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Eager to apply technology? Then consider it last

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A few words for you to consider, pass on, or ignore as you see fit…

Eager to apply technology? Then consider it last

Sounds counterintuitive, but the easiest way to choose the right technology to help tell your story is to make the technology decision last. First, answer these questions:

  1. WHO needs to see your message? (existing customers? prospects?)
  2. BY WHOM will it be presented? (self-directed? your salesperson?)
  3. WHERE will this happen? (on their desktop? in person/in the field?)

Try it out on your most pressing B2B communication need. The answers will guide you…to the web, to develop a smartphone app, or to a face-to-face selling tool.

The answers to these simple questions will help you define the technology and avoid choosing a technology first, then trying to make it fit.

Apples to apples, actually

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It may be an exaggeration to say that our offering is so different from our competitor’s that it’s like comparing apples to oranges. If we concede that we’re both selling apples, then winning the sale often depends on our ability to communicate specific differences. Highlight the subtleties and tell the story with tools that lead customers through a close comparison:

+ Show a video of a customer that tried both and liked yours better

+ Contrast images of product construction. Point out which features are related to your patented technology

+ Present an explanation of how you’ll support the purchase. The products may seem similar, but it’s your service that will make them happy they chose you

We can win the sale by embracing an apples to apples comparison. If asserting that your competitors are picking from the wrong orchard is unrealistic, make sure your people are equipped and willing to compare your apples to any other apples out there.

Dealer uncentives

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I sacrificed my Saturday afternoon shopping for a new car. The dealer offered me the usual incentives to buy plus another cash bonus because I was a returning customer. I have coined a word for this:

un·cen·tive   [uhn-sen-tiv]

noun

  1. a reward offered to a customer to stay with an existing brand/vendor, making it unnecessary to inquire with a competitor

In B2B marketing, we often lavish time and resources on winning new business by creating incentives for customers we don’t yet have. But how much marketing effort do we invest in making sure that our existing customers never have reason to consider our competition? How often do we circle back and show them how we’re helping them grow revenue, avoid cost, prevent lost days, and keep their customers?

It’s important that we market to our existing customers differently but no less rigorously than our prospects. Pick a handful of existing customers and offer them an uncentive today.

Social Mediocrity

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I’m skeptical of the way most B2B companies approach social media: hire a 20-something to tweet, facebook, pin, instagram, link in, blog, (and so on…) and hope that they connect with the demographic that makes the buying decision. This leverages the fact that the barriers to engaging in social media are ridiculously low and overlooks that quality matters more than quantity in most B2B settings.

Consider these two approaches to B2B social media:

  • Require that your subject matter experts engage in social media by writing it into their job descriptions, as a friend of mine did, chronicled in an earlier blog post.
  • Don’t even try. Instead, focus on making products that are exceptional and let your customers do the social media part for you. In this Fast Company article, Baratunde Thurston lists some social media backfires and suggests that we put more effort into the value of the thing we’re selling.

Social media marches on with or without us. As long as we don’t let mediocrity creep into our offering, we won’t have to settle for social mediocrity either.

A word not often heard in B2B sales

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A client of ours paid us the ultimate compliment: ‘Your apps are fun,’ he said, ‘it’s a big reason why our people use them.’ B2B sales and marketing are usually so dry, logical and calculated, that this F word caught me more off guard than any other he could have used.

As consumers, we expect some degee of entertainment and fun when companies market to us. Why should all traces be removed for those consumers just because they’re on the job?

Include fun as an objective of your next campaign, web project or app and you’ll find out that customers actually appreciate the use of this F word in B2B.

Shocking industrial video

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I regularly fall for banner ads and email subject lines with words like ‘shocking’ in them. Usually it’s for mortgages or vitamins or timeshares. Rarely are they shocking (or relevant to B2B marketing.)

Shock seems to be what’s required to get attention these days. A video of a company’s president speaking about exceeding customer expectations won’t do it. A product manager reciting a list of features and benefits won’t either.

If ‘shocking’ is asking too much, what would a fun, interesting, and engaging video look like in our industry? Perhaps a scientist launching a fictitious product that pokes fun at our serious nature. Or a funny-because-it’s-true skit with a product tie-in?

These approaches may not be right for all customers and luckily technology lets us be selective. We can set up a microsite for a targeted group. Or push content onto a tablet/laptop to show in person.

Shocking and industrial rarely get used in the same sentence, but if we can be a little more shocking and a little less industrial, we’ll get some attention.