INTERVIEW WITH
Nick Panayi
Chief Marketing Officer
B2B Customer Acquisition: The role of human engagement in a world of digital-first enterprise marketing
As more and more purchases become influenced by, or even wholly owned by digital channels, marketing teams have a lot more visibility into the buyers’ journey than ever before.
Has the relationship between sales and marketing teams changed in recent years?
The relationship between sales and marketing teams has been changing a lot in recent years, with the change being accelerated by the global pandemic. It used to be quite a brotherly relationship between the two, with sales taking the role of older brother. Sales enjoyed all of the attention as the older brother with marketing often struggling to impress when compared to the success of the older sibling. But the little brother is becoming the star of the show…
As more and more purchases become influenced by, or even wholly owned by digital channels, marketing teams have a lot more visibility into the buyers’ journey than ever before. On the flipside, sales teams tend to have less visibility now as more of the journey takes place outside of their influence. The big brother is relying on the little brother for support and information. Therefore marketing now has a responsibility to coordinate with their sales colleagues and create consistent, joined-up buyer journeys as a result of their increased significance.
Buyers expect to complete much of their purchase independently now and many prefer to have no interaction with sales teams where possible.
How have buyer expectations changed as a result of the global pandemic?
There has been a lot of discussion recently about whether buyers prefer to meet with sales representatives face-to-face or via video conferencing services such as Zoom. But in reality, this conversation is a distraction from the real challenges at hand. As a result of the pandemic, we’ve all become accustomed to virtual meetings and it could be argued that a physical meeting no longer presents a significant advantage to sales processes. What we should actually discuss is the timing and relevance of salespeople in a buyer’s journey. Buyers expect to complete much of their purchase independently now and many prefer to have no interaction with sales teams where possible. For larger B2B purchases, the need for interaction with the sales team still remains but is now often found towards the end of buying journeys as buyers are happy to complete much of the journey independently. They are looking for validation of their decisions, not exploration or research.
marketers need to understand that “show me, don’t tell me” is the new golden rule.
NICK PANAYI
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
INOVALON
What can businesses to do to stand out in modern sales and marketing?
The flow of information, through both advertising and pure information sources, is so great these days that it becomes overwhelming. Alongside this, our attention spans are shorter than ever. If you can’t grab somebody’s attention in the first few seconds, then they disengage and are on to the next thing. These combined factors make it harder than ever for marketers to break through the clutter and stand out. To overcome this, marketers need to understand that “show me, don’t tell me” is the new golden rule. If you can show prospects how other companies in similar industries have benefited from your offering, then the chances of them engaging with you increases significantly. Make your product or service the star and demonstrate it in an entertaining way. This is particularly relevant if you are in the software business, as online demonstrations have become a dime a dozen. If your demonstrator is doing most of the talking during a demo, then something has gone wrong! Think of ways to get your participants involved and make the demo as interactive as possible, otherwise you run the risk of the buyer disengaging.
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