Newsletter | August 16, 2023

08.16.23 -- How to grow your business with a buyer-centered approach to B2B marketing and sales!

IN THIS ISSUE:

What Does Enough Thought Leadership Look Like In Content Marketing?

Do You Want To Increase Your Target Audience’s Engagement With Your Content? Do This Simple Audit!

Sell Like a Dog

How To Follow-Up With A Prospect When They’re Not Ready To Buy!

Is Your B2B Social Media Program Like A Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone?

FROM THE EDITOR How to grow your business with a buyer-centered approach to B2B marketing and sales. 

 

This might be more accurately called the disruptive edition of the Follow Your Buyer newsletter.

 

We’re exploring some topics that we’re all familiar with, part of our daily collaborative discussions at work, but we’re challenging ourselves to think about them differently.

 

We may even challenge some long-standing traditions because they are no longer best practices. Why? Because the B2B buying team has changed, and continues to change, the way they make purchasing decisions. The buyer has become the ultimate disruptor to the traditional models for B2B selling.

 

The buyer’s journey consists of eight phases according to a great book titled “Selling to the C-Suite” which we highly recommend.

 

Understand Current Issues

Establish Objectives

Set Strategy

Explore Options

Set Vendor Criteria

Examine Alternatives

Plan Implementation

Measure Results

 

I’m sorry to disappoint you if you were expecting a sales funnel. But the very people we’re trying to do business with are driving this disruptive change. Being a successful, growing B2B solution provider demands that we market and sell our solutions differently.

 

In this edition of our newsletter, we invite you to think differently about content marketing and sales with an understanding and appreciation for the journey our buyers take to solve their problems in an ever more challenging, competitive environment.

 

Have every edition of our newsletter delivered to your in-box by signing up here: send me the Follow Your Buyer newsletter!

 

- Perry

Perry Rearick

Chief Editor | Follow Your Buyer

prearick@followyourbuyer.com
  

 

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT FROM FOLLOW YOUR BUYER

What Does Enough Thought Leadership Look Like In Content Marketing?

There is a critical minimum volume of content that B2B marketers need to earn thought leadership status on a narrative.

Do You Want To Increase Your Target Audience’s Engagement With Your Content? Do This Simple Audit!

Audits have a negative reputation! Whether they come from the IRS, FDA or some other three—lettered government agency, we don’t typically welcome them. But let me introduce you to an audit that you will want to do regularly because of the positive outcomes it delivers.

Sell Like a Dog

Whoever coined the term “work like a dog” must not have owned a dog, at least not one of our modern-era pets who have earned family-member status. As our love for our four-legged companions has grown, so too has our desire to understand them through formal training, books, and podcasts. Despite all this expert advice, I believe our pets’ ability to understand us far outpaces our ability to understand them. How do they do it and what can we learn from them about sales?

How To Follow-Up With A Prospect When They’re Not Ready To Buy!

One of the most common questions I hear from B2B solution providers is how to follow-up with a prospect when they aren’t ready to buy. Here is an approach that works well!

Is Your B2B Social Media Program Like A Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone?

For years when a B2B company expressed an interest in starting a social media program, I often cautioned them that it was like a self-licking ice cream cone. Were they prepared to continuously put fresh scoops of content on their page? However, my advice was wrong!

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