In the tough new realm of B2B marketing productivity is king. You have to be prepared to adapt if you want your brand to reign supreme.
Tim Hazelhurst - Winner of the "Outstanding Contribution
to B2B Marketing" award at the 2006 B2B Marketing
Awards.
In the dark old days of the sales and marketing disconnect, a
favourite question of mine for sales directors was,
"How long does it take to move a prospect along
the timeline, from being unaware of your company to being a
customer?"
The answer was always somewhere between one and two years.
Hardly surprising when you consider the complex nature of the B2B
marketplace - the various stakeholders who can affect a purchasing
decision and the unique purchasing processes. Which leads to the
next question,
"So why do you try to sell to someone you've never
had contact with before? And why are you disappointed when they
don't become a customer?"
Of course, sales directors under budget pressures just forgot
about or ignored the Relationship Timeline. Years ago the customer
relationship was primarily with the sales force, but now it's with
the brand first and foremost, and has many considerations.
Significantly, you have a relationship with a prospect before they
reveal themselves. As B2B specialists we provide a contact strategy
to optimise the movement of your prospects and customers along the
timeline. It's this movement, which is key to increasing the
productivity of your marketing budget.
The evolution of the b2b brand
Over the last few decades I've been lucky enough to witness a
growing appreciation of the B2B company as a brand, with businesses
now seeing the importance of positioning. However, the word 'brand'
means different things to different people. A communications
manager may see it as corporate design consistency, a CEO as
corporate culture. Our interpretation of your brand has always
been,
"The perception of the values and benefits of your
company in the minds of your prospects and customers."
Our other major belief is that,
"Your brand is the sum of your contact"
Or to put it another way, the beauty of a brand is in the eye of
the beholder - wherever they come into contact with it. This
compels us to think about every action of your brand at every touch
point, and how it will affect market perceptions. You have to plan
and control all the contact, from the functionality of your website
to the way people answer the phone. And it has to be integrated
strategically, emotionally, functionally and chronologically.
We call the process to deliver this Contact Strategy Planning.
Download the full White Paper to see how it's done.
