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Why Not Help Those Inside a Customer Organization Who Want to Help You?
I was recently in London for the Institute for Direct Marketing’s B2B conference. Great comments and discussion about the kinds of things B2B marketers can do to acquire and retain their customers. One of the issues in B2B, of course, is the fact that while a consumer will make purchase decisions on his own, a business customer will not. Businesses make no decisions on their own at all – because companies are just legal entities designed to sanction the actions of their individual officers and employees. It’s the individuals within the business organization that actually do the thinking, discuss the options, and decide whether their company will or will not buy from you.
We all know this, but it’s still easy to forget. Within a customer organization, the buy-or-don’t-buy decision is often discussed among a number of players, from those who are most likely to use the product or service being considered, to the executives responsible for approving the required expenditure, the procurement folks in charge of vetting the contract, and miscellaneous others. But whenever multiple human beings are involved, there are likely to be multiple opinions.
It’s often the case that someone within a customer organization feels very strongly that the firm should buy, while others remain to be convinced, or might be partial to some other vendor. So here’s a tip if you’re selling your product or service to business customers: Be sure your corporate Web site has all the tools and persuasive ammo that your advocates within a customer organization could need to convince the others – things like links to press reports, cut-and-paste PowerPoint slides, white papers for downloading, customer reviews, and so forth.
Credit for this idea goes first to Carlson’s Jed Murphy of the UK office, who authored a white paper on how B2C techniques can be applied to B2B marketing.
Hello,
I am Alicia Howard of Virtus International (a corporate event organizer) and a subscriber of 1 to 1 Media newsletter.
I really appreciate this article because many business do not realize that it is very important to have clear marketing material which is a good representation not only of the product or service being promoted but also of the company itself.
Thanks
Alicia Howard
Viruts International
www.virtusinternational.com