The journey from B2B prospect to paying customer is not a straight line.
And to win a gold medal in marketing, you can’t just deliver your product or service, says Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs.
Instead, you have to be there for your prospect, at every twist and turn along that journey—and that starts by asking yourself some questions.
What questions?
Find out what they are—and why they matter—in Ann’s hilarious B2B Forum 2024 keynote now, with the video and transcript below.
And for time-limited access to all 59 recordings from B2B Forum 2024, including inspirational keynotes and informative sessions, visit the B2B Forum page here.
Welcome to the 2024 B2B Olympics!
Like, the first ever!
And just like the actual Olympics, the B2B Olympics is a celebration of excellence and of personal best.
And here in Boston, we’re also here to learn about the future of B2B marketing so that we can “gold medal” tomorrow.
(By the way, guess who just learned how to do PowerPoint animation? This gal. [I’ve] gone my whole life not knowing what that tab was for. If you need animation? Call me.)
It’s not easy though, right?
Because maybe this happens to you: like, you execute a marketing campaign, or you’ve been working on an A BM campaign, you hit send on an email, you launch a social program or a webinar series or any of that.
And you think, “you know what? Yes! Stuck that landing! Killed it!”
But somehow, the results are a little bit less impressive.
And you wonder, “what did I do wrong? What are we doing wrong?”
And part of it is that it’s not necessarily our fault, because marketing has changed.
It wasn’t that long ago that the B2B marketing journey path, the customer journey path, was basically a fast pass. It was like a fast lane, right from initial prospect to sales.
It looked a little bit like this:
A prospect downloads a guide and they’re like, “wow, this really helps me solve a problem. I love this so, so much. This is the company for me! Take my money!”
That’s what it looked like.
But the path doesn’t look like this—for any of us—anymore. For no one here in this room. Because marketing doesn’t work this way anymore, honestly, if it ever did.
But it’s less of a straight path now, and much more like a murder/crime-scene-board. Can you relate to this?
Maybe they start at the same place, they read a blog post or they download a guide.
But then they think, “are they talking to me? Are they speaking my language? Are they using words to describe my problem that I also have?”
And immediately they wonder, “maybe I should just ask around on LinkedIn first, I wonder if I should find out…”
And then [they] go back to the website and a chat bot pops up, “hello, you’ve been here 27 times in the past four days. Can I get your email if we get disconnected?”
And then they think, “well, maybe I should give them my email address. Maybe I should do that. But wait a minute, am I going to be put into a nurturing funnel? Maybe I’ll use my old address from high school.” You know that one?
And then maybe they Google, and maybe—if you’re lucky—Google will surface you in their AI answers thing.
And then maybe you’re thinking, “this is B2B. Maybe I should check Gartner’s Magic Quadrant and then… wait a minute, I should Google ‘can I trust Gartner’s Magic Quadrant?’”
But then they get distracted because, by the way, Lululemon is having a sale right now! And then, “wait, what did I open this tab for again?”
This is the world that we live in.
And while this is true of B2C as well, to some extent—and you know that I’m referencing B2C here because I used comic sands right there—but B2B has its own unique challenges.
The reality for all of us here is that 5% of our buyers are in-market for us at any time, which means this enormous number of people who are not in-market for us at any one time.
But still… they are not ready to talk to us. But still… we need to reach them.
And why do we need to reach them?
Because 90% of buyers ultimately will choose a vendor that they had in mind before they began research, which blows me away when I think about that.
Our friend Ty Heath, at [LinkedIn’s B2B Institute], says that a brand that is remembered is the brand that gets bought.
And so the question is, how do we get on that list? How do we get on that 90% list? How do we do that?
And because we want to win a gold medal, we don’t just want to make a sale—I mean, we do—but more than that, we want to feel a sense of pride and a sense of joy in our work.
We don’t just want to do a job.
We want to show up in a way that’s meaningful for us, and meaningful for those around us.
And so I think we need to ask questions beyond this.
Not just, “how do we get on the list?” but also, “how do we bring more heart and creativity into what we do?” and “how do we optimize to build trust with those that we care about serving?”
And then how do we speak not just to audiences, but to one person at one time and help them do one job better?
And there’s one more thing that I want to mention.
When do we use AI? (Does she represent generative AI? I honestly thought that would get a better laugh. You just groaned, Michael.)
So when do we use generative AI, and when do we not?
We don’t always need to use it.
When do we take shortcuts? When do we let generative AI help us do our jobs more efficiently and faster? And when do we not?
Because we do have a choice.
Published Dec 11, 2024
MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2024 was our favorite yet. There was a buzz in the air that’s hard to explain. It’s like we all needed to be in those rooms together more than ever to combat the chaotic state of the world around us and how challenging B2B marketing has been since the last few years.
If you missed it, you can’t go back to get that feeling. But there is still a chance to catch the keynotes and all other recorded sessions to get the amazing insights our speakers shared. Attendees who were there and our PRO members get access to all recordings! So if you’re PRO, simply log in and get to watching. Or, upgrade to a PRO membership today for access. Recordings are available through March 31, 2025.
And don’t miss out on MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2025. Registration is now open at our lowest rate!
