Business Bedrock

Are we marketing and selling so that we follow the B2B buyer's journey?

B2B buyers have fundamentally changed how they approach the purchasing process.

They are time poor and risk averse - but also (due to the internet) enormously well informed.

They resent our "interruptive" marketing approaches such as advertising, cold calling, direct (e)mail etc - and they don't trust our salespeople.  They are more than happy (in fact demanding) to do their own research, and then call upon us as vendors and service providers when they are ready.

With social media they can reach out to friends, experts - in fact anyone interested - and get detailed feedback on the problems they're trying to solve, the solutions they're investigating, and who to purchase them from.

What does this all mean for our demand generation and sales efforts?

If we accept that we should be aligning our sales and marketing efforts with the buyer's journey, we should compare this journey to our current sales funnel.

Comparing the buyer's journey to our sales process

The above graphic shows a typical sales process (blue), and the typical buyer's journey (green) (NB - full disclosure - I have no doubt my green representation of the buyer's journey is plagiarism - I've seen something very similar before, but I can't remember/find the source.  Apologies if I've copied your work without reference - and if anyone knows the original source please do let me know so I can update). 

B2B buyers don't just wake up in the morning and say "I must go out and buy something" - they only need to buy something once the have a problem, or they recognise the opportunity to grow/improve.  In other words - their status quo is shattered.  When this happens, in over 90% of occasions they will go to a search engine, and type in words associated with their problem - just to see who else has had the problem, what they've done about it etc.  At this stage they DON'T know what sort of solution they want - they're just trying to frame the problem in their heads.

By searching online, however, they start to frame the problem, and start to come up with categories of solutions:

SEARCHING AROUND PROBLEM -> CATEGORISING PROBLEM -> FRAMING SOLUTION

I can't pay the bills -> I have a cashflow problem -> I need to buy an overdraft from the bank

I'm falling behind my competitors -> I keep bringing new products to market too late -> I need to buy collaboration software so my product development team can work better

My sales staff keep resigning -> I'm not doing the right sort of professional development -> I need to buy a sales training program

If we are unaware that the buyer has a problem and that therefore their "status quo" has been shattered, then the buyer will proceed along a path of researching their options via search engines, framing the problem they have and hence choosing a category of solution - and will then use social media to reach out to colleagues and respected experts to discuss the best solution, and who to purchase it from.  The problem for the selling organisation is that there is only a small likelihood that the buyer will CORRECTLY diagnose their problem - and then arrive at what they believe the BEST solution to be - and then ring US to engage with us to hopefully purchase our solution.

If we are not "listening" online - and/or if we don't have an inbound marketing strategy attracting buyers to our website - then the RED arrow in the diagram above will prevail: if we find out about the buyer at all, it will be after they have already framed their problem, solution, and narrowed down their list of prospective service providers.  It's very hard to influence the sale at this stage - low percentage return in competing head on with other sales organisations that the buyer may also have contacted.

We need to move from the "red line" to the "green line", which represents early engagement.

So - the question is - how can we be alerted to the fact that a buyer's status quo has been shattered AS SOON AS THEY START SEARCHING AROUND THE PROBLEM?

Getting buyers to find us when they're not looking for us

One approach is to use search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques so that - when the buyer does hit the search engines - a page on our website comes up at the top of the list.  This means that your website should NOT be dominated with stories about your company or your products - it's unlikely that the buyer with their new problem will search for us!  THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW YET WHAT THEIR PROBLEM IS!

What is important is to outline all of the phrases that you think the buyer might type into the search engine straight after discovering they have a problem - and have a page on your website for each one (see 1st case study in this series).  (And - yes - my website is being rebuilt as we speak!)

The SEO game has changed only recently, with the Google's and Microsoft's of the world changing their search algorithms to - in particular - incorporate social media.  Well researched keywords are no longer enough - our ability and intent to engage via social media is also now critical.

Being where buyers are

Social media extends to us - and B2B buyers - the opportunity to instantly relate to a range of peers and experts, to discuss problems, talk about solutions etc.  The concept of an online "community" is particularly popular, and is championed by the Linkedin's of the world via their Groups construct - or indeed communities can be purpose built to attract specific participants.

In terms of the buyer's journey - by joining or forming groups where our target B2B buyers "hang out", we will be on hand to hear when they're having a problem, as they discuss this within the confines of a forum. Important rule, though, is NOT to "sell" - buyers resent this.  Rather - we should provide advice and content to the buyer to assist them frame their problem and identify a solution.  If we're seen as "helpful" and "expert", they'll approach us - we won't need to "sell".

Using social media to "listen" for "sales triggers"

"Sales triggers" are things that happen to buyers, that shatter their status quo.

The excellent book SHIFT! explains that there are 3 types of sales triggers:

1 - An unsatisfactory experience with a current supplier (with Twitter being a huge source of expressed disatisfaction)

2 - Some sort of problem in their business (FOCUS an excellent example of a site dedicated to getting problems solved)

3 - A change in job role, or indeed company (B2B folk like to put their "mark" on a new role - with Linkedin automatically sending us these details direct, or conveniently collated by new sites such as IKO System).

However we do it - if we can be alerted to these sales triggers, we have the opportunity to engage early, which has always been the cornerstone of successful selling.

How many opportunities are you missing out on, by waiting for the buyer to contact you after they've diagnosed their own problem, and BY CHANCE has been given a recommendation to contact your organisation?

Facing facts - sales people can't be trusted

I'm facinated by the dramatic changes in behaviour of B2B buyers, and in particular their increased use of social media to seek opinions from peers prior to approaching sales organisations.

I see 2 key drivers for this: - a lack of trust in the motives and behaviours of salespeople, and a resentment of the behaviours of marketing managers who focus on "cut through", in essence "throwing rocks through buyers' windows".

This (deliberately inflammatory) post hypothesises that sales people can't be trusted - and probably revives many archetypal views of "the sales person".  My background is the IT industry, so I will use this as well as B2B in general to illustrate the points made.

My generalist - and admittedly inflammatory - statement is that as a community salespeople are not trusted. In his book "The Speed of Trust", Stephen M R Covey advises that trust relates to BOTH character (ie intent, integrity) and ALSO credibility (ie capabilities and results).

So - where's my proof?

IDC's 2010 Buyer Experience Study reports that, on average, 50% of sales calls are made by IT sales reps that are insufficiently prepared. Unlike professions such as medicine, accounting, law, many trades - sales lacks any rigorous or widely recognised accreditation dictating entry to the profession. Particularly for IT channel members sales must be one of the few jobs where you can walk in, earn over $100k per annum, with little or no training. Frost & Sullivan in 2006 documented that the 1st and 3rd highest market restraints in the Enterprise Content Management market were "difficulty in understanding business benefits" and "mismatch between business needs and solutions offered". These factors related directly to sales person performance. There goes "capabilities".

Results. I have no formal statistics on the number of IT projects that "fail", but the number is not negligible, and the consequences are high. In my home town a $64m public health payroll implementation has failed - and will take $209m to fix.  No doubt a sales person was responsible for early reassurances that this project was actually on track.

Intent. Predominantly IT sales people are bonused on orders, revenue, margin etc. There's minimal focus on recommending the right solution, successful customer outcomes etc. Temkin Group reports the 5th highest organisational obstacle to great customer experience (all industries) is "lack of incentives & rewards".  Sales people are goaled on "making the sale" - not specifically "solving the customer's problem".

Integrity. Look no further than feedback from sales teams themselves. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management (#2, 2009) cites studies where 49% of sales managers surveyed report their salespeople had lied on calls, 34% report their salespeople had made unrealistic promises, 22% report sales of products that customers didn't need.

I'm obviously trying to be provocative here - but I'm convinced the growth (for example) in social media usage by B2B buyers reflects an accelerated shunning of salespeople, and moving to talk more with trusted peers prior to engaging with vendors and channel members.

So - comments please - how widespread is distrust of sales people - and what should sales and marketing professionals do to address the situation?

Social media, the myths of B2B marketing & understanding why buyers buy

The explosion in social media - with B2B buyers actually outpacing their B2C counterparts in uptake - reflects a massive change in buyer behavior.  To remain relevant and hence effective, B2B marketers need to understand these dynamics, and similarly adapt their behavior.

A great research report into how business buyers buy reveals some myths that mislead B2B sales and marketing efforts, namely:

1. The best product always wins
2. The playing field is level
3. The world is your market
4. Face-to-face doesn't count any more
5. Buyers are rational
6. Every purchase is researched
7. You can recognise a qualified lead.

Instead of the rule of strict financial and non-financial business cases, irrationality rules.

And what causes this gap between "rational" purchase decision making, and the "real world" experience?

Buyers are nervous - they don't trust marketers and salespeople - and they are driven by making sure they DON'T make the WRONG decision.  The internet now provides all the information they need around sellers' products and services, reputation etc - so whereas salespeople once provided this information, the sales function is now disintermediated and salespeople need to wait in line until the buyer is ready to contact them.

A key theme in this report is that "B2B buying is all about risk avoidance".  IBM used this with great success, coining the phrase "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM".  A sellers' tactic - creating "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt" (ie FUD) - even has its own wikipedia page.

GIven this nervousness - and the lack of trust in traditional sales and marketing approaches - buyers turn to people they know to seek opinions on what to buy, and from whom.  Internet based social media tools simply allow buyers to do this:

• with immediate feedback
• from a broader audience unconstrained by existing personal relationships
• because of this broadness from an audience that is more expert ie having a higher likelihood of having had the relevant experience to help any individual buyer

These myths have been recognised in various B2B sales methodologies such as Solution Selling which focuses on removing buyer pain points - even urging sales resources to create anxiety within buying groups to further their cause.

(Interestingly, even risk avoidance can be overridden, as noted in the Strategic Selling methodology which talks about the necessity to create "personal wins" for all involved in the buying decision.  At time of writing even Barack Obama is questioning the wisdom of the FIFA decision to award the rights to host future World Cups to Russia and Qatar, with FIFA's own technical analysts rating Qatar's big in particular as the most risky. [DISCLOSURE: my home country Australia was an unsuccessful bidder for the 2022 World Cup hosting rights.])

(Also - ironically - whilst the internet is providing more feedback to buyers to point them towards trusted advisors, it is also making them even more nervous about poor purchasing decisions.  In my home state of Queensland in Australia there is public outrage throughout both online and traditional media on a debacle associated with rolling out a new payroll system for the State's public hospital system.  For months doctors and nurses have been getting the wrong pay - or no pay at all.  The State Government has announced a program to fix this that it estimates will cost AUS$209m - the system cost AUS$64m to implement - the fix will cost over 3 times the initial cost! The original buying group will no doubt be exceedingly risk averse moving forward!)

So - what to do if we're in the B2B sales and/or marketing game?  We need to recognise that buyers will turn to sources they trust before they turn to us.  Therefore - quite simply - we either:

• need to be a trusted source that they can find, or
• need to be seen as a trusted source by someone the buyer will turn to.

B2B social media strategy flows from these 2 points, and future posts will discuss how we can make this happen - will elaborate on why sales people can't be trusted and what we can do about this, and also elaborate on why traditional B2B demand generation programs essentially involving throwing rocks through people windows, which understandably buyers are tiring of.

What steps are your organisation taking that ensure you can be found when the B2B buyer needs you - and that when this happens you're seen as credible, based on how you've influenced that buyer's peers?