In a world where Netflix gives you recommendations for shows you’ll love, and Spotify gives you ‘Discover weekly’ playlists, it’s about time B2B marketers and salespeople took personalisation seriously.
That means businesses need to lean more on advanced technology and smarter buyer insights to engage modern B2B sales prospects. However, many businesses are still using old, ineffective methods that are not only wasting time, but could be pushing potential customers away. Today, buyers have no patience for generic pitches at inconvenient times. They want to do the research themselves. They want to be helped, not sold to. And they want content to help them make their decision.
Buyers want sales and marketing experiences that are focused on them, not you.
Interruption vs permission
In a post-GDPR, post-Cambridge Analytica debacle world, it has become more difficult for interruptive marketing and salespeople to be taken seriously. Not only are we bombarded with thousands of messages every day, but Salesforce research found that 85% of prospects and customers are dissatisfied with their on-the-phone sales experiences. How many times have you picked up the phone to a cold caller, to very quickly find out that the product does not match your needs at all and the seller has very clearly not done their research?
Buyers can give you permission to be contacted – not just literally through opting in – but by repeatedly engaging with your brand and content, there’s clearly some sort of intent. Buyers are more educated than ever before, and are likely to Google search, sign up to a newsletter, and look up your company’s social media accounts before they buy. In fact, Google research shows that 71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search, and they do 12 searches on average prior to engaging on a specific brand’s site.
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The responsibility of sales and marketing
Personalising the user journey is both the responsibility of sales and marketing. By using a powerful CRM, businesses can avoid alienating and confusing leads and prospects, and offer them content, resources, and a sales approach that tackles the buyer’s pain points and makes it clear that your business offers the solution.
65% of business buyers say they’d switch brands if a company didn’t make efforts to personalise their communications. That’s a hell of a lot. And it’s proof that B2B buyers don’t just like a personalised experience – they demand it. And technology, strategy, and data enable it.
Take a look at our infographic below to see what prospects and buyers want from their sales and marketing experience, and what they usually receive.
