INDUSTRY INSIGHTS YOUR PEERS ARE READING
Salesforce.com strategist Peter Schwartz argues that the lines between B2B and B2C are forever blurred, and now every company competes in the business-to-individual sphere, where the products and services it offers are tailored to every one of its customers In the fast-approaching world of tailored products and customer experience as competitive advantage, the old categories of business and consumer will be obsolete. MORE
Telecommunications companies have been leaving money on the table by underinvesting in advanced analytics in their B2B business units relative to their B2C operations. MORE
Avnet’s Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Sellers captured the attention of a packed crowd at the recent Leadscon conference as he harkened back to the 1947 jewelry campaign, “A Diamond is Forever,” coined by De Beers’ Mary Gerety. MORE
B2B customer experience is nothing like a consumer experience. While the sales process may be vastly different for B2B, buyers are still people. B2B buyers value trust just as much (if not more) than consumers. Broken Promises are Deal Breakers in B2B. MORE
A similar sequence has happened with B2B buying. By 2012, our research shows, nearly 60% of a typical B2B purchasing decision — researching solutions, ranking options, benchmarking pricing, and so on — was happening before the buyer even had a conversation with a supplier. See More Videos > See More Videos > Surely B2B purchasing hasn’t become that bad. Like these companies, B2B suppliers need to focus on making it far easier for customers to buy. MORE
New research indicates where to focus digital investments so that they will reap rewards in online and face-to-face channels. Our Insights MORE
B2B companies are struggling with a loss of control over the customer experience (CX) today. With their future growth prospects at stake, B2B executives must determine how to improve CX—while ceding more of the experience to their partners. B2B leaders know that customer experience is the gateway to growth. Delivering experiences that produce more B2B sales is another. Selling in the digital age has become more complex than many B2B leaders had anticipated. MORE
Gillian Blease/Getty Images. Knowing which organizations perform the best on any particular dimension used to require subjective surveys or painstaking research. MORE
To understand what makes digital B2B sales leaders tick, The Boston Consulting Group undertook a study of the end-to-end selling models used by a dozen next-generation sales leaders. Article Tuesday, April 05, 2016. A quiet revolution has been happening in sales over the past several years. MORE
While there’s less buzz around business-to-business markets, these innovations are changing the game in B2B as well, even in old-line industries selling what might be considered commodity products. A growing number of B2B companies are using data and analytics to add services that bring new elements of value to customers, and in some cases new sources of revenue. For a deep dive into the elements, see our related HBR article “ The B2B Elements of Value ”). MORE
According to Gallup , only 29% of B2B customers are engaged with the companies they do business with. Let that sink in. That means 71% of your customers are likely not committed to sticking with your company or, even worse, are actively seeking to move their business elsewhere. This problem is not new. MORE
But there's far less data available about B2B buyers, including information about their preferences and interests, making it challenging for B2B sales and marketing teams to understand their clients' interests and needs in what is typically a more complex and extended sales cycle. Every day there's more information available to marketers about consumers, including their transaction histories, social media comments, mobile and website behaviors, etc. MORE
You'll never hear it spoken aloud, but it happens all the time, particularly when you're selling something new, something powerful, something that causes a positive change: "You're right, but we're not ready.". This is what people felt about the internet, about word processors, about yoga pants. MORE
The cartoon of business-to-business (B2B) buyers depicts gray-haired executives and purchasing agents in meetings, on the phone and lunching with their vendors. But along with fax machines and long golf games, these features of B2B life have all but disappeared due to the astonishing change in technology over the past two decades. This shift in behavior has several implications for B2B value propositions. First impressions matter as much as ever in B2B markets. MORE
B2C financial services provider Ally Bank and B2B professional services firm PwC Australia took home top honors in the design category of Forrester''s first annual Outside In Awards. MORE
By focusing on the right digital practices, B2B companies—currently trailing B2C companies in digital transformation—can create long-term value. Here are five areas where digital leaders excel. Our insights MORE
If you sell to businesses, you''re either calling on unsuccessful companies, who are panicking and afraid and don''t have a lot of resources to spend on new things. Or you''re selling to successful businesses. MORE
b2b Marketing Small Business Marketing Start-Up Marketing event marketing marketing message sponsorship Sponsorship Can Pay Off, If You’re Smart About It. Are you thinking about sponsoring an event, conference, trade show or community fundraiser? Read this first, so you can turn a potential money pit into a real opportunity to build your business. If I sound harsh, it’s because I know all too well that sponsorships CAN be money pits if not handled properly. MORE
A deeper understanding of branding’s role in decision making is critical if B2B companies want their brands to drive value. Our Insights MORE
SURVEY] The B2B Buyer Persona: 30 Ways to Get Inside the Mind of Your Target Buyer. For the complete study, download The B2B Buyer Persona here. STUDY] What Do B2B Buyers Want? Account-Based Everything Best Practices from the Industry Sales Development Account-Based Marketing B2B Sales Insights Cold Calling cold email Customer Satisfaction DiscoverOrg Email Marketing Good Data Outbound Email Outbound Sales Prospecting Sales Tips MORE
B2B customer experience is nothing like a consumer experience. While the sales process may be vastly different for B2B, buyers are still people. B2B buyers value trust just as much (if not more) than consumers. Broken Promises are Deal Breakers in B2B. How about your B2B customer experience? Or is it? They expect to be treated well, and they want open, honest, and timely communications. MORE
Outbound B2B sales are becoming less and less effective. Meanwhile, 84% of B2B buyers are now starting the purchasing process with a referral, and peer recommendations are influencing more than 90% of all B2B buying decisions. If organizations don’t change their outdated thinking and create effective sales models for today’s digital era, Forrester warns that 1 million B2B salespeople will lose their jobs to self-service e-commerce by 2020. MORE
In the B2B space, where the transactions are costlier, the products are essential for operations, and service needs to be quickly available, the right channel is essential. MORE
Companies that succeed at analytics-based pricing build a strong foundation—and include their salesforce in developing it from the start. Marketing & Sales Insights MORE
So why is there so much bad B2B marketing content out there? B2B companies are just as able to develop creative, fun, people-focused content as their consumer-oriented counterparts. Even in b2b, relationships happen between people, not faceless entities, and fun and humor are as human as you can get. By: Kathy Klotz-Guest. MORE
” In the B2B world, though, the experience is very different. But B2B customers are mobile, fully engaged in social media, and well educated: 94% of B2B buyers conduct online research before deciding on a purchase. MORE
Selling change to organizations is difficult. One reason is that change represents a threat, a chance for things to go wrong. It's no wonder that many people avoid anything that smells of change. MORE
Like this manufacturer, many business-to-business (B2B) companies have a major opportunity to improve their standing on price. To help companies understand the state of pricing capabilities and how they figure into performance, Bain & Company conducted a global survey of sales leaders, vice presidents of pricing, CEOs, CMOs, and other executives at more than 1,700 B2B companies. Glasshouse Images/Getty Images. MORE
B2B, or the process of marketing and selling product and service offerings to business customers, is experiencing an intensified focus as the availability of new digital data that describes businesses grows. Traditional B2B insight activities have involved such limited data as size of companies as measured by revenue, capitalization or employees, and industry type as formally classified by SIC codes. vincent tsui for hbr. MORE
It disappoints me when customer experience professionals at B2B companies won't even consider CX practices from business-to-consumer companies. Sure, B2B firms can learn a lot from other B2B firms: Cisco has an amazing voice of the customer program, Boeing does great work conducting field studies of their customers, and Adobe has a notable CX governance practice. MORE
A few years ago while attending Dreamforce, I had a few meetings with executives from marketing automation companies who shared different approaches to engaging with B2B customers and prospects. Given the amount of emphasis that''s placed on using data and automation to engage with B2C customers across the industry, I was instantly intrigued by the possibilities for B2B organizations. MORE
My colleague Anna Papachristos recently wrote an insightful article about the findings in Accenture Strategy's 2015 B2B Customer Experience report. The report underscored how despite the understanding of executives about the value that B2B customer experience initiatives can generate, the vast majority of B2B companies are missing out on revenue growth opportunities due to poor performance. MORE
Decision making at big B2B companies is often skewed by anecdote and myth: A worried report from the most vocal salesperson about a competitor’s latest move; a customer complaint that happened to be fielded by a senior executive. That’s complicated at any B2B business. Vincent Tsui for HBR. MORE
B2B buyers have slowly been conditioned to expect the same personalized treatment that they get while shopping on Amazon. Only then will B2B sales professionals be able to capitalize on personalization at scale and fully realize how disruptive it can really be. As consumers in this data-driven, algorithmically obsessed world, we’ve come to expect highly personalized experiences that are tailored to our specific needs. MORE
B2B Related Topics 
McKinsey
MARCH 8, 2019
Telecommunications companies have been leaving money on the table by underinvesting in advanced analytics in their B2B business units relative to their B2C operations.
McKinsey
JANUARY 19, 2017
B2B companies fall short of their B2C counterparts in key areas of our Digital Quotient assessment. Our Insights
McKinsey
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017
Digital has changed how B2B leaders meet customer demands, but not in all the expected ways. Our Insights
McKinsey
JANUARY 4, 2018
Companies that lead in B2B sales follow a three-pronged strategy to drive above-market growth. Our Insights
Women in Consulting
APRIL 10, 2014
So why is there so much bad B2B marketing content out there? B2B companies are just as able to develop creative, fun, people-focused content as their consumer-oriented counterparts. Even in b2b, relationships happen between people, not faceless entities, and fun and humor are as human as you can get. By: Kathy Klotz-Guest.
McKinsey
DECEMBER 21, 2016
A deeper understanding of branding’s role in decision making is critical if B2B companies want their brands to drive value. Our Insights
|
McKinsey
MAY 19, 2017
Growing numbers of B2B companies are focusing on digitization to succeed with customer-centric strategies. Here’s how to get it right. Our Insights
McKinsey
OCTOBER 23, 2018
Companies that succeed at analytics-based pricing build a strong foundation—and include their salesforce in developing it from the start. Marketing & Sales Insights
Strategy+Business
AUGUST 21, 2018
Salesforce.com strategist Peter Schwartz argues that the lines between B2B and B2C are forever blurred, and now every company competes in the business-to-individual sphere, where the products and services it offers are tailored to every one of its customers In the fast-approaching world of tailored products and customer experience as competitive advantage, the old categories of business and consumer will be obsolete.
Joellyn Sargent
JUNE 16, 2016
B2B customer experience is nothing like a consumer experience. While the sales process may be vastly different for B2B, buyers are still people. B2B buyers value trust just as much (if not more) than consumers. Broken Promises are Deal Breakers in B2B.
McKinsey
APRIL 28, 2017
Growing numbers of B2B companies are focusing on digitization to succeed with customer-centric strategies. Here’s how to get it right. Our Insights
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BCG
APRIL 5, 2016
To understand what makes digital B2B sales leaders tick, The Boston Consulting Group undertook a study of the end-to-end selling models used by a dozen next-generation sales leaders. Article Tuesday, April 05, 2016. A quiet revolution has been happening in sales over the past several years.
Joellyn Sargent
JUNE 16, 2016
B2B customer experience is nothing like a consumer experience. While the sales process may be vastly different for B2B, buyers are still people. B2B buyers value trust just as much (if not more) than consumers. Broken Promises are Deal Breakers in B2B. How about your B2B customer experience? Or is it? They expect to be treated well, and they want open, honest, and timely communications.
McKinsey
OCTOBER 10, 2016
By focusing on the right digital practices, B2B companies—currently trailing B2C companies in digital transformation—can create long-term value. Here are five areas where digital leaders excel. Our insights
1 to 1
MAY 6, 2014
A few years ago while attending Dreamforce, I had a few meetings with executives from marketing automation companies who shared different approaches to engaging with B2B customers and prospects. Given the amount of emphasis that''s placed on using data and automation to engage with B2C customers across the industry, I was instantly intrigued by the possibilities for B2B organizations.
Harvard Business
MAY 10, 2018
While there’s less buzz around business-to-business markets, these innovations are changing the game in B2B as well, even in old-line industries selling what might be considered commodity products. A growing number of B2B companies are using data and analytics to add services that bring new elements of value to customers, and in some cases new sources of revenue. For a deep dive into the elements, see our related HBR article “ The B2B Elements of Value ”).
Seth Godin Blog
OCTOBER 20, 2015
Selling change to organizations is difficult. One reason is that change represents a threat, a chance for things to go wrong. It's no wonder that many people avoid anything that smells of change.
Harvard Business
MARCH 14, 2018
The cartoon of business-to-business (B2B) buyers depicts gray-haired executives and purchasing agents in meetings, on the phone and lunching with their vendors. But along with fax machines and long golf games, these features of B2B life have all but disappeared due to the astonishing change in technology over the past two decades. This shift in behavior has several implications for B2B value propositions. First impressions matter as much as ever in B2B markets.
Seth Godin Blog
MAY 30, 2015
When you sell to someone at a business, it's worth remembering that the pain their problem is causing belongs to them, while the money they have to spend, doesn't. Any time you can cure their pain in exchange for their boss's (or the shareholder's) money, that's a compelling offer.
Harvard Business
MAY 10, 2016
” In the B2B world, though, the experience is very different. But B2B customers are mobile, fully engaged in social media, and well educated: 94% of B2B buyers conduct online research before deciding on a purchase.
Harvard Business
JUNE 7, 2018
Like this manufacturer, many business-to-business (B2B) companies have a major opportunity to improve their standing on price. To help companies understand the state of pricing capabilities and how they figure into performance, Bain & Company conducted a global survey of sales leaders, vice presidents of pricing, CEOs, CMOs, and other executives at more than 1,700 B2B companies. Glasshouse Images/Getty Images.
McKinsey
DECEMBER 21, 2016
B2B organizations must focus on the people and moments that matter so that marketing spend turns into real sales. Our Insights
Seth Godin Blog
JUNE 24, 2014
If you sell to businesses, you''re either calling on unsuccessful companies, who are panicking and afraid and don''t have a lot of resources to spend on new things. Or you''re selling to successful businesses.
McKinsey
AUGUST 25, 2017
New research indicates where to focus digital investments so that they will reap rewards in online and face-to-face channels. Our Insights
Harvard Business
NOVEMBER 8, 2016
Outbound B2B sales are becoming less and less effective. Meanwhile, 84% of B2B buyers are now starting the purchasing process with a referral, and peer recommendations are influencing more than 90% of all B2B buying decisions. If organizations don’t change their outdated thinking and create effective sales models for today’s digital era, Forrester warns that 1 million B2B salespeople will lose their jobs to self-service e-commerce by 2020.
Harvard Business
AUGUST 10, 2018
Gillian Blease/Getty Images. Knowing which organizations perform the best on any particular dimension used to require subjective surveys or painstaking research.
1 to 1
FEBRUARY 26, 2018
Avnet’s Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Sellers captured the attention of a packed crowd at the recent Leadscon conference as he harkened back to the 1947 jewelry campaign, “A Diamond is Forever,” coined by De Beers’ Mary Gerety.
Harvard Business
SEPTEMBER 12, 2016
Decision making at big B2B companies is often skewed by anecdote and myth: A worried report from the most vocal salesperson about a competitor’s latest move; a customer complaint that happened to be fielded by a senior executive. That’s complicated at any B2B business. Vincent Tsui for HBR.
Harvard Business
MAY 18, 2018
B2B companies are struggling with a loss of control over the customer experience (CX) today. With their future growth prospects at stake, B2B executives must determine how to improve CX—while ceding more of the experience to their partners. B2B leaders know that customer experience is the gateway to growth. Delivering experiences that produce more B2B sales is another. Selling in the digital age has become more complex than many B2B leaders had anticipated.
Harvard Business
MARCH 7, 2017
A similar sequence has happened with B2B buying. By 2012, our research shows, nearly 60% of a typical B2B purchasing decision — researching solutions, ranking options, benchmarking pricing, and so on — was happening before the buyer even had a conversation with a supplier. See More Videos > See More Videos > Surely B2B purchasing hasn’t become that bad. Like these companies, B2B suppliers need to focus on making it far easier for customers to buy.
1 to 1
DECEMBER 22, 2015
My colleague Anna Papachristos recently wrote an insightful article about the findings in Accenture Strategy's 2015 B2B Customer Experience report. The report underscored how despite the understanding of executives about the value that B2B customer experience initiatives can generate, the vast majority of B2B companies are missing out on revenue growth opportunities due to poor performance.
1 to 1
MARCH 28, 2013
It disappoints me when customer experience professionals at B2B companies won't even consider CX practices from business-to-consumer companies. Sure, B2B firms can learn a lot from other B2B firms: Cisco has an amazing voice of the customer program, Boeing does great work conducting field studies of their customers, and Adobe has a notable CX governance practice.
Harvard Business
JULY 12, 2017
B2B buyers have slowly been conditioned to expect the same personalized treatment that they get while shopping on Amazon. Only then will B2B sales professionals be able to capitalize on personalization at scale and fully realize how disruptive it can really be. As consumers in this data-driven, algorithmically obsessed world, we’ve come to expect highly personalized experiences that are tailored to our specific needs.
Harvard Business
DECEMBER 6, 2016
According to Gallup , only 29% of B2B customers are engaged with the companies they do business with. Let that sink in. That means 71% of your customers are likely not committed to sticking with your company or, even worse, are actively seeking to move their business elsewhere. This problem is not new.
Harvard Business
JANUARY 19, 2018
B2B, or the process of marketing and selling product and service offerings to business customers, is experiencing an intensified focus as the availability of new digital data that describes businesses grows. Traditional B2B insight activities have involved such limited data as size of companies as measured by revenue, capitalization or employees, and industry type as formally classified by SIC codes. vincent tsui for hbr.
1 to 1
NOVEMBER 21, 2013
B2C financial services provider Ally Bank and B2B professional services firm PwC Australia took home top honors in the design category of Forrester''s first annual Outside In Awards.
McKinsey
DECEMBER 27, 2017
SURVEY] The B2B Buyer Persona: 30 Ways to Get Inside the Mind of Your Target Buyer. For the complete study, download The B2B Buyer Persona here. STUDY] What Do B2B Buyers Want? Account-Based Everything Best Practices from the Industry Sales Development Account-Based Marketing B2B Sales Insights Cold Calling cold email Customer Satisfaction DiscoverOrg Email Marketing Good Data Outbound Email Outbound Sales Prospecting Sales Tips
1 to 1
DECEMBER 1, 2015
But there's far less data available about B2B buyers, including information about their preferences and interests, making it challenging for B2B sales and marketing teams to understand their clients' interests and needs in what is typically a more complex and extended sales cycle. Every day there's more information available to marketers about consumers, including their transaction histories, social media comments, mobile and website behaviors, etc.
Joellyn Sargent
OCTOBER 4, 2011
b2b Marketing Small Business Marketing Start-Up Marketing event marketing marketing message sponsorship Sponsorship Can Pay Off, If You’re Smart About It. Are you thinking about sponsoring an event, conference, trade show or community fundraiser? Read this first, so you can turn a potential money pit into a real opportunity to build your business. If I sound harsh, it’s because I know all too well that sponsorships CAN be money pits if not handled properly.
Seth Godin Blog
MAY 5, 2016
You'll never hear it spoken aloud, but it happens all the time, particularly when you're selling something new, something powerful, something that causes a positive change: "You're right, but we're not ready.". This is what people felt about the internet, about word processors, about yoga pants.
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