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INTERVIEW WITH

Lisa Viselli

Chief Marketing Officer

B2B Customer Acquisition: The role of human engagement in a world of digital-first enterprise marketing

Marketing and sales must work together to understand the big picture-–what’s stressing the buyer out or what competition they might be facing-–to clearly articulate where their company provides more value than the competition.

What can marketing do to assist sales with producing more market and industry knowledge beyond providing access to online resources.

Historically, there has been an idea of friction between sales and marketing but those departments should work hand in glove. We have built an SLA between marketing and sales, so that we know what sales needs and we deliver the best leads, and sales is accountable to marketing to follow those up and give us feedback. You need a stellar relationship for that process to hum. As a data analytics consultancy, we work with a lot of numbers – from client relationship studies and project touchpoint surveys to website authority, organic traffic, website user experiences using heatmaps and lots of other tools. Good data are important, but it’s combining the data with a company’s values and purpose that creates success. You can’t lose sight of the fact that you’re engaging with human beings, so you must view data through knowledge of the market and an understanding of what motivates your buyers. Marketing and sales must work together to understand the big picture-–what’s stressing the buyer out or what competition they might be facing-–to clearly articulate where their company provides more value than the competition. Unique differentiation is pivotal.

The goal should be to programme against enough journeys to have an impact on a critical mass of people that you want to connect with.

Should sellers of enterprise technology and services adapt and develop their sales and marketing approach to address the generational shift towards entertainment-seeking, buyers, and if yes, how?

People are certainly overloaded with information, and they are tuning out sales messages more than ever. However, that does not necessarily mean you should double down on entertainment, in all cases.

Your strategy should be based on understanding your audience. There are a myriad of touchpoints along the customer journey, where you can gain insight into what experiences and messages resonate and whether a customer will be more engaged by gamification or an entertaining piece of content, or a more straightforward process like submitting a demo request or picking up the phone.

For every buyer who wants a fun, animated character like the ones used by Duolingo, there may be a customer who prefers to talk to a human being to ask questions. Every journey is different, but the combinations are not infinite. The goal should be to programme against enough journeys to have an impact on a critical mass of people that you want to connect with.

Also, the word experience can mean many things. Marketing is every experience your business delivers–it could be as simple as how someone answers the phone, how easy you made it to find information, or how you challenge a buyer to think differently so you start to earn trusted advisor status.

LISA VISELLI

Chief Marketing Officer

ESCALENT

Do you think salespeople should be considering how to create experiences that delight, inspire or surprise buyers in B2B markets?

Salespeople aren’t in the driver’s seat, buyers are. Salespeople should absolutely be looking to create authentic human experiences, but that might mean very different things to different buyers.

We should always be looking for ways to delight and surprise customers because your success as a business is your customers’ success. People want to work with those they trust—people who help them succeed and make them feel good about the fact that they chose you as a partner.

Also, the word experience can mean many things. Marketing is every experience your business delivers–it could be as simple as how someone answers the phone, how easy you made it to find information, or how you challenge a buyer to think differently so you start to earn trusted advisor status. There are so many opportunities to give customers a positive feeling that you are there for them. At the end of the day, it’s about building strong relationships, and that can happen organically when you align your company’s purpose with a customer’s need.