B-to-B Insights: What Are We Doing Here? (Part Two)

More reasons why B-to-B direct marketing works for me

October 2007 By Russell Kern

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In 1956, there was no such discipline as B-to-B marketing. Or at least, it wasn’t called B-to-B marketing. But this doesn’t mean we can’t borrow from Victor Schwab’s list to make a list of our own. So here are my top 10 motivators for the B-to-B target audience:

They want to:

1. Be up-to-date

2. Be recognized authorities

3. Be first in things

4. Influence others

5. Improve themselves

6. Save company time, money

7. Avoid worry

8. Satisfy curiosity

9. Advance their careers

10. Earn praise from others

Why, you ask, does “Save company time, money” appear so far down the list? If employees at our target companies are more concerned about recognition, influence and self-improvement than they are about the well-being of their firms, does this mean the people we’re trying to reach are, well, selfish? Not at all. It merely means they’re human and that their self-interest tends to trump their companies’ interests. So, if we’re going to get these people to do what we want them to do—which, after all, is our self-interest—we must remember how these motivations are prioritized and position our offer to be of maximum direct benefit to the reader.

For example, a guide on videoconferencing entitled, “The Facts About Videoconferencing for Small Business Owners,” will not deliver anything close to the response of exactly the same guide entitled, “Reducing Your Travel and Increasing Your Profits Without Leaving the Office: Seven Things You Need to Know About How to Take Advantage of Videoconferencing Over the Internet.”

Both titles describe something that is of value to the company, and both are likely to be of interest to our reader. But our offer goes from interesting to downright fascinating when we apply a layer of individual self-interest atop that of the company’s (which, when you think about it, is why they put icing on cakes).

The Joy of Cooking

Of course, if whipping up mouthwatering offers was as simple as matching up the right motivators, then successful B-to-B direct marketing would be, well, a piece of cake. But emotional drivers merely are the first in a list of factors we must take into consideration.

How many inquiries is our system set up to handle? How big and/or busy is our field sales organization? What are the goals of our marketing organization? And after we’ve pondered all of that, we also need to consider the alignment of our offers to the buying cycle.

(If you happen to be a regular reader of this column, you know the buying cycle is one of my favorite subjects—it consists of three stages: interest, consideration and evaluation—and that aligning offers to the appropriate stage will maximize results.)

If we have a large sales organization and need a steady flow of inquires to keep those hungry salespeople productive, then we’ll want to deploy offers that are calibrated to appeal to people in the interest stage. These offers might include whitepapers, briefings, checklists, problem/solution educational offers and third-party guides. In short, they may include anything that combines an educational focus with minimal marketing hype, which allows potential customers who are just becoming interested in our category to learn more without fear of an immediate sales pitch.

This is a key point. Potential customers don’t want to be sold. In fact, they’re afraid of being sold and expect that, given the tiniest opening, our organization will pounce on them. So, anything we can do to temporarily disabuse them of this notion will improve our results.

Remember what I said at the very beginning of this column about psychology and its fascinating application to our business? As B-to-B marketers, we practice psychology at each stage of the buying cycle.

We practice it in the consideration stage, where the offers that work—such as podcasts that show implementations or solutions in the field, executive briefings or demos—are those that help our prospective buyer become more informed and better able to compare our products with those of our competitors. The same goes for the evaluation stage, where the most successful offers—including on-site consultations, guided tours to view an installation in action and limited-time price discounts—are offers that attract buyers with a problem that must be solved RIGHT NOW. Unlike the fearful folks in the interest stage, these people actually want to talk to a salesperson. Our offers must be made with that fact very much in mind.

Are We Having Fun Yet?

As B-to-B marketers, we have to figure out which offers to employ at which stage of the buying cycle; decide which title will be the most galvanizing for each offer; determine how to position each offer just so within a given message; and motivate our prospects to do what we want them to do—when we want them to do it. Yes, B-to-B direct marketing is a whole lot of work. But for people like me—and you, I presume— it’s also a whole lot of fun.



Russell Kern is president of The Kern Organization, a fully integrated offline and online direct marketing agency in Woodland Hill, Calif., and is the author of “S.U.R.E.-Fire Direct Response Marketing” (McGraw-Hill, 2001). He can be reached at (818) 703-8775 or via e-mail at russell@thekernorg.com.

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