When The Economy Is Down, Decisions Go Up!

By Perry Rearick, Chief Editor, Follow Your Buyer

I’ve lost count of how many months we’ve been anticipating a recession and many economists still feel it is imminent, although maybe not as severe as we once thought. And that’s sufficiently vague to keep business leaders nervous enough to be more personally involved in spending decisions.

What does that mean for B2B solution providers? Well, you may still have an occasional employee “fun day” at Dave and Busters, but you’re paying for the endless Mario Kart experience yourself. And those routine B2B purchasing decisions are not being made by your primary contacts any longer, they must go upline for authorization.

That means sellers who are on their game are influencing upline too. B2B marketers are creating content that is more suited to the needs of business leaders, and far less features and benefits promotions. B2B salespeople are having calls with business leaders and speaking with them about the challenges they are facing and helping them with ideas, not just trying to sell them something.

If your business development strategy still relies heavily on only pitching products and services, when you are in a head-to-head competition with someone described in the paragraph above, you will likely lose.

It’s not too late! Look at your marketing material and messaging, does it speak to business leaders and the things that keep them awake at night? If you are in sales, are you prepared to speak with an executive about the things they care about if you do earn the conversation?