Sales In The Time Of B2B Social Media

Every sales person I meet has that nagging feeling that the rules of the game have changed. There is also the acknowledgement that Social Media may have something to do with that change. That being said the hard-boiled sales personality type set in the ways that have proven successful so far needs convincing before a new course is charted. In this piece I wrote for Social Samosa, India' leading social media news and information source, I tell the story of a legen-(wait for it)-dary sales closure that inspired many from the days before social media. Knowing what I know now I try to then find places where that story would be different today specifically due to the impact of social media.

The title of this post was originally "Sales In The Time Of B2B Social Media" in a kind of ham-handed nod to Gabriel Garcia Marquez but for many excellent reasons this was changed - better that than "One Hundred Years Of Solitude" one has to say.

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/07/sales-b2b-social-media/

B2B Sales & The Impact Of Social Media

We’re Gonna Need A Bigger “Awards” Page!

“Jaws” fans may recognize the reference so let me hasten to add that we have not just got a glimpse of a giant shark – rather the realization is starting to sink in that the “Awards” page on the Midas Touch website may be tested more often than we had initially thought possible.

Regulars here will know that Midas Touch (www.i-midastouch.com) is the agency I co-founded with Radha Giri, a friend. Those very same regulars will also perhaps know that we won the Global Youth Marketing Forum’s

"B2B Social Media Agency Of The Year 2014"

“B2B Social Media Agency Of The Year” award earlier this year to go with the “Social Media Agency Of The Year” award from the GYMF last year. The latest accolade for Midas Touch is to be recognized among the “Top 10 Digital Marketing Companies” in India by Silicon India magazine in

A Top 10 Finish

their latest edition. The agency profile they have included in the magazine is here. There is a certificate too that should be making an appearance on the above-mentioned “Awards” page soon. Admittedly the list is an assorted “grab-bag” of sorts includes companies from across the country covering a range of focus areas – everything from web-site and mobile app development to technology that enables digital marketing and advertising. That being said – we are extremely proud of the recognition we have received.

When we are not busy attracting attention for our work we have been hard at work adding clients and delivering winning strategies for them. Our client list now covers Software product and software services companies across a variety of technology areas, a mobile gaming platform company, an interactive technology company that addresses event and marketing solutions, an Industrial Packaging solutions company and an Angel Fund among others. Perhaps given the background of the founders it is natural for Midas Touch to have a slight bias towards the technology space and perhaps the B2B area but specifically in the B2C space we have also had the good fortune to work with a Real Estate developer, a Financial Training organization and a large Community for performers, creative people and artists.      

The several business-outcome focused strategies that we help our many clients deploy are designed to show impact. Perhaps this is what helps us stand apart – the recognition probably comes from this differentiation. As our clients add up the awards will too – we’re gonna need a bigger awards page !

B2B Social Media - Same Channel Different Story

In the past I had pointed to an article I had written in Social Samosa explaining how B2B Social Media is different from B2C. The focus then was on what are the different objectives and hence strategies that would apply. Knowing how social media would be different for B2B though is only half the story - how can you best leverage it's many forms and channels for the greatest benefit is the next important step.

In another article I wrote for Social Samosa I had tried to take a closer look at some specific social media channels - FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The article tries to set out some specific objectives that could be best served by each channel and also some thoughts on what sort of activities would shine best. I hope it helps you make a choice from among these channels when you yourself have to make your pick.

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/04/b2b-social-media-facebook-twitter-linkedin/

The Choice Is Yours!

In The LimeLight - An Agency Feature On Midas Touch Consultants

Staying afloat in the social sea

Regulars here would know that I am the co-founder of Midas Touch Consultants, a digital and social media marketing agency. The agency focuses on working with small to mid sized companies interested in leveraging the power of digital and social media for true business outcomes. My partner, Radha Giri, and I are both from a business rather than branding background and this tends to colour how Midas Touch approaches social media strategies - the focus almost always ends up being tilted in favour of business outcomes over just branding.

We have been getting attention from the right quarters over the last year or so. This link leads to a feature that Social Samosa carried on the agency - its interesting how they have set up the article. Apart from just introducing the agency and its key personnel (there's a snappy picture of me too - suit up!) it also tries to get at the soul of the organization - makes for interesting reading. Do read it to get a better understanding of who we are and what we believe in.

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/04/social-media-agency-midas-touch/

B2B Social Media - It's Different

When Midas Touch reaches out to the small and medium companies in the technology space that seem to form the staple customer for us a question we often encounter is how can B2B businesses like them leverage social media? A less polite version of that question is also put to us that B2B brands cannot really leverage social media and it's utility is limited to some amorphous "branding" push. Like every other pre-conceived notion this is based on a germ of truth - that being that the social media strategies we are so used to seeing in our day to day lives are heavily B2C focused. Applying them willy-nilly to the B2B context will only lead to failure. Once the realization sets in that B2B Social Media is different the next Q is how is it different specifically?  

To B2B Or Not To B2B?

In this article that I had written for Social Samosa I have tried to outline some very specific points of divergence between B2C and B2B social media objectives, strategies and plans. The article has got decent airplay - I would welcome you also to read and comment on what you think makes B2B social media different from B2C?

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/03/social-media-b2b/

All Together Now - An Integrated Approach To Lead Generation

No one claimed Lead Generation was easy - especially when you are in the B2B space. There are so many moving parts that a key problem becomes how to get them all pulling in the same direction. You may have one or more of the following teams contributing to demand generation:

Let's Go Right - No Left - No...

1. Research team keeping track of market developments

2. Contact discovery or database research team building the lists

3. Content creation team responsible for collateral, campaign drafts etc.

4. Social Media team

5. Inside Sales and / or Telemarketing Team

6. Pre-Sales and / or Sales Tea,

You may be getting a sense of the possible complexities just looking at this list. Pretty much every organisation I have spoken to over the last 3 - 4 years has people doing some of these activities. The problem I have usually found is that they all work within their own individual silos. The activity levels are always high and each individual team is usually capable but the result when they come together is generally somewhat underwhelming. My own view is this happens because there is usually no "big picture" view being taken. If you get all these groups working towards a common goal chances are the synergies will lead to much better results. 

Let's consider the example of an organisation that has services to offer to companies in the Cloud space and how an integrated approach would work for them.

1. The team keeping an eye on the market could come up with a finding that of

As an example...

late cloud file storage companies seem to be attracting funding.

2. This could be the trigger for the content generation team to start putting together collateral that would be of relevance to this sector - say a white paper about a technology trend and it's applicability or a user case study of a success story in the same or a comparable space

3. The next step for the content team would be to start working on reasonably customized crafted emails targeted to sub-segments within the larger Cloud File Storage segment.

4. While this is going on the Contact Discovery team could be hard at work building a database of companies and individual decision makers within those organisations who could be receptive to the message.

5.   On getting sufficient content ready the next step is to make it available on the specific social media platforms the target customers are likely to gather on to inform themselves. In the context of the example this may be Cloud focused LinkedIn groups as an illustration.

6. There is also a case for tracking specific influencers in the Cloud Storage space - say the CTOs of the target Cloud Storage organisations. The objective would be to build a map of their social media life - their Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, their blog and so on. Sharing what they have to say in a great way to learn from their experience as also to get on their radar. This is a longer term strategic activity - the objective is to connect with them and engage with them at their own terms on ground they feel comfortable on.

7. Now it's time to launch the outreach campaigns - first email and then telemarketing, assuming that is right for the business. The chance that someone will respond to the outreach is proportionately greater if they have encountered the company or some useful content in the digital or social world previously.

8. Key is integrating the outreach program into the sales process - not only to ensure that any leads that get generated receive the prompt attention they demand but also to be able to build any feedback received at any stage back into the appropriate point of the process.

9. Rinse and Repeat !

My personal view is that if the end objective is that more people should respond positively to your outreach efforts then it's pretty much mandatory that an integrated approach be followed. Chances are otherwise the results will more often than not be lower than the quality of the team and the visible activity level would suggest.         

Back to Basics - What Is Strategic Marketing ?

There's a clear and present danger in all that we do as marketers - the danger that our day-to-day tasks will suck us so deep into frequent "rinse-repeat" cycles of activities that we will lose sight of the end objective. Tactics often overwhelm Strategy with volume - sometimes to get a better view of the end goal you need to take a step back to where it all started. Let's call this post an attempt to focus some attention back to those first principles.

The Writing On The Wall..

So you have built the proverbial better mousetrap. You have also pored through all the available information in market research reports and on the web on the way the universe of buyers that need mousetraps is broken up into groups based on the homogeneity in their specific needs, their criteria for making purchase decisions, the way they make their purchases and so on. Incidentally that is as good a definition of Segmentation as any. What do you do now ?

The next step is Targeting. Based on what you now know about the size, attractiveness and accessibility of each segment you need to carefully consider the specific segment that makes the most sense for you to try to sell your mousetrap to ? Each segment has different problems they want solved and different things they value and you want to find the one that is most likely to value the specific capabilities of your mousetrap. Incidentally marketing experts will tell you that you need to first find what the market wants and then put a product / service offering together for the segment you pick - but given that you have already built your better mousetrap we don't have that option any longer do we ?     
     

The modern marketer then calls for the police sketch artist - figuratively. The trend these days is to try to define a Buyer Persona. A kind of research based identikit portrait of a specific person representative of the wider buyer community. As an example for your mousetrap one persona could be Jill, a single mom with a 2 year old son who lives in a quiet suburban community. This persona helps marketing and sales in latter stages of the marketing / sales cycle concentrate the messaging and other activities - anything Jill is unlikely to respond to is probably not a great approach to take for all those buyers like her.   

Next up is Positioning - an attempt to define your mousetrap in terms that clearly identifies it's specific place in the market especially with respect to all the other solutions out there designed to help Jill address her rodent problem. The final objective is to create a unique place for your mousetrap in the mind of buyers like Jill. Closely tied into this stage is the Messaging you use. The definitions, language, descriptions and terms that you use for your mousetrap has to  be consistent with the positioning you have chosen and the buyer persona that you are communicating with. If Jill is believed to be technically inclined then she may value knowing the tensile strength and the gauge of steel wire used in the trap and in this case the product brochure should mention that - otherwise not. 

in my mind this is a good place to draw the line between Strategic Marketing and tactics. I believe that a lot of what marketers do after the messaging is defined is more tactical in nature - what content do you create to convey the messaging - today blogs, articles, whitepapers, video and many more types of content options are available each with it's own place. What channels do you use to propagate this content is another tactical selection from among social media, ads - digital and real world, PR and so on. This principle holds true for the website, collateral, social media, emails and all other communication mechanisms you use as well. Consistent messaging is critical to prevent confusion and hence distraction but that apart many of the specific choices are dictated more by day-to-day considerations that a broad over-all strategic imperative. What do you think - is this the place where strategy morphs into tactics ? Or do you perhaps believe making such a distinction is unnecessary ?