It's the Most Thankful Time of the Year

It's that time of the year when business starts to wind down, and people are looking forward to the holidays.

Not in the marketing business. This is the busiest part of the year, prepping our clients for new business in 2024. We're tweaking our brands and checking it twice, revamping websites, and optimizing systems with the latest tech.

Consumer business has a different schedule. They usually start prepping in June or July for November and December Black Friday and holiday sales.

Consumer businesses rely heavily on advertising, which is a one-to-many methodology. In the old days, this was TV, radio, newspapers, billboards, and door-to-door salesmen. Today, it mostly ads on Google, Facebook and YouTube.

Successful B2B businesses rely heavily on one-to-one methods. They can feel pressured to fall back on one-to-many tactics (wrapped in a relational spin) like email, direct messaging, cold email, phone calls, and text messaging.

SPAM is defined as an unwanted or unsolicited email that can cross into every method of digital communication. AI adds speed without emotion at a price of 1/100th of human expense.

I'm sure you are equally deluged with emails asking if you, “Got my past emails?” These are usually selling leads, website updates, position #1 on Google, or this new AI tool or system that poops gold bars on demand. Then, if you try to unsubscribe, their systems shout, “HEY… WE GOT A LIVE ONE HERE!” which triggers a sequence of more annoying (and unsubscribable) emails.

On the Positive Side…

Since people are more aware of those transactional tactics, there has been increased interest in open, non-transactional, authentic, cooperative conversations. The key to making that happen is trust. Building trust is a process, and that is what our clients continue to learn and implement actively.

It gives me hope, to help our clients succeed by focusing on 50 to 150 quality business relationships while their competition focuses on the masses.

What follows are three key things that I am truly thankful for this holiday season and why I am filled with hope for a successful new year.

#1 Thankfulness – We are still in business.

The What – Our customers still trust us to help them grow their business.

The Why – We continue to maintain or increase the ROI of marketing spend vs. sales growth.

The How – Build Know, Like, & Trust! – Help their sales team have better conversations with current, past, and prospective clients!

When you have a business that goes against the grain or looks and acts different than most other businesses in your niche, you must work harder to keep your clients eye on the ball. In our case, that ball is turning marketing into sales.

They are bombarded with messages that offer them leads, website updates, position #1 on Google, and new AI tools that poop gold bars on demand.

If you can show how your service has real-world value, then all that noise has an uphill battle to build trust, prove they can do better than you, and not just make empty promises.

#2 Thankfulness – Most new processes still work.

The What – We found new ways to engage with people (clients).

The Why – After the pandemic, people crave authenticity and human interaction, while increased automation creates skepticism.

The How – Build Know, Like, & Trust! – Create new tools that offer self-serve options which lead to an easier path to conversations!

There is a video of an Infinite Looping Siri, Alexa, and Google Home Mini that demonstrates what communication on the web is like these days. It's exactly how I feel when being forced into ChatBot hell.

Everything is now being fortified with AI. Email and social media distribution tools, website creation tools, and even search engines can have a robot write better prompts to provide better searches (from a robot).

By creating better interaction, tracking, and website engagement tools that build knowledge and trust, people are likelier to interact. You have to create the perception that won't make them feel like they will be just handed off to a used car salesman (or a lifeless computer).

#3 Thankfulness – There is more we can achieve.

The What – Our customers constantly ask us to find new ways to create new business.

The Why – The current ways make it harder to rise above the increasing noise each day.

The How – Build Know, Like, & Trust! – Empower sales teams by training them on strategies to connect and engage with less effort!

It's an honor that our clients trust us to not only build engagement systems but they trust us to train them and their sales staff on how to optimize their use. I get giddy when they get it!

Companies can outsource connections, but they can't outsource relationships. Showing people the easiest way to use systems is helpful, but more is needed to guarantee they will.

If salespeople need more time and interest to make the connections, then make the connection for them. Management should task them with reaching out and following up. If the method is foreign to them because of technophobia, you can offer group or individual training on how they can become more successful with minimal disruption or effort.

Closing Thought

Innovation is an activity. It's the spark that ignites progress. It is the art of transforming imagination into reality. True innovation is born from a relentless pursuit of better and learning from the past. It is the key to unlocking a brighter future for all.

You have to want to continue to try and fail, live and learn, and inject hope into people that what we are doing together is making the world a better place.

“For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate. ” – Margaret Heffernan

Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at?The Bacon Podcast.