What Do B2B Marketers Do Now? is an ongoing email. Join the mailing list to be the first to receive these weekly insights!

Were you at Forrester B2B Summit last week in Austin? Over 2000 marketers convened last week at the conference – and the excitement was palpable. Was it the research? New technologies unveiled? I think the BIG news of the conference was just how… normal… things seemed overall!

Play this song by Austin’s own Black Pumas as we listen to what other people say this week.

#forrb2bsummit learnings

It was great to connect in person with colleagues and see first-hand new research and tech. But the excitement wasn’t all because of 2000 marketers eager to use their corporate expense accounts again – there were some interesting marketing and technology insights from the conference too:

Increased Prioritization of Customer Obsession. Mapping your organization to the 5 levels of customer obsession – customer naïve, customer aware, customer engaged, customer committed, and customer-obsessed.

The Power of Automation & AI. Three key opportunities for technology and humans to work together: support technology, CX, and improved performance.

The Power of Purpose. Just like B2C, B2B customers bring personal awareness and preference to the buying process.

Smarter Demand, Scaleable ABM. The number of B2B leaders who desire demand and ABM to be fully aligned – sharing people, processes, and tools – has increased from 54% in 2020 to 82% in 2022.

At last year’s summit, we learned that the number of interactions required to make buying decisions significantly increased from 17 (2019) to 27 (2021), indicating a new level of attention and due diligence for purchases during the pandemic. Additionally, more stakeholders and influencers are taking control of the decision-making process, resulting in 60% of purchases today having 4 or more people involved (compared with just 47% in 2017).

This year’s summit didn’t provide updated stats, but I think it’s safe to assume they’re consistent, and we still wanna know our customers better to effectively market in today’s buying environment!

Piano Lessons Delay Dementia

Remember those painful piano lessons you had as a kid? Well, maybe it’s time to get it together and pick them back up in your golden years…

There’s already proof that learning a musical instrument is associated with the brain’s ability to change and adapt, and that music can help protect our brains against cognitive decline with age. A new study has investigated how 6 months of piano training can affect the brain compared to simply listening to and learning about music, in healthy older adults who have had no formal musical training.

This is a topic near and dear to me, so seeing these positive results gives hope. And if it is to you as well, maybe it’s something to consider to help some loved ones and watch them shine.

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello.

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Map Your Organization to Your Customers appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

What Do B2B Marketers Do Now? is an ongoing email. Join the mailing list to be the first to receive these weekly insights!

Monday mornings can be challenging at the best of times. Cranking this song by Lenny Kravitz is bound to get you moving and motivated for a brand new month! Listen with me as we explore some takeaways from the past week:

Sales vs. Marketing – Are You Gonna Go My Way?

According to HubSpot, fewer than half of marketers would describe their sales and marketing teams as “generally aligned.” Is that a problem? Heck yeah it is!

Sales and marketing alignment has been a topic in B2B for many, many years. And there are research firms that have had incredible success helping companies align their sales and marketing functions. (Hint: See webinar promo at the end of this post.) So why is this still an issue within organizations?

I find that a Service Level Agreement (SLA) between sales and marketing can be an effective way to bridge this gap. Traditionally, an SLA defines exactly what a customer will receive from a service provider. But SLAs can serve internal operations as well, and sales and marketing agreements are among the most crucial.

HubSpot tells us that a successful SLA should include the following elements:

1. Summary of agreement
2. Goals of both parties
3. What’s needed by both parties
4. Points of contact
5. If goals are not met
6. Conditions of cancellation

Feel like you spend most of your time engaging and re-arranging? Download their template and see if it can help you in your organization!

“Pivoting with Urgency” – Music Instrument Sales

As we can all imagine, online music instrument sales skyrocketed last year. Seems like everyone picked up an instrument or re-ignited their love of playing music at home in 2020. In this article, music retailers explain how they were able to quickly pivot to address the online needs of their customers.

And of course, guitar manufacturers are also claiming their strongest sales in recent history. Makes sense, right?

But what about those other ‘adjacent’ industries and products? Sure – online retailers have thrived, and instrument manufacturers have had a banner year. But what about the other ‘stuff’ that’s not as glamorous? Guitar picks, cases, strings, drum sticks, tuners? We don’t really think about them as much (and they don’t get the same press attention) but it stands to reason that all of these other products will also have a successful year based on the pandemic.

So, what lessons are here for B2B?

Even if you’re not able to pivot and take full advantage of current trends, perhaps you are ‘adjacent’ to an industry that’s thriving. Is there a product or service you have that can help to support those industries as they pivot and grow? Perhaps being the guitar manufacturer isn’t the ideal situation – maybe you want to be the guitar string manufacturer! Would you rather sell the guitar, or sell the strings to ALL the guitar brands? It’s all about perspective.

Webinar – Speaking of Sales and Marketing Alignment…

We’re hosting another What Do B2B Marketers Do Now? event this month! Join me and Forrester SiriusDecisions as we discuss sales and marketing alignment and the best marketing strategies to hit your 2021 numbers!

But what I really wanna know is… are you gonna register?

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Aligning Sales and Marketing appeared first on Virtual Causeway.