On Thursday August 9, heads of Marketing from around the country gathered at CEB’s Arlington, VA headquarters for the first presentation of the Marketing Leadership Council’s 2012 B2B research, “Disrupting the Purchase Decision: Challenging Customer Buying Criteria.”  The reason most content marketing fails to actually produce better, more profitable deals is it generally accepts (and even reinforces) the buying criteria customers have set based on the research they conduct before they allow the supplier in to influence their decision.  But not just any idea will do.  MORE >>

Eccolo Media conducted a study to learn which collateral tech buyers use to make purchase decisions. Eccolo Media set out to learn: "We asked them about their preferred collateral types, how they used content, if they shared it, and just how influential it was on their final technology purchase. They were asked if "the collateral was viewed, listened to or read in the six months prior to a technology purchase." Well, at least for tech purchases. " Worth noting, 67% of participants were decision makers, 33% influencers - all from U.S. companies. MORE >>

A few weeks ago I was leading a workshop on Lead Nurturing, which included the concept of buyer personas and defining the buying path for each individual persona. One attendee asked, “Why would you need separate buying journeys? Because these personas will each take a different approach to the buying process and be viewing this purchase differently. content architecture or blueprint is built upon buyer personas and their unique buying paths.  He was in fact active at the beginning of the buying cycle.  It is a great question! Moral of the story?  MORE >>

The IKEA Effect provides a clear warning to sellers – ensure the buyer is involved in the process of defining, building, or tailoring your product, or at least in the process of purchase and justification. Buyer Psychology Buyer Involvement Buying Process Consultative Sale IKEA Effect purchase decision Purchase Justification MORE >>

« Sales Leads Are Too Valuable For Sales People Alone | Main | MarketingSherpa Data on the Best & Worst Lead Generation Offers for 2006 » How Podcasts Impact B2B Purchase Decisions A key aspect of lead generation is to engage people as early in their buying process as possible, because thats where you can make the biggest difference. Sales content is most relevant in the later stages of the buying process. Your content should be specifically designed to help support and pull your potential customer through each stage of their buying process. MORE >>