MARKET VIEW 22
Ragini Taneja
FIELD MARKETING DIRECTOR
B2B Customer Acquisition: The role of human engagement in a world of digital-first enterprise marketing
There is no denying that the trend indicates companies are moving towards the digital-first approach.
Given that millennials prefer no sales rep interaction in a B2B purchase setting, as they mature into key decision-making positions, should enterprise sales organisations make changes to the sales and marketing process to address this generational shift?
What you are selling and who you're selling to is what defines your marketing and sales strategy. For industries that invest millions of dollars into their products, work around regulations and compliance, the shift from human to digital selling approach will take longer and I don’t see that happening in the next few years.
Having said that, I have seen this shift happening in the last couple of years across many markets. Organisations, specially SMEs have moved towards a digital first approach for buying new solutions and implementing them at a large scale.
There is no denying that the trend indicates moving towards the digital-first approach. Organisations are embracing and adapting to this change. And this also means a change for the sales and marketing teams. It needs to start fundamentally with understanding and embracing this shift, to be more forward-thinking and looking to understand how best to adapt to the new way that is impending.
For years, organisations have thought about the sales process from a seller’s perspective, and I think this approach has made them shift to a more customer-centric point of view. So organisations, and marketing teams specifically, should think about how to best replicate the traditional sales processes digitally, and how to enable a sales team to adapt to multiple and diverse-selling channels and use them effectively. While the traditional sales process can still work in some scenarios; we should look at this as an opportunity to leverage so many more avenues that the digital-first approach.
The ways to engage a prospect is changing, so, the businesses need to equip their sales team to sell in a virtual setting.
According to Deloitte, only 29% of buyers want face-to-face interactions in the sales process, while almost 50% of sellers thought in-person was really the only way to connect with the customer. With this in mind, should enterprise sales teams invest more in virtual selling interactions?
Virtual selling is powerful; it offers global opportunities, it can reduce your sales cycle, it allows you to engage more prospects, and so on. The biggest hurdle here, in my opinion, is enabling the sales team. The virtual environment is very different, the way we’re engaging with prospects and the way we follow up is changing, and not everyone is adapted to this yet.
So, the first step is to enable the sales team to sell in a virtual setting. The ways to engage a prospect is changing, so, the businesses need to equip their sales team to sell in a virtual setting. How can they use their skills to engage, to personalise, to create a more engaging and committed buyer journey for a prospect, virtually. Credibility and building trust is not that easy, therefore enabling the sales team to be able to flourish in the virtual setting is pivotal.
The second step is building a technology infrastructure that will enable virtual selling. Perhaps to adapt a new format to communicate with a client. Many organisations out there have the elements in place, but they are all siloed. Ideally, there needs to be a tech stack that enables the marketers to have visibility of the customer journey from the initial touchpoint all the way to the end of the sales cycle. Tools that help the marketing team understand the ideal client profile, the target companies and how to best reach out to them and provide them a user experience that's different, that's personalised, without them having to have multiple interactions with different members of the marketing, sales and presales team.
Marketing should be enabled to have the view of prospect’s pain points, what challenges are they looking to get resolved, where do they need support and build a personalised plan based on those findings.Then that can be delivered as effectively, virtually as it can be done face-to-face. Marketing should own the initial bit of the buying cycle, where they are delivering marketing touchpoints that help the prospect understand how the business can help them resolve their challenges so when the prospect reaches the sales cycle the trust has already been won and the prospect knows whether they’ve come to the business that can assist them in reaching their goals. And this is how marketing and sales alignment delivers maximum impact.
The buying journey in the B2B landscape is different and longer because it takes more effort and time to establish trust and relationship with the buyers.
RAGINI TANEJA
Field Marketing Director APTITUDE SOFTWARE
Considering that millennials are particularly adept at ignoring advertising and have also become used to being entertained, should sellers of enterprise technology and services adapt and develop their sales and marketing approach to address the generational shift towards entertainment seeking buyers?
In my opinion, the most important thing is to understand your audience so you can focus your marketing efforts on your ideal prospect. Outline your buyer persona, use existing data to understand your client behaviour so you can create effective marketing programs that speak to your audience.
The buying journey in the B2B landscape is different and longer because it takes more effort and time to establish trust and relationship with the buyers. This is the time where B2B should be looking at being more creative and leveraging strategic partnerships. For example, partnering with influencers who’ve already established their credibility with your target audience.
Today our personal and professional lives have blended and the B2B buyers are using various channels to consume content. Of course, LinkedIn, Twitter and other established publications still remain the most trusted sources for consuming content but the trend indicates that adoption and content consumption is increasing on channels such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube and I believe this is not leveraged enough in the B2B environment but when used correctly can hold huge potential.
Aptitude Software delivers specialist financial applications to equip Chief Financial Officers (and the finance function) to fulfil their strategies and ambitions. As a global financial software specialist, Aptitude equips CFOs, of the world’s largest organisations, with competitive advantages by streamlining and automating financial accounting processes and enabling faster actionable insights. Their proprietary software supports businesses with combined revenues approaching $1 trillion and over 500 million end customers.
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