B2B Marketing in 2006

The other day I received a phone message from a gentleman who works for a large CRM company about how he wanted to discuss exactly how his company could help Enquiro (the company that employs me) with their CRM solutions. He probably got my name and number from a conference or seminar and made the cold call. I responded with an email stating that I was not the person he should be talking to and that the company more than likely did not require their services at this time.

I understand the drive to make sales, I can empathize; and I understand that in our business the technical lines of interest sometimes seem to blur, but I don't recall ever having mentioned that our business was looking for a CRM in any conversations. Unlike a lot of others, I don't shop for swag and feign interest at trade shows. Yet somehow, I showed up as a qualified lead, somebody worth calling and making contact with, even though I wasn't.

This started me thinking, which is never a good sign, and I began to find it more and more interesting that in this day and age so many businesses use traditional marketing approaches to sell their products or services to other businesses; namely, tossing out a fishnet and hoping to get a few good salmon in and amongst the chub. All of this musing got me wondering more about the state of B2B marketing in 2006.

B2B marketing is not new, but it has changed drastically over the past few years, or should have, as the arsenal of tools and resources have grown. However, before we get into too much detail, let's discuss and agree on what B2B marketing is.

B2B Marketing Defined: Business to business marketing is the action by one organization to market their products or services provided to another organization.

In other words, Company A has a pain within their organization and Company B has a solution to address this pain. The only thing is, Company B needs to make company A aware of why they have the best solution for their pain. It all sounds so simple, buy it is far more complex when we look at where we are with B2B marketing in 2006.

In the last few years leading up to 2006, the Internet has played a huge role in the transformation of B2B marketing. As a result, the most popular buzz phrases to be born were phrases such as e-commerce, electronic data interchange (EDI), search engine marketing, etc. Technology and the Internet have created rapid and innovative change within all B2B companies and the way they market their products and services to other organizations. A strong online presence is a key asset in communicating your message to your target.

Think of B2B relationships like a game of hide and seek; traditionally salesmen would search for sales by pounding the pavement, hitting tradeshows, taking business cards in raffles for cars and vacations. Now, sales search for salesmen, in the perfect situation, prospects use the Internet to research and shortlist suppliers before ever making contact. The roles have reversed. In a way it is better in that businesses can be more efficient, but there is a serious disconnect in any business thinking that all visitors are qualified just because they clicked on a listing or looked at a website.

Getting back to the analogy of hide and seek: it is very important for businesses to not only be 'hiding' in plain sight, but to be persuading their prospect to search for them and to make sure that those doing the seeking actually match the solution being offered. In other words, be visible, coach the process, and make sure in the end you've got the right person.

How? First and foremost a company needs to understand how to use technology to establish and promote its unique competitive advantage. Secondly, a company needs to understand that this technology is really a filter and relationship building tool, a website needs to filter out the audience while being informative to both prospects and completed sales. Finally, a business needs to understand that this technology is living, which means it responds uniquely to different target audiences; it evolves at different rates for different marketplaces; and, it requires care and attention to be effective.

B2B online marketing in 2006 means:

• Dealing with an increasing amount of competition
• Establishing proper metrics to track
• Studying analytics as part of the lead generation process
• Paradigm shifts in the planning of marketing strategies and budgets (search engine marketing anyone?)
• Leveraging technology to streamline and improve marketing effectiveness and efficiencies
• Re-shaping traditional business processes
• Establishing an effective online presence
• Understanding your target market now more than ever

More importantly, B2B online marketing needs to be a part of a total marketing solution that aligns sales, marketing, and PR departments into one cohesive working environment. I will be discussing how each of these bulleted points contribute to B2B success in subsequent articles, but for now we need to understand that B2B marketing in 2006 means that as B2B marketers, success is as much about finding the right person as it is about being found by the right person.

Jody Nimetz
Search Marketing Strategist
Search Engine Positioning by Searchengineposition
Enquiro Full Service Search Engine Marketing

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