Highlights from AMA Toronto’s B2B Experts

On Thursday March 26th AMA Toronto hosted a B2B Marketing Panel discussion at Toronto’s Spoke Club titled ‘How To Use B2B Marketing to Grow Sales’.  The following are snippets from the event with synopsis and photos provided by AMA Toronto volunteer Irina Moiseeva.

 

Thanks for sharing Irina!!

 

AMA Toronto’s B2B event was fantastic! The panel of experts shared their knowledge and abundance of valuable advice on how to use B2B marketing to grow sales.

At the event, Lisa Sheppard, President of the Mezzanine Group launched her new book – The Radical Sales Shift. The audience ask questions about effective B2B marketing strategies and had a chance to receive a copy of her book.It was a great turnout and tweets were flying out during the event. Thank you to all tweeters! Hope to see you at the next AMA Toronto next event – @AMAToronto | #AMAevents

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Lisa Shepherd,
President of the Mezzanine Group
@MezzLisa, @TheMezzGroup

There is a shift from sales to marketing. Access to information & buying on consensus are part of the new buying landscape. Marketing is the key. You have to remember that marketing is not operational – it is a strategic function.

There’s no one buyer anymore. You need to understand the factors that drive different organizations decision-making.The buyer hasn’t changed but the environment of which the buying happens has changed. B2B purchasing decisions are far more emotional than B2C because the risks and consequences of making bad decisions are greater.

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Elizabeth Williams,
Director of Marketing&Communications, ADP Canada
@bizmkter, @WilliamsAdp

Marketers are good at putting content into the universe. As marketers, we’re great with one-way communication – but it’s more about having strategic conversations. Let’s engage with the audience in a 2-way conversation. Nobody wakes up in the morning and opts-in to our content. Not sure why. ☺

Today’s B2B marketers need to understand data and be able to interpret it. We don’t lack marketing data – I have a lot of data. The challenge is to find the data that provides shareable insights. B2B marketers struggle with which metrics to look at and how to interpret it. So get away from data and chase down the shareable insights. The Marketing Technologist is the next great talent we need – someone who understands the data & numbers and can build a meaningful story from extracted insights. Sometimes I think that this is a mythical creature.

A customer’s first point of contact is with marketing, not sales. Marketing should tell Sales what they’re doing and prepare metrics – a small list of factors that will tell you if your strategy or tactic is successful. This metrics should be mutually agreed upon between Marketing and Sales.

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Mike Hennessy,
VP of Sales & Marketing, IntelliResponse
@Mike_Hennessy1

Which elements of marketing are the most important? All of them. B2B marketing is about testing & process. B2B purchases are more emotional than B2C. As a result, there is more risk around making bad decisions. It’s time for sales & marketing to work together. Mike uses an SLA (Service Level Agreement) to set expectations and showcase what marketing will contribute. Sometimes, Sales can be short-sighted focusing mostly on closing sales.

Just pushing a piece of content through your channels does not equal engagement – you have to create a discussion. Atomization – the concept that one piece of content can be broken into a number of pieces. A valuable piece of content is not a standalone entity. It can be used across platforms. Extend content shelf life – Create content that is valuable at multiple stages of sales cycle.

From a B2B marketing perspective, we have to start measuring and take ownership for the end results. You should talk to C-Suite about cost per lead not vanity metric e.g. LinkedIn groups numbers. Vanity metrics are means to an end. B2B marketers have to understand how their metrics translates to financial measures. We use the same mantra “if it’s not in the CRM, it doesn’t exist” – need to have senior buy in to enforce it or it won’t work.

B2B marketers can improve closing rate by qualifying leads early and weeding out poor prospects. We want to avoid being a solution that is looking for a problem. You should put Quality over Quantity in your sales funnel. If marketing can’t push leads into actionable pipeline then you need to revisit your marketing strategy.

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Leslie Carter,
Chief Brand& Strategy Officer, Knightsbridge
@LeslieatKHCS

90% of the purchasing decision is now influenced by marketing. All change happens in an organization with the right culture and employee support. People buy from people-some deals are lost due to customer not liking salesperson. Culture and right people are as important as marketing strategy.

When it’s time to make a business purchase, 71% of B2B buyers now turn to a search engine first. Moreover, 57% of the buying process is now completed before a buyer contacts a vendor. By the time they talk to sales, decision makers are more informed.

In B2B environment, customers want you to approach them with the solutions not products and pitch decks. Buyers don’t want to be pushed to get products or services, they want you to understand their problems and come to them with solutions to their issues.

Marketers have to balance – how much content do they want to “give away”. Credibility is about creating content, getting it on different platforms & measuring leads generated against each one.

Great B2B marketers think about revenue. To achieve better results, sales & marketing need to communicate and agree on a measurable goal. Content is a tactic to start a discussion, but it will not close a deal.

Canadians are really polite and won’t always give you the full story. Use the 3rd party to collect qualitative data.