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I think the challenge that we see in the changing face of B to B marketing starts with what
has always been true, which is when you’re in a B to B, when you’re marketing to businesses,
the challenge is always, how can you prove to a business that by partnering with you,
that it has benefit to their business. What we see changing is where customers are. And
with five generations in the workforce, the challenge is, is that you have to have some
of the old and you have to figure out what some of the new. The other changes that we
see is really a change in what customers expect from their business partners. So we see today
a need for more personalization. Customers really saying, “Know me and know who I am.
Value me for whatever I am. So whether I’m a large customer or a small customer, understand
what my needs are and value me the same way if I’m small as you do your very large customers.”
The other challenge I’d say that we start-- that we’re starting to see is this need
to understand as the marketer when to solve and when to sell. So this notion of really
being a partner to your customers, understanding their business and being able to provide solutions
that can have bottom line impact for them, the ability to show up with a solution without
them feeling like that has to translate into an order is really becoming a critical component
of what people respond to in marketing messages.