Marketing Leaders Know How to Follow
Good marketers are good sleuths. They know how to follow the trail of data and insights about their customers. That’s as true in the B2B world as it is in the B2C one.
For years we’ve been talking about the Consumer Decision Journey as a way to understand the iterative path consumers make through purchase and beyond.
Turns out the B2B customers are on a similar journey. The Customer Decision Journey (CDJ) is all about how customers in the B2B world are actually making their purchase and post-purchase decisions today. My colleagues just released a great piece (Follow the customer decision journey if you want B2B sales to grow) about this critical development, and how important it is for B2B companies to understand.
In their work with more than 30 marquee B2B organizations around the world, half or more of all marketing spend is misaligned, going to areas that do little to influence the purchasing decisions of top customers and providing little help to the sales people calling on them. As much as 50% of marketing spend is not aligned with the issues that matter to decision makers. No company can successfully grow with that kind of waste and breakdown.
The real value of the B2B CDJ is in helping companies truly understand what drives the decisions of decision makers and then helping them to align their spending to those points that matter. To appeal to what mattered to corporate finance leaders, for example, one company revamped its RFP process, expanded the number of financing options, highlighted cost efficiency, and created pricing calculators and other aids that made it easier for buyers to determine which product was right for them.
The other benefit of this approach is that it is a wonderful way to unite marketing and sales around a common view of the customer. I can’t overemphasize how important that is. By developing a common understanding of the CDJ and the customer battlegrounds, marketing and sales leaders can focus more effectively on activities that win customers.
So, how are you following your customer?
Learn more about B2B and the customer decision journey at the Chief Marketing & Sales Officer Forum site, and follow us on Twitter @McK_CMSOForum. And please follow me @davidedelman.
CMO & Business School Professor | 2x Author, TEDx Speaker | PwC & McCann Alum
11 年Really like the B2B CDJ model.
Partnering with Companies to Drive Growth and Innovation through Business Strategy, Product Development and Sales Operations Optimization
11 年Good non-funnel model. Nice pic! :)
Data-driven product manager | eCommerce | Digital Marketing | Communications
11 年David Edelman - I love your posts. Very relevant to my world. The B2B CDJ is of particular interest. I would say that uniting the WHOLE company around a common view of a customer is critical to success. To often decisions are made outside sales and marketing based on anecdote rather than data. The one big caveat to your article is the assumption that these big companies HAVE the electronic systems and the data points to understand what drives the decision makers. You do write these are 30 marquee organizations. For the rest of us, the challenge with understanding the CDJ is getting the systems in place to begin with, so we can gather the data points, unify the information and actually spend time understanding our customer. Too often, we are forced to make decisions with limited information. Keep up the good posts!
People-first marketing communications leader—Ex GoDaddy & BlueYonder, a Panasonic Company
11 年Great article, David. Thanks for sharing! I actually just wrote a post on B2B Marketing: https://naomirochellegarnice.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/b2b-find-consumers/