer the customer, the higher the likelihood they will "fib" rather than give you the bad news that they don't want to deal with you.  Selling time is precious - the need to qualify is critical - life is too short.

That's my list - and it's just a start.  Do add your thoughts as a comment - or drop me a line, and I'll be happy to add in your thoughts into our next whitepaper.

Also, if you would like to discuss your sales planning for 2014 and think I can offer some insights, don't hestiate to contact me to book in a complimentary 1 hour consultation. 

 

Digital Marketer of the Future – 4 trends disrupting the way we work

By Melanie McKinney, Marketing Consultant at Carpe Diem Consulting. 

Last week's blog was all about the exponential change that is effecting the Digital Marketer of the Future. This week's blog is all about the 4 trends that are disrupting the way we, as marketers, work. 

1. New customer journey

• Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)

Before consumers are purchasing, they use the web to talk to peers and find out information about the product or service they are thinking about buying. Find out more here: Zero Moment of Truth. 

• Consideration of Omni-channel rather than Multi-channel.

Multi-channel means different messaging comes from different channels all around the same product / company.

Omni-channel means a unified customer experience that acknowledges the different ways the product is marketed and purchased. All channels need to be fully integrated.

• Mobile landscape shifting rapidly

- In 2013 mobile internet usage will overtake desktop usage
- Australia has 2^nd largest mobile penetration in the world
- 41% use mobile as primary device for accessing social networking sites
- 36% use mobile as primary device for search
- The scariest thing about these facts are that in Australia, people spend 30% of media time on their mobile but the advertising industry is spending only 0.001% of their budget on mobile.

Impact?

• It’s never been more important to understand HOW your customers buy and how that changes your strategy. This effects B2B too – they way your customers buy has changed. You can learn more about this at our How to get on your buyer’s shortlist event, taking place all over Australia.
• It’s never been more important to understand how marketing activity translates into business objectives.

2. Social reengineering

• Social media shouldn’t be about “media” (which media platforms you use), it’s now all about the “social” part.  It is about changing the whole company’s relationship with consumers.
• Australians spend more time on social networks than anywhere else in the world. This creates a huge opportunity for marketers whether you are B2C or B2B. If your company isn’t social, you will miss out on sales.
• Read about the first crowdsourced Nissan Z

Impact?

• Collaboration is essential to make your company social. Cross-functional teams with shared decision-making.
• Marketers should stop trying to “own” social media and get everybody in the business involved. They should manage this process and facilitate this process – not get in the way.

3. Multi-screening  

Multi-tasking is standard.

 

80% use smartphones while:

• watching tv 48%
• using internet 34%
• watching film 29%
• playing video games 16%
• listening to music 46%

 Plus:

• People under 30 years old can do 5.4 things at once
• People who are 40+ can do 1.2 things at once

Impact?

• Are you just promoting your products / services on one screen or are you building multi-screen experiences for the multi-screen consumers? 

5. The Singularity

Ray Kurzweil (The transcendent man): “Technology is progressing at such a rate that it will intersect and surpass the processing power of the human brain”. He predicts this will happen 2029.

Scary stuff? It’s actually happening.

Examples:

• Connected devices - Evrythng
• Smart technology – Start Cap and Outback Steak House birthday chair 
• Wearable technology – Neurowear   

Impact?

• Are you building a culture of experimentation in your company?
• Have you found the right partners?
• Are you ready to fail sometimes?

 Panel pointers 

A few key pieces of advice from the panel experts:

• John Batistich - Director of Marketing - Westfield Group
• Matt James - Managing Director - Mi9 Media
• Niall Mckinney - CEO - The Knowledge Engineers

What skills do people now need?

• Businesses need their teams to collaborate; marketers now need deep technology skills and a large mirage of skill bases including sales, technology, and analytical skills. Matt James.
• Skills are only part of the mix. Test and learn with a sense of urgency and have the ability to take people with you. Encourage curiosity, creativity and imagination – this will allow you to adapt through this change. John Batistich.
• Digital is no longer a department. Data and data scientists are now no longer a small group of geeks – they’ve gone mainstream. John Batistich.

How to find people with this kind of talent?

• Recruit through social networks. There’s been a big change in the way we recruit from recruiting only when we need it to on-going recruitment so we create a talent pool or a talent pipeline. Create relationships now, then when / if a role comes up, you’re ready to go. John Batistich.

How to get your senior management to build this culture?

• Find out who the blockers are and who needs to be convinced – then use doses of fear (to motivate) change. John Batistich.
• Talk to them in their own language – make it highly practical and highly relevant to their business. Don’t talk blue sky and make sure you empathise with their concerns. Overusing fear can disable change too. Niall McKinney.
• Quantify it – can we afford to lose $20M if we miss out on an opportunity? Matt James.

If you work in B2B ICT and you think you / your company needs help addressing some of the issues above, download our related whitepapers on the topic. These are all specifically created for B2B ICT Sales and Marketing staff. You can also use our useful tool to evaluate the effectiveness of your content marketing program against the needs of the modern B2B buyer.

To learn more about the new customer journey, come to our How to get on your buyer’s shortlist event, taking place in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne which is aimed specifically at B2B ICT Sales and Marketing Directors. Spaces are limited so register today.

It's HOW you sell - not WHAT you sell

Customers are willing to ignore the "best" product if it means going with a company they're comfortable with.

I recently completed a loss review for one of our customers - it was a Government tender for a Content Management System.  They fed back to me that they were quite certain they had gone with a provider who didn't have the "best" CMS offering - however what this provider did during their demonstration was paint a picture for the Government department as to how their particular CMS offering would improve the department's ability to service its customers/constituents.

"Most of the presentations focused on features, benefits - and telling us how good they were as a company," they explained to me.  "Hardly any presenter actually painted a picture of what our business would look like once their solution was up and going."

The lessons are clear:

• the best way to impress a customer is NOT to talk about yourself - but rather to talk about THE CUSTOMER and how you can make their world better
• suggestions - even "challenges" - about how you can make a customer's business better are MUCH more interesting than an exhaustive demo of your product's features
• it's not WHAT you sell - it's HOW you sell it.

"Value" is fundamental - but what does it mean?

A favourite post here from Seth Godin - discussing why some prospects respond to our offers by saying "I can't afford it".  It brings to mind the definition of the word "value" that we use during our consulting work:

VALUE = BENEFIT - SACRIFICE

When the prospect says they can't afford it, what they probably mean is that - in their specific situation - the benefits we are proposing don't sufficiently outweigh the sacrifices we are asking them to make (ie cost, hassle, interrupting them by cold calling them, making them travel to visit our retail store, keeping them waiting etc).

It's a useful concept.  Value is "relative" - the prospect can only measure the value we offer COMPARED TO other offers (or indeed doing nothing).  Value also has to be "relevant" - as a buyer I might be prepared to sit through the account review sessions you "force" me to have - others may well not see what they get out of it compared to the time you want them to put in.

Measuring "customer perceived value" is fast outstripping "satisfaction" as the best predictor of potential future purchase.

There's lots of good articles on Customer Perceived Value - here's a high level overview - drop me a line if you'd like something more in-depth.

Can you suggest any other reasons why your prospects might "fib" and say they can't afford your offerings?