Feature: The Era of the Buyer

by Marketing ON 23 May 2013

In B2B marketing, as in B2C, a revolution has been brewing over the past few years as the power of the buyer grows. This power struggle has seen marketers begin to adapt from reaching out to buyers to luring them in. In 2013, the buyer revolution will come to a head, according to research conducted by Green Hat and ADMA, with the balance of power set to reside firmly in the buyer’s court.

Empowered by the ability to research, learn and compare online, buyers are increasingly resistant to push-based marketing approaches, triggering a shift from outbound- to inbound-dominated marketing. A hot topic in marketing circles over the past few years, inbound will break through the line this year, fuelling the use of social media, content marketing and PR as bait to attract buyers.

This in turn sparks another shift: the move from real-world contact to cyber interaction. For the first time the balance of spend in B2B looks set to tip to the side of digital marketing over traditional techniques.

Faced with this chain reaction of shifts, B2B marketers are stuck between realising the buyer is in control and adapting their tactics accordingly. A host of challenges prevent marketers from closing the gap between realisation and execution, as they grapple with problems old and new. However, Green Hat’s ‘B2B Marketing Outlook Australia 2013’, drawn from a survey of around 300 marketers, shows good news on the horizon.

Budget relief is on the way

The budget restrictions that have plagued the industry look set to relax this year (see Figure 1). Firms increasing their spend will outnumber those cutting back by three to one.

Marketing departments are also growing, says managing director at Green Hat, Andrew Haussegger. “The vast majority still have fewer than five team members, but we’re finding that a lot more companies are increasing the size of their teams to five and above… budget on salary is going up.”

While this elicits a sigh of relief in many, working with scarcity and deploying funds wisely will continue to be a necessity for marketers. David Redhill, chief marketing officer at Deloitte, believes budgets are being redirected and more closely managed in concert with other forms of business development. Spend intentions display a clear channeling of funds away from traditional demand generation, forecast to drop by eight% from a high of 36% two years ago, to digital marketing, which looks set to jump three% on last year.

Closing the gap on the buyer revolution

The era of the buyer is upon us, according to Chris Fell, managing director of inbound marketing specialists g2m Solutions. “A big sea change is occurring, underpinning a lot of the changes that are coming in marketing,” Fell says. “Marketers are struggling to figure out how to adapt to the new world that they’re faced with. There is a gap between realising the buyer is in control and changing the tactics and tools in the process.”

But the gap is starting to close. Marketers are realising they’re not the trusted source they once were. In such a climate, ideas are the new currency, says Redhill, noting buyers are increasingly looking past marketing to their industries’ opinion leaders. “When we talk about providers, we’re not talking about the sales and marketing people, because they don’t believe us – it’s the subject matter experts within our business.

Marketers plan to respond to this power shift by adopting inbound marketing in greater numbers than ever before. Last year, 42% said they spent more on outbound than inbound marketing, while only 22% spent more on inbound. This year, 35% will spend more on inbound, while only 31% will do the reverse, shifting the balance in favour of pull-based marketing tactics for the first time.

“Inbound marketing has broken through the line in the plans and intentions of marketers,” Haussegger says, pointing to a knock-on effect for social media, content marketing and public relations. One dollar in every seven will be spent on content marketing this year, Green Hat’s research reveals. Much of this will be deployed online.

The increased focus on inbound triggers another big shift for 2013: marketers channeling even great spend towards digital. The balance is expected to shift in digital’s favour for the first time by next year, if it hasn’t already. Anecdotally, the growth in spend planned for websites, online advertising, social media, SEO and SEM, as well as content marketing and lead management (see Figure 2), points to digital eclipsing traditional this year, Haussegger estimates.

“By next year, based on the trends we’ve seen over the last couple of years, we are certain more will be spent on digital… buyers are online and so the marketers are looking for them online.”

The number one digital tactic marketers will look to invest in during 2013 is websites; with 77% planning to increase spend on this asset. As technology improves, marketers are making websites an interactive place for people to visit, Fell notes. “Blogging, downloading stuff, testimonials, webinars, watching video – people are starting to use websites for places to go to interact with the organisation,” he says.

More B2B organisations are now creating and publishing social media content than aren’t, with incidence set to jump from 34% last year to 52% this year. “They’re either dipping their toe, ankle, knee or the rest of their body in social media,” Haussegger explains, “and the total inbound advocates are fully up to their necks.” Smaller, nimbler organisations are leading the way. “Some of the larger organisations are often more challenged around the rules dictating how they can actually apply their content in social media,” he adds. Only 17% are yet to have any involvement in social media.

Uncertainty over return appears to be holding the others back, Fell believes. “Some are, therefore, hesitant to jump in and commit large amounts of time and money to it.” Green Hat’s research supports Fell’s assertion, with only one in eight of the opinion that their investment to date has been worthwhile.

LinkedIn remains the most used – 82% tap its rich source of information on professionals – while 69% use Twitter (which Fell sees as an untapped force for lead generation), 66% are on Facebook, and others, including Google Plus, remain a blip on the radar. Content is being posted to YouTube by 54% and on industry blogs by 41%.

Being involved in LinkedIn is a no-brainer according to Kimon Lycos, founder of B2B agency Mihell and Lycos. “In terms of lead generation, in terms of sales performance, in terms of brand building, it’s unrivalled,” he says. There’s general agreement that marketers got their heads around LinkedIn in 2012, taking it beyond recruitment into lead generation and brand building territory.

On Facebook, opinions are mixed. Some believe it’s not a place for most B2B brands, while others think it’s a potential gold mine. Lycos sees it as the equivalent of looking at family pictures on a desk. “You’re able to get a snapshot of what their personal interests are, and then you can build rapport based on that. I think it’s also got great relevance with recruitment and demonstrating and displaying a company’s culture.”

Mobile

Coming in at number five on the priority list for digital tactics this year is mobile enablement, pointing to the market finally getting serious about mobile sites.

Lycos thinks there is a great niche for mobile catalogues and content marketing. “Conferences and events could make much better use of this technology to add more value to their events. I’d like to see stuff like match-making, so I could share the type of people I’m interested in meeting and be matched up with those people.”

Where does that leave ‘traditional’ marketing?

With buyers having migrated online, traditional techniques are failing, Haussegger believes. Once big-ticket marketing ploys are being cut back or, in some cases, stopped altogether.

Tradeshows and conferences, a mainstay of the B2B world, are also reducing in relevance according to Marketing’s sources, an assertion reflected in the data. There’s a belief bigger, longer events are no longer attracting top-level decision-makers, sparking a movement towards smaller, more personalised events.

B2B marketing is about effecting an introduction between a human salesperson a buyer, Fell says, pointing out events are still a strong tactic. Redhill sees events moving to those of greater value: “Seminars, report launches and private briefings are certainly eclipsing hospitality and feel-good event spend.”

Not all traditional disciplines are set to decline, however. Reflecting the shift to inbound, PR has stepped up to the top position for planned traditional marketing spend. Growth in PR is expected to come most strongly from SMBs.

Speed bumps and the road ahead

Automation is the word on every marketer’s lips, with back-office procedures, such as integration with sales or CRM, proving the most troublesome over the past year. Rolled together, 60% of automation challenges selected by respondents reside in the back office, compared to 40% in front.

Automating lead nurturing and management was nominated as the most pressing challenge over the past year. The research found that one in every 12 dollars spent in 2013 will go to addressing this goal.

The age-old challenge of measuring ROI followed close behind, with the disconnect between marketing and sales one of the major factors clouding measurement. Marketers are unsure if sales follow up on around half of leads generated.

When it comes to using data to target buyers with relevance and context, it is still early days, Haussegger says, “But some marketers are on the road towards making one-to-one marketing a reality.”

“You need a lot of content to tailor to the different stages of the funnel,” Fell points out. “The journey takes a long time in B2B, and therefore you have to give them different tidbits at each stage, to accelerate them through the sales funnel, towards being qualified leads that you can then centre.” Interpreting and acting on the reams of data being collected is a further challenge, complicating the progress towards a one-to- one marketing model.

On the whole, however, Redhill thinks marketers are becoming increasingly sophisticated. “Better use of social media, better use of thought leadership and better use of data, they are all intertwined. I’ve seen increasing alignment of social media presence outside the business with brand objectives and use of data in the marketing formula, increasingly organically, so [there’s a] continuous feedback loop.”

With buyers now in control, marketers need to be more agile – ready to respond with what the buyer wants when they want it. “It used to be that business- to-business businesses are sort of like the aircraft carriers of the marketing world,” Redhill concludes. “It takes a long time to check and adjust, to get the market feedback, feed it into the sales model and adjust and change it.” In the era of the buyer, however, B2B marketing is quickly becoming a more agile craft.

B2B Big Plays: truck drivers, ad spend and brilliant machines

by Kimon Lycos ON 22 May 2013

B2B Big Plays features news and events from the planet, and is proudly delivered twice a month by B2B Marketer, Australia’s largest B2B marketing group.

IDM gets a Richard from Google

Middlesex – Google’s Director of Business Markets, Richard Robinson has joined the IDM B2B marketing council. He takes the glorious position as Chair. IDM – (The institute of direct marketing) is seeking to improve marketing performance and attract talent to the profession. A worthy pursuit for sure!

IVECO invites truckers to get Hi-Way

UK – Not sure this would work in Oz. Do we want to have our amphetamine-fueled long-haulers get this message? Voted truck of the year, the Stralis hit the market with a mobile campaign, created by Mobile Promotions. Truckers could take a test drive, see how much room there was to hide bodies and how comfy the seats were. All up 403 gave it the big thumbs up.

CMO’s hang around for longer

Chicago – The average stay for a CMO is 45 months, up by 2 months on 2011 numbers, according to Spencer Stuart, Executive Search. Industrial companies lead for the way for long termers, averaging more than nine years (just missing out on the gold watch). Healthcare, auto and communications are the shortest stays, averaging just 28 to 32 months.

Video advertising hitting new highs online

New York – Cranking up the volume online are video ads. Spending will nearly double in four years in the US market. eMarketer published ‘Buying Online Video Advertising: Making the Most of Your Budget’ which gives some good benchmarks, seeming our buck is about the same as theirs. The cost-per-thousand impressions of digital video for “midtier sites” is about $25 and reaches $33 for premium destinations. By 2016 the spend could grow to $8.04 billion.

From the makers of Bad Ass Machines, comes “Brilliant machines”

Global – GE goes ‘Matrix’ with Hugo Weaving in another fantastic campaign, where technology takes a back seat, and the message punches you in the face. GE created buzz across Pintrest with Bad Ass Machines, featuring their cool stuff. So the brand is really stretching itself to connect, and I think doing a damn fine job of using different channels. Created by BBDO New York and a budget that must have been epic, it’s a great example of creativity pitching technology to professional decision makers.

B2B Big Plays: Atoms, daydreaming marketers and Google Plus?

by Kimon Lycos ON 8 May 2013

B2B Big Plays features news and events from the planet, and is proudly delivered twice a month by B2B Marketer, Australia’s largest B2B marketing group.

Nomination for the Academy Awards? IBM’s ‘A boy and his atom’

Global – Cue husky voice-over guy: IBM scientists have moved atoms by using their scanning tunnelling microscope to make a movie, ‘A boy and his atom’. It is the World’s Smallest Stop-motion Film, and goes to show that nanophysicists know how to have a good time…

The plot is a bit thin, basically like Snakes on a Plane, the title says it all. But for a piece of content, it has showcased that there are some really smart people lurking in the halls at IBM (when was the last time you manipulated one of smallest particles of any element in the universe?)

What the ﬁlm lacks in story, it makes up for in geek cool. This breakthrough could transform computing by providing the world with devices that have access to unprecedented levels of data storage.

What a brilliant way of generating quality content. I hope they do a remake of Old Yeller, this time without the rabies.

Marketers daydream… yeah, so what?

UK – For some reason (there’s a prize if you know why) Travelodge put out a report that says nine in ten marketers say regular daydreaming helps to improve performance and motivation in the workplace.

Now it gets embarrassing because I have no idea why I’m putting this out there (or why I read the stupid report), but they also claim that marketers daydream seven times during their working day with each daydream lasting on average more than ﬁve minutes.

If your boss clips you on the back of the head to wake you up, ﬁre back with the conclusive proof that 90% of marketing professionals employ daydreaming every day to ‘help them improve their performance and make them more motivated in the workplace’. So is that what George Costanza was doing under the desk in that Seinfeld episode?

Got an opinion about HTML5 ad guidelines?

New York – If you want to have a crack at shaping the guidelines for HTML5 (I can’t wait!), then the Interactive Advertising Bureau has released the HTML5 for Digital Advertising 1.0 standard for public comment.

The guidelines are designed (apart from getting free publicity) as a resource for digital advertising designers and creative executives who are developing online ads using HTML5.

If you have ever wrestled with such issues as ﬁle and ad unit size, in-banner video advertising and animation, efﬁcient ad creative packaging and ad server compatibility, then here’s your chance to speak up. The guidelines are available in all their glory at here

A ray of sunshine? Tech marketing budgets up 3.7%

US – IDC’s 2013 ‘Tech Marketing Barometer’ was released earlier this month and the big number we all like is that budgets are on the way up for tech companies. Based on an online survey of 64 senior marketing executives at large technology companies (with average revenue $4.6 billion).

Pause for stating the bleeding obvious: “For B2B companies, lead management is the major process for marketing,” says Kathleen Schaub, VP/CMO advisory service at IDC.

OK, perhaps Kathleen could have given some of the more juicy insights such as: cloud computing software companies show the strongest growth this year (up more than 15%), and overall revenue will grow by an estimated 4.8% at tech companies this year.

Is that a pulse we can feel over there?

What are the positives for Google Plus?

Global – Hands up who uses Google Plus? Hum, thought so. Apparently there are 343 million users, with 27% of them considered active. But what’s the utilisation for being involved?

I have been beset by people gushing over the ability to set up private hangouts for meetings, bring up docs and edit them, show a video and collaborate, then record the whole thing and incorporate it into CRM. And it’s immediately available on YouTube.

Would love to get feedback on Google Plus from B2B marketers.
Is it useful?
Is it any good?
Or just don’t bother?

Let us know in the comments, on Twitter, or in the LinkedIn group…

B2B Big Plays is proudly delivered twice a month by B2B Marketer, Australia’s largest B2B marketing group.

B2B Big Plays and Marketer Spotlight: John Clay

by Marketing ON 24 April 2013

B2B Big Plays features news and events from the planet, and is proudly delivered twice a month by B2B Marketer, Australia’s largest B2B marketing group.

LinkedIn gets a new Pulse for $90 million

San Francisco based LinkedIn (the place you go to get famous during a lunch break) has snapped up a newsreader app, Pulse. The acquisition is a mix of stock (90%) and cash (10%).

Pulse assembles news from different industries and presents it in a tiled interface. With over 30 million people using the service to read their news, it is another classical eyeball acquisition, and continues a strategy of news delivery.

If only Linked In could shield us from all the ’20 different ways to write an effective email and get sexier while doing it’ posts. Perhaps it’s about to get knocked off? See below.

Linked In killer? ClosedNet hype or tripe?

If you listen to publicist Kizzi Nkwocha, LinkedIn is going to be smoked within 12 months. Big call, but all empires have to fall at sometime. Hope they can get their money back (see above).

Kizzi reckons that, “ClosedNet is the future of professional online networking and is likely to overtake LinkedIn in less than a year. The idea behind the platform is simplicity itself. It takes all the great bits of Facebook and LinkedIn and creates something targeted, intimate and valuable to business owners and their customers.”

It is a free service, so don’t get too excited by the 20,000 companies who have already signed up. How many social networks can people join? If you take it for a spin let us know in the comments.

Research says that Twitter is a B2B favourite, but nothing about effectiveness

UK-based website, B2B Marketing, claims that Twitter is the most popular social media platform among B2B brands. 85% of B2B brands claim a presence on the microblogging platform. LinkedIn comes in a very close second, with 82% of respondents claiming a presence.

Question is, what does this actually mean? That not enough B2B marketers can be bothered with the extra work of LinkedIn? And what is the effectiveness at engaging with target audiences?

There are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics – thanks Mark Twain!

Panasonic gets stuck into India for B2B growth

Looking towards the profitable B2B and B2G sectors, Panasonic is launching the Toughpad to target mobile workers. The aim is to double B2B contribution to revenue by 2015. There’s not much more to add…

CDW take Barkley mobile to win

Ogilvy & Mather have cooked up a series of TVCs aimed at business, government and healthcare, using the hall of fame basketball star Charles Barkley.

Cast as the ultimate road warrior, Barkley has to navigate a naked IT nerd in the shower, the latest in mobile technology and being the new guy on the job.

Think big Charles is up to it? Check out this engaging TVC, and try not to get hooked on the whole series.

B2B MARKETER SPOTLIGHT: John Clay

Company: Arup

Position: Principal, head of marketing and communications, Australasia

Why did you get into B2B marketing?

After completing a sports science degree and a postgraduate diploma in business analysis, I decided that many principles apply equally to sport and business, and especially to marketing-related activities such as team work, competition and goal setting. I decided that the path for me was a career in business, with sport as an enjoyable pastime.

Your biggest B2B marketing high?

Winning a $15m dollar contract when working for a small IT business. All the long hours involved with relationship marketing, pricing and contract reviews melted away after receiving the news.

A forgettable marketing moment? (Or someone else’s!)

One of my first mistakes (in my first job out of university, for a small high tech business), was misreading some copy for a company brochure/folder. I rushed through the proofing and transposed the last two numbers promoting the firm’s main telephone number. I felt terrible, especially after having to apply some sticky labels to 10,000 pieces of collateral. (Needless to say now I double check all pieces of artwork that come to me, and organise for other team members to review. Even then, the occasional typo still slips through.)

What 3 challenges do you have as a B2B marketer?

Remain focussed upon the big items that are going to make a real difference to the company winning business, and not get distracted by information overload and pressing time demands from numerous stakeholders,
ensuring that your team is aligned and empowered to do their jobs, and
nurturing talented staff in their pursuit of a fulfilling career.

What is the most useful book you have ever read?

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey comes to mind.

If you were a brand, which one would you be?

Adidas – taking three stripes and transforming them into a respected worldwide brand, even during various downturns and supply chain issues.

When not marketing, what else do you do?

My main interests outside of work are playing golf, going to the theatre and travel – I’ve just come back from a fantastic trip to Cambodia and Vietnam.

Your big B2B marketing prediction for the next 12 months?

In times of economic uncertainty, there are always opportunities for respected brands to gain market share.

B2B Big Plays is proudly delivered twice a month by B2B Marketer, Australia’s largest B2B marketing group.

B2B Big Plays and Marketer Spotlight: Ray Kloss

by Marketing ON 10 April 2013

B2B Big Plays is proudly delivered twice a month by B2B Marketer, Australia’s largest B2B marketing group.

P2P marketing (read: business corruption) gets cheaper in China

Shanghai based Hurun Report suggests skipping the $8000 Rolex and using a $1200 Longines instead for gifting with your Chinese political pals. “You have a change in the political leadership and (that) meant a big anti-corruption drive,” says Hurun founder Rupert Hoogewerf, referring to the new class of Communist Party leaders who will be installed in March. “They’re very much trying to demonstrate you’re not allowed as an official or someone in authority to receive gifts that are clearly expensive.”

That said, the local rocket fuel, Kweichow Moutai, is still welcomed at about $300 a bottle. After a session with that stuff, you won’t be able to read the time anyway, let alone care about the brand of watch.

US corporate disclosures go social – risk mangers invest in blood pressure medication

Bloomberg has fully integrated Twitter with financial information as a service for subscribers. All done with the okey-dokey of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. With rouge traders and aggressive marketers in mind, what are the chances of this new capability being used to pump up the value of companies and generate misleading info to many?

You can search by company, asset class, person or topic to track updates, along with getting alerts for ‘unusual’ bursts of social media chatter about a company. Perfect for content marketers and social media boffins to blast away and draw attention to a client’s rise or a competitor’s fall. We love human nature. Make something useful and someone is sure to find a way to lose an eye.

Why CMOs and CIOs should kiss and make up

The Aberdeen Group report ‘Enhancing Customer Experience Through CIO and CMO Alignment’, (say that quickly while eating), was based on an online survey of 84 senior marketing executives conducted in December. It found that failure to align meant that the CEO might need to bang a few heads together, because it can be costly. CMO/CIO alignment reported an average 15.4% annual revenue growth, compared with an average 3.5% annual revenue growth at companies without such alignment.

Companies with CMO/CIO alignment have an average 10.1% customer retention rate, compared with an average 5.6% customer retention rate at companies without marketing-IT alignment.

So how about it? Let’s all hold hands, sing ‘Kumbaya’ and make some money.

B2B marketing awards in the UK are now open

Into its ninth year, the UK based B2B awards are looking for entries. The theme is ‘are you a B2B rockstar?’ If you have recently trashed a hotel room, earn huge amounts of money for wearing tights, and can drink half a liter of vodka (and keep it down), then you can enter here: b2bmarketing.net/awards

‘Virtually perfect’ sexy assistant for British HR managers

Promise, not making this up…

Punter Southall Health and Protection Consulting has launched a software for HR managers called Gladis (short for Group Life and Disability Information System). The software is designed to check changes to employee details that may affect a company’s protection insurance.

So the idea is to create a fictional character called Gladis, which the agency Inky Blue describes as “warm, feminine and ever so slightly sexy character HR professionals would relate to, but not feel threatened by.”

At first look, we thought the drawing was half done, and had in our possession a ‘first look idea’. Only to realise that this was indeed Gladis in all her glory. Would love to read the research that says HR managers relate to “ever so slightly sexy characters.”
Who comes up with this stuff! (And who buys it?)

B2B MARKETER SPOTLIGHT: Ray Kloss

Company: SAP

Position: Head of marketing, SAP Australia / New Zealand

Why did you get into B2B marketing?

I am very passionate about the impact that business systems have in helping the world run better, one organisation at a time. I’ve seen this firsthand from marketplace projects in my engineering bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois, through my early years with General Motors and in my later time with Lend Lease – so I believe so much in the possibility, I’m committed to the marketing of these projects. I have to be passionate about what I’m marketing – for my own ethics.

Your biggest B2B marketing high?

It would have to be achieving success for big B2B brands across multi-cultures. I’m passionate about audience impact, and as a Midwestern boy, from northern European immigrants – achieving pipeline and customer success across APJ has been a high point for me in my life – and certainly very enjoyable and meaningful personally.

A forgettable marketing moment? (Or someone else’s!)

The current gap between the brand promise of some premium airline brands operating in and out of Australia and the less-than-even-discount experience they can sometimes deliver. The other one has to be paying for digital video spots on Fairfax news stories – just ‘off’ to have commercial ad placements preceding heavy news stories about human tragedies.

What 3 challenges do you have as a B2B marketer?

Delivering effective audience-driven, needs-based content marketing. Inspiring people to keep renewing themselves and their approaches within the marketing team. Finding time and resources to listen to customers, deeply.

What is the most useful book you have ever read?

The Tao te Ching, and the runner up would have to be the Tao of Pooh. Third, anything by Rumi. If I’m forced to find a business book, has to be Jim Collins and Good to Great – I apply it all the time.

If you were a brand, which one would you be?

Volvo – brilliant fit to purpose, well-engineered, low maintenance and very low service, appealing European design, very functional, safe for the family, delivers and delivers, and serious diesel power in the DNA. And when they drop the T5 turbo from the four-wheel drive into a two door and marry it with a manual – unsuspectingly lots of fun. Quiet achiever. Determined. Comfy. But can dress up nice if needs be.

When not marketing, what else do you do?

I am passionate about being a dad – and about the role men have in making the world a more peaceful place, and the unique role men need to play in raising our children. I love being with my kids, involved in anything from making airplane models to inspecting leaves at the park to wrestling HSC math. I like White Ribbon a lot too. Check it out – men, take the pledge! I’m a committed traveller – closet ambition as a youth was National Geographic photographer – still have that travel bug alive and well. And then, anything around water.

Your big B2B marketing prediction for the next 12 months?

LinkedIn still won’t fully realise the gold mine they’re sitting on. Marketing bestpractice will remain focused on the final results (revenue impact), not the input activities (how many registrations we achieved). Websites will be replaced by community driven mobile apps.

B2B Big Plays is proudly delivered twice a month by B2B Marketer, Australia’s largest B2B marketing group.

B2B significantly trails B2C in articulating compelling brand values

by Marketing ON 8 April 2013

A recent report by Temkin Group identifies leading practices that companies can use to establish client-centric relationships.

The ‘Best Practices in B2B Customer Experience’ whitepaper finds that B2B trails B2C in all four customer experience core competencies: purposeful leadership, compelling brand values, employee engagement and customer connectedness.

One of the most alarming gaps is found in developing compelling brand values where 37% of large B2C firms are rated as good or better, compared with only 24% of large B2B firms.

“Consumer companies may get the mass of media coverage when it comes to customer experience, but there’s enormous opportunity in the B2B sector,” says Aimee Lucas, customer experience analyst of Temkin Group and the report’s lead author.

The customer experience as the foundation of stronger B2B enterprise relationships is viewed as the ‘enormous opportunity’ with the research identifying B2B best practices across seven broad areas:

Develop closed-loop voice of the client (VoC) Programs. Having a reliable flow of customer insights across the organisation is critical to driving customer-centric actions,
use journey maps to better understand clients’ needs. To better understand how clients see their experiences, B2B organisations can use a tool known as customer journey mapping,
tap into virtual client advisory boards. Client advisory boards (CAB) and councils provide the opportunity to acquire more insight into customer needs and expectations,
account-level experience reporting. To acquire, retain, and grow B2B relationships, account managers need to understand what’s working and not working for each of their clients,
insightful business development. B2B organizations that gather and use the right customer insights during this early stage will create a differentiated experience from the start of the relationship,
collaborative account planning. By taking a structured and collaborative approach to developing in-depth account plans, companies can tap into their enterprise knowledge, and
proactive intervention and support. B2B organisations need to use customer insights and feedback from account managers to intervene in service experiences gone wrong as quickly as possible with well-defined, robust recovery procedures.

B2B Big Plays: news and events from the planet

by Marketing ON 20 March 2013

B2B Big Plays is proudly delivered twice a month by B2B Marketer, Australia’s largest B2B marketing group.

Can this be actually true? Ads on social networks perform 2.5 times better than ads on other channels

It seems for every hard luck story about social media and advertising, you get something like this poking its head up. The boffins from media intelligence company Aggregate Knowledge have published the ‘Q4 2012 Global Media Intelligence Report.’

The guts of the findings are: ‘Ads on social networks perform 2.5 times better than ads on other channels, such as ad networks, ad exchanges and portals.’

The results of this study are based on an analysis of 530 online ad campaigns for Fortune 500 brands, with more than 35 billion ad impressions. No, we don’t know how many are pure B2B which is frustrating.

Not all bad news for ad exchanges, though. They deliver clicks and conversions 29% cheaper than other channels, including social networks, portals and ad networks.

You can’t keep a good American B2B marketer down

The US-based B2B Online website, published their findings on optimism. The report, ‘Outlook 2013: Marketing Priorities & Plans’, found that 49% of respondents expected to spend more this year, up from 40% in 2012. Only 10% said they planned to cut their budgets.

The report is mostly US based, and says that marketers plan to markedly increase spending this year. Sounds good to the rest of the world. Here’s hoping for a US-led recovery. Now, what about the Italians, Spaniards and Greeks?

IBM, the people company

John Kennedy, vice president of corporate marketing at IBM Corp, says he wants to showcase employees in marketing efforts. “We do business through our people, showing that IBMers are an important part of our programs,” Kennedy says.

Okay, admittedly John has not provided a great insight (who would have guessed that business is done by people?), but it is a noteworthy approach. These days too many companies are terrified of social media and making heroes out of their people. IBM, it seems, is embracing it.

Marketo IPO, the next billion dollar silicon baby?

When Oracle snapped up Eloqu, it ruffled the market for cloud-based marketing companies. You don’t want a significant platform getting a massive boost like that. Talk about synergies!

Marketo has played their cards as close as they can to their chests, using US-based rules to keep the IPO under the radar, but it is all now well and truly out in the open.

They have previously raised more than $100 million in venture money and was ranked the fastest-growing private company in Silicon Valley by the Business Journal in 2011.

Who is going to be the third and forth horse to enter this race? Or are we facing a duopoly at the high end of town?

Dell launches ‘personal achievements’ UK campaign

Hoping to hit both business and consumer audiences (and the chances of success are…?), the campaign will run on TV, as well as online and in print.

Stephen Gater, marketing director, consumer, small and medium enterprises, for Dell in the UK says, “This campaign creates a synergy between the professional and the personal, emphasising Dell’s strong belief that technology can help anyone realise their dreams.”

Is he right? Did they nail it? You be the judge:

B2B MARKETER SPOTLIGHT: Sonia Adams

Company: GHD – engineering, architects and environmental consultants

Position: Internal secondment for two years from global CMO to client liaison NSW. The focus in my new role is on positioning GHD for the key infrastructure projects likely to come on line in the next few years. This new role has a significant top line revenue target: 30% growth.

Why did you get into B2B marketing?

Got caught up in the early stages of my career communicating intangibles and value propositions rather than selling ‘stuff’. I never pictured myself selling toothpaste, cars or handbags – bigger deals always interested me.

Your biggest B2B marketing high?

Convincing a group of builders to join government to bring new home buyers into the market in a ‘rent to buy’ scheme. Seeing hundreds of industry participants including, builders and banks meeting potential home buyers in a ‘market bazaar’ at the convention centre. This event changed real estate marketing in Canberra and the role of government in the supply chain.

A forgettable marketing moment? (Or someone else’s!)

Walking the streets of Sydney in the 90s, cold calling travel agents promoting a Canberra tourism accommodation and attractions package, trying to convince them to hang our poster in their windows.

What are your top three challenges as a B2B marketer?

Getting cut-through with clients who also have relationships with all of your competitors.
Creating meaningful touch points with government buyers who are restricted in how they deal with you by their probity requirements.
Putting some sizzle into deeply technical pitches.

What is the most useful book you have ever read?

The Trusted Adviser by David Maister.

If you were a brand, which one would you be?

Mercedes – enduring, quality, reliable and occasionally quirky (gull wing – who would have thought?)

When not marketing, what else do you do?

I am totally addicted to golf – on leave in November I played 26 rounds.

I am also the president of APSMA (Asia Pacific Professional Services Marketing Association) representing marketing and BD professionals from law, accounting and engineering firms.

Your big B2B marketing prediction for the next 12 months?

Mobile apps and tools will create stickiness in relationships if (we) the hosts can figure out how to design what our clients need and how to get them to market effectively.

B2B Big Plays is proudly delivered twice a month by B2B Marketer, Australia’s largest B2B marketing group.

Q&A with B2B expert Carlos Hidalgo: Lead gen is overrated

by Marketing ON 13 March 2013

With over 20 years of experience in the B2B space, Carlos Hidalgo is a respected thought-leader, blogger and keynote speaker, and was named a ‘Who’s Who in B-to-B’ by US-based BtoB Magazine. He is currently CEO and principal of Annuitas, a provider of lead management process services, and has worked with organisations such as McAfee, HP, CA Technologies and Microsoft.

We chatted with Hidalgo about his thoughts on lead generation versus demand generation and the challenges facing B2B marketers today.

Marketing: How important to B2B marketing is lead generation?

Carlos Hidalgo: While this may surprise you, I would say that lead generation in B2B is not that important. What is truly important is demand generation. Lead generation is focused on simply generating ‘leads’ into the top of the funnel. I speak with many marketers who talk about lead generation as generating responses – responses are not necessarily leads.

Demand generation focuses on generating perpetual demand and creating a dialogue with the buyer at every stage of their purchase process. The reason this approach is so important is that B2B buyers have more information at their fingertips than ever before. Research shows that up to 50% of the buyer’s purchase path is complete before they ever engage with a vendor. This means that B2B organisations have a limited time to engage their buyer and demonstrate they understand the buyer’s needs and challenges. This is done through a defined demand generation strategy that is driven by buyer insights.

You’ve been doing this for a while now. Do you feel that many B2B marketers still fail to understand the impact of comprehensive lead management programs or include them in their marketing programs?

I do and here’s why: I think too many B2B organisations are still very tactical in nature. Many define their marketing campaigns by these tactics – how many times do marketers speak about a ‘webinar campaign’, a ‘lead-nurturing campaign’ or a ‘top-of-funnel campaign’? These are not campaigns. These are tactical, focused actions that are one and done. Marketers need to understand that the buying process is not a one and done activity, it is a dynamic process. B2B marketers must adapt to that process and develop programs that engage, nurture and convert their buyers. This requires deep buyer insight, development of relevant content, and marketing and sales working together strategically to address the needs of the buyer.

On that marketing and sales relationship, a recent study on B2B showed that 50% of B2B marketers couldn’t confirm leads were being followed up. Is this a common problem?

It is an all too common problem as that statistic indicates. I would say in my experience that 50% is low. With most of the organisations we work with, starting off the overwhelming majority of these leads are unattended. There are many reasons for this, but one of the biggest is where the focus is for marketers. If the focus is on lead generation – the tactical approach of generating responses – sales will most likely ignore these leads as it forces them into being lead qualifiers and not sellers. Sales staff get paid to close deals, not try to sort through a list of names in hopes of finding a qualified buyer. There needs to be a more-established process that delivers a higher qualified lead to sales.

Should this be a key focus?

There has been a lot of focus on how to align marketing and sales in hopes to address this problem. I would submit that this is the wrong approach as the alignment is not the problem but one of the key symptoms of the problem. The focus should be on developing a demand process which focuses on a perpetual state of demand generation, is buyer-centric and maximises customer lifetime value.

Do you foresee a structural shift in the way marketing and sales departments sit within an organisation?

Most definitely. Many organisations have structured their marketing in a siloed or tactics-driven manner. You have event departments, field marketing – which in most organisations simply serves sales – email marketing teams, web teams, etcetera. This only compounds the problem of not being able to take a buyer-centric approach to marketing and sales.

I see the more progressive organisations beginning to understand that there needs to be some centralisation of these functions with the ability to extend this out to the global organisation. While it sounds contradictory, a centralised yet distributed model which is accomplished by the establishment of a demand generation centre of excellence.

Do all B2B organisations need lead management and marketing automation? Is this the silver bullet?

There is no silver bullet when it comes to B2B marketing. The thinking and hope of marketing automation being the silver bullet is the reason why, according to Sirius Decisions, up to 75% of all those who own automation state that they have not received the full value of it. This is also shown by another Sirius Decisions study that stated only 10% of marketing automation owners deploy it for programs later in the buying cycle.

What needs to happen in B2B organisations is a transformation of their demand process, including their buyer dialogue and content approach, their lead management framework (SM), organisational structure and how they are utilising technology in order to enable the process. Without this approach and understanding that technology is simply an enabler, organisations will stay stuck in tactical ruts.

What impact is big data having on lead generation?

I think the potential is there to have a huge impact in terms of data analytics and predictive analytics, but the truth of the matter is that in the present day it is having very little impact in most B2B organisations. While many organisations have the data, there is a gap in that they are not utilising this data to improve their approach and establish a better dialogue with the buyer, thus improving their results.

We will get there as marketers, but I do not believe we are tapping into big data as effectively as we could.

How do you recommend B2B marketers measure the success of a lead generation program?

Demand generation is about maximising the lifetime value of the customer. Many marketers are still stuck in measuring impressions, opens and clicks. While these kind of engagement metrics can provide insight to the marketer, they need to understand the rest of the organisation is looking at contribution to pipeline and revenue. Marketers should be looking to value measurements – return on investment, overall reach to their ideal target buyers, increase in deal velocity, and contribution to sales pipeline.

In essence, marketers need to be thinking like business people and begin to measure the value they are bringing to the organisation as a result of their demand programs.

How do you think B2B marketing will evolve in the next five years? How should people be transforming themselves?

I believe that marketers will continue to become better equipped to do the jobs the business needs them to do – engage buyers and maximise the value of those relationships. To date, over 80% of marketers claim that they have been self-taught. While we can learn a lot while on the job, the lack of marketing training is abysmal especially given the importance of this role. I see that over the next five years there will be an increased focus on the education of marketers and skills development.

I also see more organisations adopting a process-first Approach. As we have discussed, demand process is key to an organisation’s success. Too many companies have jumped to marketing technologies – especially automation – in attempt to improve and have failed. I believe that others will learn from these mistakes and ensure that process, strategy and technology are viewed as essential to an organisation’s revenue growth.

Carlos Hidalgo will be speaking at ADMA Rethink, Australia’s B2B Innovations Summit, in Sydney on 9 April and 11 April in Melbourne. For more details or to register, visit: adma.com.au/attend/upcoming-events/rethink-b2b-2013

B2B marketers: help us benchmark Australia’s B2B marketing sector

by Marketing ON 29 January 2013

Update 29 January 2013: Only four days left to participate, if you haven’t already. Green Hat has been kind enough to pull some preliminary results for us:

Social is gaining traction, with participants describing their organisation as a ‘creator and publisher’ up 50% on last year’s study,
measuring ROI is still the biggest challenge, however, significantly more respondents know their cost per lead this year and, overall, cost per lead appears to be dropping, and
in 2013, Australian B2B marketers intend doing more (or start doing) e-nurture marketing (68%), mobile enablement of websites, emails, etc (63%) and online videos (60%).

Original article posted 4 December 2012 – Back in June last year we were able to bring you the results of what was probably the most comprehensive B2B marketing survey conducted in the Australian market, in this feature: The state of B2B marketing in Australia.

Now, Green Hat is partnering with ADMA and Marketing mag to run the survey again. In its second year, the results of the study will additionally be able to provide year-on-year trends and even more insight.

We invite you to participate in the Green Hat/ADMA 2013 ‘B2B Marketing Outlook Study’ – the most comprehensive annual Australian research into B2B practices, trends and directions.

By participating, you will be able to benchmark your own organisation against businesses in similar segments. By taking part you will get:

Insights into trends and directions in our rapidly-changing B2B marketing landscape,
a pre-release complimentary copy of the research report (purchase price for non-participants is $350), and
an invitation to a 2013 event discussing the findings of the study.

The questionnaire will take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Responses will remain completely confidential and only reported in an aggregated format. Your details will not be provided to any third party. You can see the privacy policy here.

The survey is open until 5pm Friday 1 February 2013, and the report is scheduled for release in early March.

More specifically, the research aims to probe:

Challenges and insights from 2012,
objectives and plans for 2013,
benchmark metrics for leads, conversion and engagement, and
2013 B2B marketing budgets mix.

And year-on-year trends:

Digital versus traditional marketing tactics,
social media usage and adoption,
content marketing investment, and
lead nurturing and automated marketing.

If you’re a B2B marketer, join in.

If the quest for great local data on B2B marketing trends isn’t enough (it should be), the saving of $350 makes it a no-brainer.

Games B2B big boys play (or, a cautionary tale for little guys)

by Kimon Lycos ON 17 January 2013

Ooh, imagine the wonders of hooking up with a big boy. You know, one of those massive multinationals, who, despite their power and size, lack the very innovation you can deliver. Thus, with one order, you can raise your sales by a staggering 30%. The global marketplace is opened up like a ripe clam, and you have a ready-made sales force that can bolt on your brilliant solution to its established customer base.

Sounds like a match made in heaven. Well, welcome to a common hell for the little guy.

Perspective is critical. You have to stop looking at all the pluses from your end, and think about what your small bananas mean to the 2000-pound gorilla who already has a whole plantation. A common misconception is that big players are looking for new things to gain an advantage. The reality is, they are working at such a scale that new things are a threat. Changes represent a massive risk of upsetting a huge apple cart, and often the margins for large players are so skinny, they make Paris Hilton look disastrously obese.

The tantalising allure of playing with the big boys is very hard to resist. The upside seems so tremendous, that the downside is often overlooked. Often times, it is better to say to the big boys that all empowering word: ‘no’ (you can also add ‘sod off ’, if the occasion demands it).

Let’s consider some examples of the games big boys play.

Game One: Rope-a-dope

Off you head to the US to meet with a large player (“Gee, Mike, can you believe it! They will meet with us! This could be huge!”). Your offering is perfect, you know it is, and you are pretty damn sure that they know it is, otherwise, why would they meet you?

The meetings go very well. Chad, Bob, Tex and other people with single syllable names nod in agreement with you, as you explain your technology, how it works with their stuff, how the market needs a thing like yours, and the terms of licensing.

You have made a promise to yourself not to offer an exclusive. But the charm is switched on and they start to discuss the volumes, the reach, the market scope and their ability to deliver. You hold out, so they ask for a reasonable timeframe, seeing there is technical risk from their end. You have the agreement in place, with speciﬁed targets for them to reach, and it all feels like money in the bank.

Now let’s fast-forward 12 months. You and your technical team have been tied up feeding a massive range of requests, and troubleshooting. Your big global partner has not sold a thing under the licence agreement.

This game is played to tie up good IP so competitors don’t have access, and so that they can also get a lower price out of you by hobbling your resources, time to market and leading you on for as long as possible to hopefully make you go broke. Then they have a ﬁre sale on what’s left.

That licence agreement you have is worthless – actually it’s worse than that, it can be the trigger that annihilates you. Because if you want to go legal, don’t you think they have a team of lawyers who make Jack the Ripper look like a sissy? For them legal costs are not legal costs. It is allocated as a cost for acquiring and crushing the competition. Competition to them is anything that does not bear their name.

Game Two: Collectors

This is not as sinister as Game One. In fact, the intentions can be very good. The problem is big players like to add stuff like collectors, just for the sake of having it. Let’s say you gain a big player who has a vast distribution network. So the thinking is, while the sales guys are talking to customers, they can sell your bit too. Well, the downside is that salesmen often stick to what they know.

If there is any form of training required, you will struggle. Especially if you have a mismatch on the sales process required. For example, one small high-tech company had an advanced product for the irrigation industry. They snagged a big deal with one of the world’s largest suppliers of irrigation equipment. Match made in heaven, right? Wrong!

The sales staff were used to selling millions of bits and pieces to farmers, stuff like pipes, clips, hoses etc. This highly advanced technology product required an explanation of agronomy, the setting up of test sites and a cost per unit that far exceeded what the salesmen normally sold. The result was pathetic sales volumes that nearly drove the company to the wall.

Game Three: Gimp maker

A slight variation on Game Two, except you do actually get stuff sold, but at an increasing cost. This is also known as the ‘Walmart effect’.

You gain a first order! Yay! Now you have to deliver. The first year is a blur. So are the second and third. Increasingly, the demands from your big boy grow and grow to the point where at least 30% of your business rests with them. Soon they start having conversations about streamlining, decreasing costs, making the partnership more ‘efficient’.

They cheerfully send their own experts to your business to work out where savings can be made. Suggestions, if not taken, turn to threats – a 30% to 60% chunk of your business has a gun to your head. Not only that, but you have invested in systems to service them, a lot of time and resources.

As you slowly but surely give in, their share of business grows with you, but the profits are going the other way, as you get squeezed to produce more with less, and told to get back into your box once they have ‘had their way with you’ at review time. Those first three to five years seem like a dream. Now at year 10, you can’t recognise your own company, and the activity at reviews has you walking with a gait akin to a cowboy who just rode for 24 hours straight.

Before looking at the big boys, consider all your options, including being patient and growing slowly. Chasing that big white whale can end in tears, and it can be very hard to think like the big boys do. When you are small, sometimes you have to accept that some things are out of your league.

Mind the gap: B2B customer experience expectations will surge ahead in 2013

by Michael Haynes ON 13 December 2012

Hello again, Everyone!

2012 has flown by and another year is just around the corner.

2013 is looking to be an even more challenging year. In addition to plummeting business confidence, increased pessimism and slow economic growth, companies can also expect some new trends with regards to customer experience and customer service in the year ahead.

Here are three key trends and the implications they will have on B2B suppliers and service providers.

Global competition will drive up service standards

With continued slow economic growth and increasingly commoditised and competitive business markets, customer service will be used more and more as a competitive differentiator in B2B markets.

According to a BDO global study, 57% of B2B firms surveyed expect that service will be the focus of firms of all types by 2020. However, only 40% of companies surveyed think they address customer feedback well and 45% do not have a system to identify and address service gaps.

Many B2B companies have a lot of work to do if they are going to succeed in such tough business conditions. B2B companies both large and small are going to need to get much more sophisticated and use approaches such as customer journey mapping to gain an in-depth understanding of their client and customer requirements especially for their strategic and most profitable customers and then develop the appropriate customer experience and service that these customers seek.

Expanded view of customer service

Technology advances have provided business customers with more capabilities. They have access to more information and are sharing and reviewing this information with their peers and colleagues through various means such as online sites and community groups. As a result, business customers simply no longer regard positive customer service simply as getting ‘fixes’ to issues and problems. They now also want the opportunity to share ideas, collaborate and co-create with companies to develop the products, services and customer experiences that they want.

Therefore B2B companies will need to develop broader customer strategies that enable their customers to provide such input into product and service development. Hence B2B companies will need to consider implementing customer engagement initiatives such as:

Customer forums,
customer advisory panels, and
online communities and networks.

However we must remember that we are B2B so we have to take into consideration the requirements of both decision makers as well as end users and that it’s these stakeholders that should determine the types of customer engagement mechanisms that should be used.

Customers will seek to help themselves

Providing your business customers with the opportunity to engage and interact with their fellow peers is increasingly important in the B2B sector. Business customers want the opportunity to get information to address their own issues and problems. However, this is sought after not just at the user level but at a senior decision maker as well. Therefore you must provide opportunities for key stakeholders within your business customers to engage with their peers using appropriate forums, which again may consist of face-to-face events as well as online activities.

By doing so, you will will not only help to provide a great B2B customer experience but also positively impact your company’s financial performance. 60% of B2B buyers will consult a peer or colleague when making a buying decision. (Within the IT sector, it is as high as 80%.) Therefore by providing such positive experiences will help to generate the referrals and recommendations, which are critical in generating B2B sales.

Don’t get caught short in 2013 – mind the gap!

Make sure your company has a clear and in-depth understanding of the kind of service and overall customer experience that your business customers expect from you.

Take an honest and critical look at your company’s current performance and determine what it needs to do to close that gap so that it can continue to retain as well as gain business customers.

Until next year. Have a great holiday season!

Your B2B Customer Guy,

Michael

B2B marketers: it’s time to be agile and get in the fast lane!

by Michael Haynes ON 1 November 2012

Hello again, Everyone,

As I am sure we can all attest, being a marketer today is more challenging than ever before. It is our role to help businesses meet those key performance indicators in the midst of volatile and uncertain economic conditions, weakened business and consumer sentiment, customers with ever-changing and increasing demands, not to mention the increasing amounts of customer data that continues to emerge.

These factors mean that marketers and strategists must adopt a strategic but also a fast and flexible approach to developing and executing their marketing. A new term has arisen for such an approach and it is referred to as ‘agile marketing’. Essentially, the concept is that companies can no longer use the traditional approach of simply developing and executing the annual marketing plan. Instead, companies must revisit the marketing plan and modify its execution frequently. Some proponents of the approach are advocating that within some markets that this needs to be done as often as weekly.

Most of the discussion about agile marketing is within the business to consumer context. However, given the fact that we as B2B marketers must also operate in similar fast-moving and challenging business environments while at the same time serving two ‘customer masters’ – decision makers and end users – it is just as important for us to be more responsive and agile in our approach to marketing.

So what does this mean?

Being an agile B2B marketer means that we still need to adhere to the same core principles of strategic marketing but simply in a faster and more responsive way. However there are three key principles that must be adhered to.

1. Understand your customers but decide quickly!

Despite the need for speed, it is still important that you engage in dialogue regularly with both the decision makers and users so that you are well informed of their key objectives, challenges and issues that they are trying to address.

However, the key in being an agile marketer is making sure that these insights are being quickly fed back to and acted upon by your company’s decision makers. To achieve this, your company should regularly conduct internal customer update sessions where management and key stakeholders can be updated on new customer developments/insights.

Consider using the 15Five concept for these sessions whereby a debrief outlining key insights is written in 15 minutes and takes no more than 5 minutes to read.

2. Have a strategic but flexible marketing plan

It is still important that your B2B marketing plan:

is insight driven,
clearly outlines your target audience, their requirements and preferences,
is specific with measurable goals and actions – no motherhood statements please! and
identifies opportunities for customer engagement and feedback to ensure relevancy.

However, an agile marketing plan is not pages and pages of PowerPoint slides full of supporting data and analyses. Instead, it should be an action-oriented document all of which is compiled in no more than two to three pages.

Also, given the rate of change in business environments today, the plan should be looking no more than six months in advance. It should be revisited in regular meetings at least quarterly – often referred to as sprint sessions. Unlike the typical planning meetings, these are short, action-oriented meetings no longer than one hour. The focus is on identifying key developments, implications for the business, identifying next steps and accountabilities. All of which is also summarised in one page.

3. Marketing is about customer experience

Finally, it is important to remember that while we need to be responsive and act quickly; we must not lose sight of our core role as B2B marketers. Our purpose is not to simply pump out campaigns and communications but rather to deliver the solutions, programs, service levels and advice that our customers seek that enables them to achieve their business objectives. Therefore, we must ensure as we continually modify and execute our marketing programs, that all of our initiatives are indeed fulfilling this purpose.

The fact is that marketing is now a sprint. Don’t get left in the blocks.

Take a look at your company’s approach to marketing planning and execution. Identify ways that your company can modify its approach to get into the fast lane and win.

Until next time,

Your B2B Customer Guy