by William Walsh | Jan 16, 2023 | 2023
By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 5 Minutes
Off we go into 2023!
For us, 2022 was an odd year. The first half was on fire. The second half…it was hard to even get a spark ignited.
One thing was clear, at least for our clients, the recession mentally hit during the late summer. It began with budgets being clawed back, and then the ax came down hard for 2023!
Heading into the new year, I believe we are going to see a similar situation. The first half will be slow, then improve during summer, and momentum significantly gaining into 2024. As a result, I’m going to segment my predictions for the year into two parts.
For the first half of the year, I envision the following:
- Hiring freezes and staff cuts. This is probably not shocking, but where it occurs might surprise you. Covid hit event and travel budgets in 2020, but during this downturn, I see
it hitting digital spending. And when it does, companies will freeze their digital staff hiring (once viewed as a never-ending need).
- CMO exhaustion. It’s already happening. CMO’s are exhausted from the internal battles over budgets, staffing, strategy, etc. The last three years have been a rollercoaster of highs and lows.
- Message confusion. Never have I seen the wild swings hitting the B2B market in such a short amount of time. From supply chain disruptions to overstock warehouses, and endless job openings to layoffs, it’s gone from one extreme to the next. It’s virtually impossible to stay current with your value proposition with so many swings between effectiveness and efficiency.
The second half of the year, as I mentioned, should show some improvement in the economy. As a result, I think we’ll see:
- CMO turnover. The burn out mentioned above will fuel CMO’s desire for a clean start. As soon as the economy and hiring outlook improves, I suspect you will see a lot of
movement.
- Big time AI adoption. Chat GPT is just the beginning. Expect to see agencies widely embrace AI for all types of creative – not just content. Open AI’s CEO Sam Atlman sees the greatest application of AI for creative use, not in replacing blue collar jobs as many had predicted. (more on this topic to come soon in an article of The Drum).
- Better tools for improving ROI. Better tools will come online to improve; 1) the quality of intent data, 2) the cost of content syndication, and 3) the effectiveness of ABM programs.
And of course, as with any prediction, I could be entirely wrong. I am genuinely optimistic, though, that we will be in a much better position kicking off 2024 than we are today.
Good luck and much success this year. I hope your year burns brightly!
by William Walsh | Dec 15, 2022 | 2022
As previously published on 12/8/22 in The Drum
By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 6 Minutes
A dozen or so years ago, we learned that B2B buyers made purchase decisions emotionally, and later justified them rationally. This insight set off a new wave of humanly relevant marketing – the aim being to connect with buyers at the personal level.
The realization that buyers were not just rationally driven decision makers accelerated the transition from being product focused, to audience centric. Customer research began to focus on the emotions behind decision making and how B2B solutions made buyers feel.
Research revealed, for example, that early adopter tech buyers made purchasing decisions because it makes them feel “innovative, powerful, a part of a group, like thought leaders, etc.”
Suddenly, faces replaced products in ads. We targeted key “influencers” and our content spoke of the personal value buyers received through the implementation or use of the products. And as smart B2B marketers, we thought we cracked the code…that is, until new research revealed we might have missed the mark.
Researchers from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada have discovered why people purchase the latest technology. This fascinating new study reveals that the real motivator behind the decision is actually driven by the desire for personal growth and competency.
Now in retrospect, our research stopped short of understanding what was driving those feelings. We put the cart before the horse. Think of it as a framing issue. In our shift to understand personal drivers, most of our research focused on understanding how buyers felt about making the purchase, not what was motivating them to make the purchase decision.
In one of the research tests, participants were asked to evaluate an advertisement using a ring with a biometric tracker. Participants were shown one of five ads, each emphasizing one of the following five reasons to buy the product: learning, status, connection, power or feeling unique. Tech-gadget lovers showed a preference for the ads emphasizing learning.
In another part of the study, participants who described themselves in a survey as loving tech gadgets, were about 3.5 times more likely to say they tend to buy tech gadgets for learning’s sake rather than for other reasons, like signaling status, connecting to others or feeling powerful or unique.
Even though research was conducted on consumers buying the “latest gadget” we know it applies to B2B buyers. The research we’ve conducted in the past highlighted that people making B2B decisions act in a similar way to making B2C purchases. In fact, our research in personalities reveals that you behave, and are motivated, by the same drivers in the B2B environment as in your personal life.
Additionally, from a branding perspective, tapping into the emotions of buying does help connect with audiences. Our content resonates and performs better when we can be personally relevant.
The insight from the new research presents an opportunity to improve demand generation. Using emotions in our advertising may get someone’s attention, but it doesn’t necessarily motivate them to take action. In order to do that, we have to go deeper into wants and needs.
For example, the journey to learn about your product or solution before making the purchase, as we now have learned, is a critical decision driver. From an execution standpoint, we need to allow prospects to view product videos unencumbered instead of requesting demos that they don’t want or need. Use your senior subject matter experts in webinars to talk about the development of the technology, instead of overt sales pitches by product reps.
Creatively, tap into the personal growth opportunities. Highlight new skill sets gained, opportunities to enhance their career or role within the company. Rethink your customer research approach by using psychographic and biometric research methods to uncover the motivators of the purchase.
B2B buyers are people who have unique emotions, feelings and personalities. Those personalities drive behaviors and an “early adopter” is a personality type that can be targeted.
The messaging now – buy new technology to learn and grow, and by doing so, it might make you feel innovative and ahead of the crowd. Use the insight from this new research and you may also share that feeling.
by William Walsh | Nov 17, 2022 | 2022
As previously published on 11/15/22 in The Drum
By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 5 Minutes
There is a very good chance that your messaging is not reaching an important audience. In fact, I can guarantee it. How can I make this statement?
It is based on the “4 C’s” – change, communication, coordination, and collaboration. Over the last three years, organizations have experienced dramatic change in their industries, workplace and outlook.
In a very short period, companies have experienced labor shortages followed by layoffs, supply chain disruptions to overstocked inventories, an economy that has bounced back, and is now headed toward a recession.
The only certainty (as they say) is change. As a result, this requires a significant shift in your communication from one messaging (capturing growth, for example) to the next (now operating efficiency), to align with the market. It requires coordination and collaboration within all parts of the organization to have everyone on the same page.
How many organizations do you know that can do all this well, and do it quickly? It’s why I feel confident in my statement. I’ve also seen it play out with clients during this timeframe. It’s not for the lack of trying, in fact, it may be a result of trying to move too fast.
Here’s the hack – how you can fix it and do it in two hours or less.
One of the first steps when doing messaging with clients is to map audiences. It’s a relatively easy exercise and always produces key insights and takeaways. The key is getting the right groups into the room.
You’ll need representation from sales, marketing, product and perhaps, customer service. We recommend keeping the group to 8 to 10 senior managers, those most knowledgeable about customers and their needs.
For the workshop, you will want to pre-populate an audience map. On one axis, list buyers – I recommend the following: Decision Maker, Budget Holder, User, and Influencer. On the other axis, list a pillar message from your value proposition, something like, quality, efficiency, innovative, etc. Try keeping this to 3 to 5 pillars.
If that works out to a 4×4 map, then plot the titles of your key audiences. For example, the CFO may be in the cell of “Budget Holder” and receiving the “Efficiency” value messaging. Buyers may cross over pillar messaging; they may be getting “quality and innovation” messaging for example.
Try putting together a “strawman” to start and then have the group give feedback. The insights will become obvious right from the beginning. Here are some of the things you’ll soon learn.
- There are audiences missing from the map. Sales and/or the product organization will add decision makers, and customer service will add users.
- The group (probably sales) will want to add new value pillar/s – something they have been using prospects, but have not shared with marketing
- At some point, sales will recognize that one of their key audiences or more, is receiving the wrong messaging.
- You’ll also discover some important audience/s (most likely “Users”) are missing most of the messaging.
- And finally, you’ll also realize sales and marketing coverage of key buyers probably could, and should, be better coordinated.
As a group, you’ll all start to realize you haven’t been on the same page. Then you’ll recognize how important it is to find the time to get everyone in one room, especially when so much has happened.
This change hasn’t been gradual or incremental, it’s been one of wild swings. A shift like that is difficult to stay in front of with effective messaging. Too much has changed in too short of a timeframe.
It’s why the two-hour workshop “hack” I just described can eliminate hours of wasted effort. And now is the perfect time to get the group together and get aligned with the market, your key audiences and internally for 2023.
Good luck, and happy mapping!
by William Walsh | Nov 10, 2022 | 2022
As previously published on 11/3/22 in The Drum
By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 5 Minutes
Regardless of what the economists are saying, companies are acting and behaving as if the country is in a recession, which will likely cause a very difficult end of year.
As a result, organizations are taking a hard look at what they are getting for their investments.
And do you know what’s not producing…account based marketing. Traditional ABM is not providing the real ROI the vendors promised, and here’s why.
Right now, most of the value of ABM tools is their ability to track engagement and add new contacts to an account. This assumes that both of those activities contribute to either increasing awareness within the account with key buyers, and/or interest in an offer or solution.
But is that really true? The best way to determine that is to ask the sales organization. And if you do, this is what you might find based on our recent work. After accessing dozens of closed deals with sophisticated AI tools across three industries, we found on average, there were 6 or less contacts actively involved in moving the buying process to close.
Gartner’s research states that on average, 17 contacts are involved in the buying journey. And while that may be true in some respects (contacts may be advisors or consulted in the process), we have found a core group of individuals (often only 3 to 4) push the deal through to close.
We also discovered only 4 deals where buyers could be traced back to engaging in some type of marketing outreach or offer (download, attend, etc.). Half were already in the buying process, and as you continue to read you will find out why this happens.
It is not that ABM isn’t valuable, it’s just that it doesn’t go far enough. As mentioned, traditional ABM increases contacts and tracks engagement. Account Based Management filters those contacts into categories of behaviors and identifies the movers of the buying process. More importantly, it can help reps understand how to use the group to advance opportunities.
By doing that, it immediately improves your return on effort. Using AI personality profiling tools allows us to eliminate those personalities that are not likely to either start or drive the buying process. It can identify the core group of individuals likely to drive the process forward very quickly.
From our research, we have found that there are typically four “roles” represented in the core group.
- The Business Requirements Driver – this is typically a functional area head.
- The Knowledgeable User – typically this person sits in the functional area and may either start or advance the research on the issues, solutions and vendors. They are also often the project owner. This role is critical to driving the process forward and often gets overlooked because of their level within the organization (often a director or manager).
- The Implementer – the person who needs to be involved from an implementation or integration standpoint. Often IT, but it could also be HR, Ops, etc.
- The Closer – this is not the “closer” of the sales kind, it’s the closer of the buying process. Often procurement, it’s the person who handles setting up the vendor in various systems after approval and could also be the User or the Implementer.
These players come in and out of the process as it progresses. The key to success is that you need one or two of them to stay with the process. If you don’t have them identified, you’ll lengthen the buying process and/or cause a stall.
Another shortcoming of traditional ABM is while good at distributing relevant content to contacts within the account, the content alone is not enough to move the buying group. Again, not bad, but not enough.
It is not sufficient for motivating someone to take action on their own, yet we rely on it almost exclusively. Moving the group forward requires understanding the individuals involved in the buying process, along with their motivations. It also requires knowing how to use the “core” individuals to move other members of the group.You have to know how to motivate them to take action.
By understanding buyers at a personal level, you’ll discover that some people like to share information and sell others on new ideas. Some buyers like to champion new ideas but only if they see an opportunity to advance their careers.
Others will never lead and are just happy to be part of the team. All of this is critical for moving opportunity forward, and all of it can be known through the understanding of personality types.
Extending and enhancing ABM programs with these personality insights also helps address two common misconceptions. First, the need to add more account contacts, which you don’t. And second, content engagement signals intent. For example, there are two personalities who consume content, but are not actively involved in the buying process.
Years ago, I was that guy building “Always On” programs, but now with advanced AI tools, there are much smarter ways to create, manage and close opportunities in accounts. The exciting part is the opportunity for marketers and sales organizations to work towards a common goal.
In a recessionary environment, pushing ABM to this next level allows you to become more precise. It increases the chance of producing a positive return which allows you to keep budget dollars… and jobs.
by William Walsh | Oct 20, 2022 | 2022
xiQ and Carbon Design are partnering to offer ROI-focused professional services built on xiQ’s Sales Xelerator platform that help sales teams efficiently align the right resource, outreach, and content to specific buyers that can move opportunities towards a close.
Together, we will roll out the xiQ platform and Carbon Design will work with your sales teams to do an in-depth analysis of current stalled, or lost opportunities and develop new approaches to resurrect and win deals.
- Close out the year strong
- Build momentum for 2023
- ROI within 3 months
View the webinar here: Produce Results Now!
