Sword and the Script | B2B

MAY 17, 2022

Forrester conducted a “buyer’s survey” in the years 2017, 2019 and 2021. The comparison over time illustrates how the buying process in B2B is changing. This is counterfactual to the notion that B2B buyers are all but done with their buying decision by the time they speak to sales. The “sea of sameness” isn’t new.

Sales Cycle 74

Sales Cycle B2B Sales Studies Marketing Management 74

Webbiquity

MARCH 2, 2017

Today’s buyers have access to unprecedented levels of information: product specifications, pricing, customer reviews, competitive comparisons. They don’t need sales professionals to tell them what they can easily learn elsewhere, and will resent (if it happens at the wrong point in their buying process) being “sold.”

Ethics 100

Ethics Differentiation Comparison Buyer Need 100

Atomic Reach

JUNE 6, 2019

Content Comparison Analytics - This tech solution can compare and contrast various versions of a specific piece of content once it’s been modified during the selling stage. Marketers who employ content comparison techniques can get a better sense of which assets may require some editing before they make their next big debut.

Top of Funnel 84

Top of Funnel Marketing Management Content Comparison 84

The ROI Guy

JANUARY 25, 2018

It doesn’t cover every question a sales rep needs to ask, or all the “open ended” questions to spur conversations and design-think brainstorming, but it does cover all the key baseline questions we need answered, and especially those that show we understand buyer needs. Think mini-diagnostic assessment.

Peer-to-peer 45

Peer-to-peer Correlation Comparison Advertising Benchmark 45

LeadSquared

AUGUST 9, 2018

Moments of truth” are not singular & isolated – Buyers need handholding in their journey from start to finish. Mere quotations and comparisons don’t work – Buyers lust for trust. The result: 1050 new leads responded to the call and were thrust deeper into the buying funnel. What did we learn?

Activities 58

Activities Leads Lead Marketing Qualified Leads 58

The ROI Guy

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

Interactive White Papers can be used at various stages to help facilitate the buyer’s decisions, depending on the content of the white paper itself. Early in the sales cycle, during the discovery phase, buyers need help in identifying issues and understanding what solutions might exist to help solve their priority opportunities.

Paper 40

Paper Interactive Marketing Process Comparison 40

Martech Advisor

AUGUST 20, 2019

Pairing an agile approach with the ever-changing buyer persona isn’t such a crazy idea anymore, is it? As buyer needs change, marketing teams must be quick to identify what exactly is changing and what they need to do on their ends to keep up with it. This is when the puzzle pieces start to align.

Amazon 51

Amazon Top of Funnel Cross-Selling Buyer Personas 51

Customer Experience Matrix

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

It uses our vendor scores to plot the relative positions of products in terms of how well they fit buyer needs. Why It’s There: This lets users create their own custom scores, based by now on a deep understanding of their own needs and the information embedded within the VEST.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Vendors Automation 120

Tony Zambito

APRIL 7, 2008

So herein lays a few reasons why sales forces must change today: Buyers research more than ever today. The Internet has made most of the information a buyer needs to know available at their finger tips. Product comparisons are like splitting hairs.

Buying Cycle 100

Buying Cycle Comparison Buyer Personas Marketing Management 100

Content Marketing Institute

NOVEMBER 1, 2017

As you can see in the comparison chart, those in the sophisticated/mature phase are 5.6 As part of your content marketing strategy, identify the type of buyer who is your organization’s top priority. Then create separate content pieces that address the information needs for each phase.

Research 98

Research Planning Marketing Budget Creation Content Marketing 98

The ROI Guy

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

ROI / TCO Calculators / Sales Tools can be used at multiple stages to help facilitate the buyer’s journey. Earlier in the decision making process, during the discovery phase, the buyer needs to understand that the status-quo is not best, and could be changed to improve the business and improve the bottom-line.

ROI 40

ROI Process Tools Sales Cycle 40

The ROI Guy

JULY 9, 2018

Sellers need consistency, a focused approach and new technology tools to truly exceed this expectation”. The CSO Insight survey reports that 90% of buyers would meet with sellers earlier, but are delaying these engagements because sellers don’t take the time to understand their business and add value to the assessment.

Business 53

Business Peer-to-peer Differentiation Case Studies 53

PureB2B

AUGUST 28, 2018

In this fast-paced industry, buyer needs and demands are ever-evolving. Go to comparison sites and see how your lead’s products or services fare against their competitors’. The painful truth of the matter is that these situations arise merely because you didn’t do enough research about your lead. Review Sites.

Research 94

Research Sales Qualified Leads Marketing Automation Services Work Management 94

The ROI Guy

OCTOBER 18, 2012

According to IDC’s annual 2012 Buyer Experience Study , it was not Product Information, Peer/Customer References, Industry Trends, Competitive Comparisons and Case Studies, but by a large margin, Financial Justification / ROI. So what do your Customers think is the most valued sales and marketing content ?

ROI 40

ROI Peer-to-peer Marketing Proposals Case Studies 40

The ROI Guy

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Content marketing provides a means to break through the noise, providing the consultative diagnostic and financial advice today’s buyer needs. But how can you get started on the journey to a successful content marketing program?

Marketing Management 40

Marketing Management Peer-to-peer Content Marketing Buying Cycle 40

The ROI Guy

MARCH 11, 2014

The Value Gap – Sales and marketing often falls way short in providing the key financial justification content buyers need to make timely and favorable purchase decisions. By a large margin, Financial Justification / ROI content was perceived as the most valuable in driving decisions.

Peer-to-peer 40

Peer-to-peer Sales Cycle Content Case Studies 40

Hubspot

JANUARY 28, 2016

Was the purchase a gift or something necessary to the buyer? Did the buyer spend a lot of time making a decision—evidenced by multiple visits to your site, comparisons between products, and perhaps even conversations with customer service? Did he or she purchase accessories?

Ideal Customer Profiles 28

Ideal Customer Profiles Adwords Landing Pages Cross-Selling 28

PureB2B

AUGUST 28, 2018

In this fast-paced industry, buyer needs and demands are ever-evolving. Go to comparison sites and see how your lead’s products or services fare against their competitors’. The painful truth of the matter is that these situations arise merely because you didn’t do enough research about your lead. Review Sites.

Research 62

Research Sales Qualified Leads Marketing Automation Services Work Management 62

The ROI Guy

JANUARY 25, 2011

For these technology decision makers and influencers, content is an all important decision catalyst, with buyers researching opportunities, solutions, technical specifications, financial justification, success stories references and competitive comparisons. Content that Matters Most?

Paper 40

Paper Personalization Buying Cycle Ideal Customer Profiles 40

The ROI Guy

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

Having the right content and tools to help fuel buyer’s decision making process is essential. This requires the right content at each stage of the buying cycle; Information Overload –buyers are inundated with more marketing messages over more channels than ever before, becoming overloaded and confused, leading to stalled decision cycles.

Peer-to-peer 40

Peer-to-peer Marketing Automation Services Spending Marketing Budget 40

The ROI Guy

JANUARY 18, 2013

It’s not Product Information (17%), Product Demos (17%), Reviews and Test Results (13%), Peer /Customer References (7%), Industry Trends (6%) or even Competitive Comparisons (5%). The Bottom-Line Sales enablement is key to get sales professionals effective at engaging with today’s more empowered, skeptical and frugal buyer.

Peer-to-peer 40

Peer-to-peer ROI Sales Cycle Marketing Proposals 40

The ROI Guy

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

Ever get a competitive comparison ofor a product when you don’t even know what the product does and why you care? Not only is it important to provide the right content to create a dialogue with overloaded and frugal buyers, but to present the right information at the right time.

Interactive Marketing 40

Interactive Marketing Marketing Automation Services Peer-to-peer Buying Cycle 40

The ROI Guy

JULY 5, 2011

Likely, budget has not been allocated for your proposed solution, so a proactive / provocative approach is required - early in the cycle to get buyers to understand that the issues you can address are tangible, and a priority. The project then needs to be made a priority amongst the universe of potential projects.

Enterprise Management 40

Enterprise Management Marketing Management Spending Allocation 40

The ROI Guy

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

According to IDC’s annual 2012 Buyer Experience Study published in November it was not Product Information, Peer/Customer References, Industry Trends, Competitive Comparisons and Case Studies, but by a large margin, Financial Justification / ROI. First, the demand for financial justification has never been higher.

ROI 40

ROI Peer-to-peer Marketing Proposals Case Studies 40

The ROI Guy

JANUARY 17, 2011

Tom Pisello: The ROI Guy This blog is dedicated to the strategies and tools used by solution providers to better prove and improve the value of B2B solutions to frugal buyers - using diagnostic assessments, interactive white papers, ROI calculators and TCO comparisons. But up-front purchase price isn’t everything.

Budget Programs 40

Budget Programs Marketing Automation Services Enterprise Management ROI 40

Biznology

AUGUST 31, 2018

the goal of a user, can be fact-checking, comparison shopping or filling downtime. The Wikipedia definition above gave us two legitimate examples: Fact checking and comparison shopping. But what words do you look for when someone is comparison shopping? You don’t need to model all of their questions.

Intent 136

Intent Lead Ranking Buyer's Journey Comparison 136

The ROI Guy

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

Tom Pisello: The ROI Guy This blog is dedicated to the strategies and tools used by solution providers to better prove and improve the value of B2B solutions to frugal buyers - using diagnostic assessments, interactive white papers, ROI calculators and TCO comparisons. Is this digital spending allocation aligning with buyer needs?

Work Management 40

Work Management ROI Marketing Management Marketing Budget 40

The ROI Guy

MARCH 15, 2011

Diagnose Buyers Issues and Needs – buyers need help on properly identifying and diagnosing issues / opportunities. White papers can help provide ideas of what issues researchers see as important, but today, you need something more personal. The benefits include: 1. high value sales with more reliable growth 3.

Forrester 40

Forrester Lead Ranking Cross-Selling Peer-to-peer 40

The ROI Guy

JULY 19, 2012

In order to break the bias, you need to show how the costs of change are decisively outweighed by 2 times greater potential gains. Buyers need to clearly know what’s in it for them specifically. Challenge - Leveraging this content, Alinean’s tools challenge the buyer to justify · “Why Change?” You” wording works best.

Personalization 40

Personalization Peer-to-peer Marketing Proposals Differentiation 40

The ROI Guy

JANUARY 3, 2012

As contrast is a powerful mechanism to promote change, demonstrate just how antiquated the current product-oriented speeds and feeds approaches are in reaching today’s buyer, and do so side-by-side with the prescribed value-based sales tool driven approach, for easy head-to-head comparison.

Tools 40

Tools Paid Search Agency Buying Cycle Work Management 40

Biznology

MAY 7, 2019

Peer reviews are highly prized in the purchase decision process, not only for validating the claims of the seller, but for showing evidence of the product’s relevance to the buyer’s own industry. Tech buyers need the whole truth before buying.” Wondering about the business model of these comparison sites?

Work Management 132

Work Management Marketing Management Advertising Channels Peer-to-peer 132

TrustRadius Marketing

MARCH 9, 2022

To get the most out of free marketing intelligence tools and optimize business outcomes, software buyers need to find the right combination of tools that encompass the features they require. Optimize your Marketing Intelligence Tech Stack.

Budget Programs 98

Budget Programs Paid Search Agency Ideal Customer Profiles Tools 98

Customer Experience Matrix

JULY 31, 2008

Are we talking about vendor rankings, vendor comparisons, or vendor analyses? Vendor comparisons give each several scores to each vendor, for multiple categories. This is ultimately what buyers need to know, but it doesn’t lead directly to deciding which product is best for a given company. So I reject it.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Comparison 120

Choozle

JANUARY 20, 2020

B2B buyers need to get multiple stakeholders (the average B2B purchase decision now means 6.8 B2B customer journeys can be increasingly lengthy and expand beyond the buyer’s frustrations and motivators. The consideration stage can leverage product comparison guides, expert guides, tactical performance, and others.

Enterprise Management 53

Enterprise Management Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 53

The ROI Guy

NOVEMBER 29, 2017

Clearly there is a Value Gap , between buyers need for financial justification and making a compelling case for change to the ever larger decision making team, and solution providers inability to consistently and credibly articulate and quantify unique business value and provide this in a solid business case proposal.

Peer-to-peer 53

Peer-to-peer Research Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 53

Webbiquity

MAY 13, 2014

Compared to the typical b2b purchase—there is no comparison. Within the past year, nearly half of b2b buyers have purchased common business items from Amazon Supply, the web giant’s online store for business and industry, because their regular suppliers don’t offer an online purchase channel. High perceived risk.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Leads 100

accelerate agency

APRIL 11, 2023

Try testing more than one option in parallel to give yourself a better comparison. Weight price against suitability to your needs, in order to assess value. Conclusion: Getting started with a SaaS Company What buyers need to know SaaS is a cost-effective software delivery model for streamlining your everyday business operations.

Enterprise Management 52

Enterprise Management Paid Search Agency Work Management Marketing Management 52