MARKET VIEW 03
Stephanie Yaguer
MARKETING DIRECTOR
So, when it comes to telling the story, which I think is what Millennials and certainly Generation Z are looking for, Generation X are in an ideal position to use their range of experience to craft a tale that will appeal to buyers from across the generational spectrum.
What are your thoughts on the generational differences across the buyer landscape and how can these be bridged?
It’s true that Millennials tend to live more online and prefer their conversations to be remote rather than face-to-face which can be at odds with Baby Boomers who are used to more traditional ways of buying. But, we shouldn't underestimate the power of Generation X in bridging the gap between Baby Boomers and Millennials. Generation X is the perfect blend of people who didn't necessarily grow up with tech, but they're definitely enthusiastically using it whilst also have experienced traditional buyer / seller approaches. So, when it comes to telling the story, which I think is what Millennials and certainly Generation Z are looking for, Generation X are in an ideal position to use their range of experience to craft a tale that will appeal to buyers from across the generational spectrum. However, with all this being said, ultimately we’re looking for the key motivators of the people we're talking to and we must make sure the stories we tell them are personalised and focused on what matters most to them. Pinpointing what motivates customers means gleaning the necessary information and honing your storytelling to absolutely target what they're thinking about and saying the right things at the right time.
The role of marketing is to provide the intelligence support that will allow sales to shine when they're talking to people and to display that they are experts.
What can marketing do to support sales in acquiring greater market and industry knowledge?
The way we do it is by being collaborative on everything. There's no distinction between sales and marketing when it comes to sharing knowledge. The role of marketing is to provide the intelligence support that will allow sales to shine when they're talking to people and to display that they are experts. In our company, we write a lot of whitepapers in collaboration with the sales team, so all of the input is recognized, and there's plenty of discussion and opportunity for them to contribute to that. We also do surveys, and they allow us to pinpoint an issue that is bothering our target prospect. This was especially valuable over the pandemic because we could assess on a quarterly basis, how people's attitudes were changing, depending on whether they could get to the stores or not. That allowed us to pivot what we offered to meet their needs and fill the gaps.
I think everybody's more tuned into the virtual approach today, and as far as we're concerned, that has not damaged our interactions because we're still able to get that personal approach over.
STEPHANIE YAGUER
Marketing Director RED ANT
With virtual selling being more prevalent today, should enterprise sales teams invest more in virtual selling interactions?
Yes, definitely. I think everybody's more tuned into the virtual approach today, and as far as we're concerned, that has not damaged our interactions because we're still able to get that personal approach over. In fact, the distance has made some people we talk to more comfortable. One thing that we know is that people do not like to feel like they're being sold to, they need to feel like you're solving a problem for them, and the virtual aspect of it helps with that, because you're not sitting there in a room face-to-face, feeling under pressure. So yes, adapting to a virtual situation is something that we've embraced. We run demonstrations remotely on a regular basis. It’s all about “showing and not telling”; we’re showing people what we can do to solve their problems, rather than just saying it.
