It’s a vicious cycle. Bad leads generate bad relations and a declining cooperation between sales and marketing. The main problem is that the leads you provide to your sales colleagues should be qualified before handing over since not every lead is a potential customer. If someone is interested in your services or products but definitely not interested in buying, then there is no point for sales to invest time and effort in pursuing that person.

The process of qualifying leads can be done manually or automated (with marketing software). You can try to capture information about the person, is he/she a student or a serious potential buyer? You can then nurture your lead with relevant content attuned to his/her needs. Consider a series of articles or video’s that will help the prospects to read up on the topic they are interested in. Also, you need to make sure that your content reaches this specific person at the right moment in the buying process. But how do you know?

Buyer Persona

Before you can help your target audience, you first need to get to know them. You can do this by creating a profile based on their daily challenges and their buying behavior. We call this a ‘buyer persona’. A buyer persona profile will give you insights in your buyers needs and the way he or she collects information during the buyer process.

The B2B Buyer Journey

Now that you know who your buyer is, it’s time to create content for each step and phase of the buyer journey. But how exactly can you do that?

This buyer journey roughly consists of three phases.

1. Consideration
2. Awareness
3. Decision

1. Consideration

During the consideration phase, the buyer is aware of the problem. He/she will consider several options and solutions. Consider this an orientation phase, where no decision is made. The buyer is simply researching various providers, services and products.

2. Awareness

The next step is the awareness phase. The buyer has made a conscious selection of providers and services. He/she will have made a short list and will have contacted several different players and providers with questions.

3. Decision

During the third and final decision phase, the lead is handed over to sales. Here the deal is closed. Has the lead been nurtured? Then chances are high, your product or service might be sold successfully.

Lead nurturing

Marketers have several possibilities to influence a buyer during all of these phases. When you understand the needs of your prospects in each phase, you can provide him/her with content that adds value.

First you have to check if you still have relevant content available. Can you recycle existing articles or whitepapers? Can you apply ‘the Rule of Five’? In other words, can you create 5 different content items based on one idea or topic? Is it possible to create an eBook by bundling a series of articles? Perhaps you can organize a webinar? Next thing on your list is to plan for qualification of the lead in a structured way. It has been proven that when companies do this in a structured way; they accelerate the sales-route.

Before a prospect decides to buy, he or she will view about 3/4 pieces of content on average. When you, as a company, can provide this content during each step of the buying process, you are nurturing your lead. This way, you are helping the lead while providing information on subjects of your expertise. By doing this, you will position yourself as an expert and a thought leader. Research has shown that nurtured buyers are more inclined to close a deal with their thought leader. As a result: the quality of your leads will be better, there is a higher amount of conversion, your sales department is happy, there are no frustrations and there is a higher ROI and revenue for the company.

In a nutshell:

• Make sure you understand the buyer. Develop Buyer Persona’s.
• Map the Buyer Journey of your buyer.
• Create relevant content for your buyer for each step of the buying process.
• Create a content planning.
• Nurture your leads until they are ready to be handed over to sales.

Are you joining this spotONwebinar on June 27th? The marketing department is frustrated in most B2B companies. Sales does not follow up on the leads provided, while they complain that the quality of the leads is inadequate. Over 70% of these companies don’t have a streamlines lead management process. This webinar on 27th June will grant more insights on this particular subject.

The following topics will be discussed during the session:

• What is Lead Management and why is it necessary in B2B?
• How do you use the strategy effectively for more revenue and conversion?
• What should you consider when using Lead Management?
• How do you increase sales and marketing alignment?

spotONvision webinar: Becoming ‘best-in-class’ with Lead Management

Date: thursday 27 june 2013

Time: 15:00 – 15:45

Want to know how a well executed Lead Management strategy can generate more revenue? Sign up now and attend the webinar.

The spotONvision and TNS NIPO ‘Business Buyer Insights 2013’ report focuses on these questions. The results were presented at the B2B Marketing Forum 2013 on 14^th March in Amsterdam.

The subject of this report is an excellent addition to the main theme of the event: ‘The Great Journey: from lead to customer’. The Forum gives insights into buying behavior, the buyer journey, lead nurturing, the lead management process and the collaboration between sales and marketing. Business Buyer Insights is pleasant alternation of the B2B Marketing Barometer, which was published in the years before. This study mainly focuses on the B2B Marketer and trends in marketing strategy. In 2013 however, the buyer is the main focus.

From salescycle to buyingcycle

It’s not very uncommon to see marketing being driven by insights from the salescycle. This makes us forget the basic principles of marketing, right? We forget that it’s not about us, but about the buyer or customer. Back to the survey; we wanted to map the buying behavior of business buyers. To do so, we focused our attention on mainly 18 categories. We researched the steps buyers take in the buyersproces, their considerations and choices.

Business Buyers appreciate personal information the most

Surprising isn’t it? We estimate the use of information sources as ‘too high’, the report shows. We should place everything in context and perspective. What does stand out, are the three most undervalued sources of information; telemarketing, adverts and DM. This means there is work to be done! Because believe me when I say that these three forms of providing information, are still used to full effect today.

Speaking about loyal customers

We also researched the amount of loyalty customers have, when it comes to the purchase of products or services. In some categories, like telecommunication, staff training and mobile, buyers tend to compare providers. This apparently does not explain the loyalty factor. In the end customers will stick to their current provider.

The full report can be downloaded here.

Where to start?

There is no avoiding it any longer, we want to achieve good results with our marketing efforts and so we need to create an insight into our buyer. You do this by regularly keeping in touch with potential buyers and customers and by following them online. This is not only a role for sales and account managers, but also for marketers. Because how else can you make quality content if you do not understand what your audience is looking for?

A buyer persona is a detailed profile of an exemplary buyer that represents a real target group. Read more about buyer personas. The persona is like a guide for marketing and communication to accurately tune the message to your audience. It also helps you make better decisions about how to invest your money, how to promote your content and what channels to use.

Getting a feel of the buyer starts with the buyer

1. Listen

It all begins with listening to the buyer. Look for the ‘5 Rings of Insight: Priorities, success factors, barriers, the buying process and decision criteria. To retrieve relevant information use readily available tools like Google Alerts, Twitter and LinkedIn. Live interviews, however, are indispensable. Talk structuredly and get a clear and deep understanding of the buyer.

2. Analyse and cluster

After you’ve collected the information, you look for patterns and similarities in the behaviour of buyers. Make clusters so you can base your profiles on them.

3. Select and create

Make a vivid story of personas, including photo, name, attributes, challenges and goals. Try to map the ‘digital body language’. Is your buyer only online? Or not? Does he use a smartphone or not? Ensure your sales colleagues recognize the profile. And regularly test this.

4. Launch

Introduce your personas in the internal organization. Everyone must understand who the buyer is and what you focus on in marketing and communication. Working with personas is a dynamic process, you have to maintain, enrich and change them as new information about your buyer comes along.
Want to read more?

Buyer persona creation: Tips and tricks when interviewing’

B2B Marketing Pocket: Wat & hoe buyer persona’s (in Dutch)

As I have written before, you should start by profiling your typical customer and use the 5 rings of insight (see also Adele Revella): success factors, barriers, the buying process and the criteria to decide.

How do you however retrieve this information from an interview with your buyer?

The interview

There are many books about interview techniques and these can be very helpful if you take some time to study them. A buyer persona is vital for the direction of your marketing plans. The interviews you hold are the basis of the profile. Of course you can leave the interviewing to research professionals but if you want to have a go for yourself, what should you look for…

Get to know your respondent before the interview

A step that is often forgotten, is finding out where a person works. Go through the website to find out, because if you don’t, you will look clumsy during the interview. Also check what someone’s career path has been (check LinkedIn), and if they’re active online (a simple online search can help you there). If you’re prepared, you will win the trust of the respondent, which is an important basis for a good conversation.

Questionnaire or open discussion?

A questionnaire can be of great help in conversations, but specifically in buyer persona interviews, you run the risk of a question-answer game and it is not an in-depth interview. We have used different methods in the past and have come to the conclusion that working with an interview grid in an open conversation works best. You’ll need a list of the themes you absolutely want to discuss, but you do not need to stick to the order of this list. Especially when talking about the buying process, you want the respondent to be able to talk as freely as possible. You want him to lead you through every step of the process, who were the key influencers and what content he consulted. You will need to listen by asking questions and occasionally moving the conversation back to a previously discussed topic.

An equal partner who is really interested

If you truly know your respondent and the company he or she works for, you can show you’re equal partners in the conversation. This doesn’t mean you should do all the talking but refer to the latest press release or talk about a hobby you might have found out in your research. Do this the right way and you will become equals. This way, you will get more valuable information to fill your buyer persona profiles. At the very beginning of the interview, try to find out if the respondent wants you to treat him formally or more amicably.

Keep track of the bigger picture

The biggest challenge in drafting buyer personas is to truly understand the world of your buyer to ensure your marketing efforts will better reflect the world of your buyer. When interviewing, constantly ask yourself if the information you are gathering is relevant for your marketing plans or for the content you are planning to create. It’s easy to have a long and pleasant conversation, but bear in mind that you get the right information; otherwise it is a waste of your time.

Want to learn more about buyer personas?

During the B2B Marketing Forum on 14 March, you can join a discussion on this topic during one of the Round Table Discussions.

You can also download the B2B Marketing Pocket about Buyer Personas ‘Wat & hoe buyer persona’s‘ (in Dutch)

Recently I spoke to Tony Jaros, SVP of Research at SiriusDecisions: “One of our biggest challenges is to learn to speak ‘sales’. We have a different understanding of who the buyer is and we don’t use a common framework to support the buyer journey. If you get it right, you can generate 47% more revenue.”

Demand Waterfall

SiriusDecisions developed The Demand Waterfall, a shared view of new demand creation between marketing and sales. It focuses on the responsibilities of sales and marketing in the demand activity. Rather than each department measuring its work and its results, it is a shared scenario of registering and measuring a demand journey from the inquiry down to close and its subsequent stages.

What is really driving the demand generation in the buyer journey?

According to Tony there are three elements of good inbound marketing:

1. Content –Promote relevant content at relevant places so your buyer can find it and consume it.
2. Pathways – lead your buyer to your content elsewhere, i.e. your website, blog, etc.
3. Conversion – get to know unknown visitors, start a conversation and nurture them down the funnel

Aligning sales and marketing

So, how do you start aligning sales and marketing? Tony: “We all know that getting the buy-in from sales can be tough. Talk ‘sales’, focus on numbers and how to make them. Marketing can start off by producing some high-quality leads. Sales in turn will have to invest less time in finding these quality leads but can focus more on closing the deal. Marketing should support sales with good content, tools and resources. This will mean that sales can manage more opportunities at once, which should ultimately increase close rates.”

In closing, Tony sums up some great tips

1. Start communicating better and more. Agree on what is a lead and what is an opportunity. Share the Demand Waterfall vision with sales and try to agree on what will be each other’s responsibility.
2. Start piloting. Prove your successes and try to get more buy-in to go bigger.
3. Make sure you agree on who you target and what you are selling. Define basic key messages and what your value proposition is.

Watch the full interview here:

Lead management and lead nurturing will be one of the main themes of the B2B Marketing Forum on March 14^th  2013. SiriusDecisions will be present as well. Interested to hear more? You can get more information about the event and register on www.b2bmarketingforum.nl.

Would you like to learn more about this topic? Register yourself for the spotONvision masterclass ‘From Lead to Customer in B2B’.

A revolution is considered as something big and threatening, but Lisa Arthur is primarily excited: “A revolution is frightening, but the marketer as a change marketer should be excited!” The market has changed dramatically because of social media and the changing needs of the buyer. And the market is still changing every day. But with every threat come possibilities. Lisa defines three types of marketers:

1. The marketer who realizes that the revolution has begun and who is facing the battle in the frontline. These marketers drive the new era of marketing.
2. The marketer who realizes the revolution has begun but is waiting for the frontline to free up the path.
3. The marketer who is putting his head in the sand and who is still driving business ‘as usual’. These marketers will fall.

The frontlines are the data geeks
The front-runners have guts and are not only embracing the change, but they are also driving it. We have to the stand in the frontline. But how do we equip for that? What skills do we need to go to battle? Lisa has only one answer: We have to become data geeks.” We must seek an alliance with IT and technology and see them as an essential partner in this battle. If we don’t, we have already lost the battle in advance.

This means we, marketers, have to change and learn new things, especially when it comes to technology. That will not be an easy task. Technology is not embedded in our DNA. We are raised with guarding our brand and we are using our creativity to chase the crowd with slogans about how great our brand is. This doesn’t work anymore.

The outside world cannot longer be influenced with our marketing propaganda. Buyers will base their decisions on different criteria than we are used to and buyers have to feel personal engaged with our brands. The way we used to practice B2B marketing has completely changed.We have to start listening to our buyers. Therefore, technology will be your new best friend.

By using smart technology software, in our case marketing automation, we can optimize processes and are able to listen to the outside world. We can discover what our buyer expects from us and stay up-close to the changing marketing landscape. It is clear we have to change our strategy, but where do we start? Lisa Arthur: “It is a journey, you can’t do it all at once.” We must not have the ambition to win the battle in one go. We have to give ourselves time to chase small victories.

Collaborate, listening and ‘keep moving’
“The first step is breaking down the silos between IT and marketing”, Lisa says. We must work together with IT and understand their language. We have no choice. We no longer control our brands and without embracing technology we have no clue what buyers say about us or want from us. According to Lisa we have to start our battle where it hurts the most and we have to realize that it is a journey.

• First of all, make it about your customer and not about yourself. Listen and ask questions. Try to find out what your buyers’ needs are.
• You need everybody within your organization on board. Think about a creative compelling vision. Where do you emotional strike everybody with your anthem?
• Minimalize your risks for big failures and begin your journey step by step.
• Realize that you will make mistakes, but keep in mind – every small step is one step to success.
• It is all about doing, it helps us to learn to get better along the way. So, keep moving.
• And, share your victories. The more people engage in your revolution the sooner the battle is won.

Create ambassadors
Engaging with people is an important aspect. Marketing is no longer about the transaction itself. We have to make fans of our customers. The relation aspect is as important as the transaction itself. The power of creating ambassadors should no longer be underestimated. They are crucial in a believable revolution. Lisa: We don’t longer control our brands or what people say about it, but you can control transparency and engagement to make it right.” That’s all we can do. And B2B marketing technology will be our strongest and most compatible partner in this battle.

Watch the video of CMO Talks with Lisa Arthur from Aprimo about her vision on technology in B2B marketing.

Do you also want to find your alliance in technology? spotONvision gives you the opportunity to follow a Master Class about this subject on January 24th. Please send us an email as seats are limited!

Or request a no-strings-attached Skype conversation with one of our B2B marketing experts if you like to know more about marketing automation.

The theme will be ‘The Great Journey: From Lead to Customer’. We will discuss the importance of buyer insights and the lead management process, from content marketing to lead nurturing. And we will look at the role of technology in marketing. You can register now.

By Jessica Heres - Technology and marketing have never had a close relationship. Passion has always been lacking. But they should be very much in love. Best friends at least. Why? Because technology, in our case marketing automation, can enable we marketers to be more effective and efficient in our strategy and campaigns.  So, why do we not experience love at first sight?

According to Ronald Velten, Marketing Director Benelux at IBM “we as marketers are not raised with the use of technology in our business.” It seems that background and education are the two most important hurdles to use technology. We forget database segmentation and only focus on the creative part of our jobs to convince clients to buy our product or services. “There is a mind gap”, Ronald says, “and we need to close that gap”.

However, nowadays, as companies are forced to:
1. be more agile
2. tune into needs of their clients more efficiently
3. and innovate at greater speed in order to survive

The mind gap is closing, voluntarily or not. A changing market environment leaves us no choice. We need new ways of marketing, new tools and new skills in order to survive. This is not going to happen without struggle.

It is all about data
According to the latest IBM CMO study the market is changing rapidly and almost 75% of marketers claim not be prepared. It seems that we cannot handle the data explosion coming towards us via multiple channels. However, technology can help marketers obtain the right information from all the available data sources in order to improve campaign efficiency and effectiveness and to utilize more personalized strategies.

The Dutch B2B marketing Barometer of 2012 underlined the lack of engagement in the Netherlands. The results show that a lot of companies are still experimenting and exploring new ways of marketing to engage with their prospects and clients. With regard to social media and engagement, only 18% of participants claim to have developed a “thought through strategy”. Reg van Steen from TNS Nipo says: “Starting the dialogue with clients is the most common heard challenge of marketers. 2 out of 5 respondents have not begun to implement new ways of marketing. We need to start testing the waters. Just do it, step by step.” And this brings us back to the mind gap mentioned earlier.

You have to love technology
No love at first sight. That’s a fact. Maybe we need to talk more about a “forced love”, one that will bloom into a beautiful relationship. Whether you like it or not – the marketer of today has no choice. Furthermore, the pressure to justify your return on investment for every cent you spend continues to grow. Companies are no longer able to give marketing a carte blanche and let them do whatever they want without knowing what it will return. And why should we expect it to be any different? With the technology of today we are able to measure successes, engage with clients and react more quickly to the changes in the market. There is only one conclusion for a B2B marketer left: If you love marketing….you have to love technology.

Watch the CMO Talks video where Ronald Velten from IBM, Reg van Steen from TNS Nipo and Ingrid Archer from spotONvision share their vision on technology in B2B marketing.

Do you also want to experience the love for technology within marketing? spotONvision gives you the opportunity to follow a Master Class about this subject on November 29. Register now as we have limited seats!

Or request a no strings attached-Skype session with one of our B2B marketing experts if you want to learn more about marketing automation.

Top 5 challenges:

1. Generating leads or getting in touch with potential clients
2. Content, content marketing and content production
3. Marketing strategy, product launches
4. Brand awareness and positioning
5. Customer retention and customer satisfaction (only 4 out of 112 respondents)

So ‘generating leads’ on top! Great, I’m happy about this, as it is what I would call hard-core marketing. Many of us agree that leads don’t always come easy these days.

Second challenge of many B2B marketers is content marketing, whether content development, content production, content optimization. This includes also social media challenges, as social media has no value without good content.

Striking is the fact that only 4 out of 112 respondents see customer retention or customer satisfaction as a main challenge. I’m wondering if we should focus more on customer satisfaction. Imagine we were able to make our customers our promoters, that could help us in our challenge of generating leads, right?

Want to get started with any of these challenges? Let us know. We’re happy to dive into your world and see where we can add value.

We are curious whether your marketing challenge is mentioned in our top 5. If not, what would be your biggest challenge?