The future is for those not afraid to shape it. It is not instead for those hanging back to see others rip the rewards of pioneering the next wave. For some businesses, at this time of year,the hustle continues till the very last day of December and for some slowing things down is a routine.
Whatever the situation at this time of your year, you have got to read up on the opportunities and threats coming in 2020 B2B.
As always if you need further assistance with marketing your service business or reaching founders, please reach out: info[at]foundersunder40.com. This content is being sponsored and powered by BJ Mannyst team + Founders Under 40™ Group.
I and the BJ Mannyst team hope this content helps you understand and prepare for the future. Plus, we offer content sponsorship opportunities, content collaboration, content creation, community management, and other services.
Our Founders Community via GreatestFounders.com + Founders Under 40 Group is always on the look out for great founders to join us / support us.
*DON’T FORGET TO ALSO PICK UP eBook “How to Build Great Professional Services / Service Businesses for Web3.0 part 1 - ebook “ *
THE WORLD OF B2B/B2C MARKETING:
- People are less happy even though we are living in a time of access
- Misinformation, Lonely souls, multi-generational households, technology usage is growing, regulations to increase (consent, transparency, and data leakage), blockchain and cryptocurrency is surrounded by hype, usefulness, and fools. All that emerging technology are exciting however ROI is still a crying call.
“In recent years, marketing technology has increasingly been eating up more of the CMO’s budget. This year, however, Gartner’s annual CMO survey paints a slightly different picture: martech spending is down this year with a decrease of nearly ten percent. Agency spending is also down for the fourth consecutive year.”
- The trend is a “**Shrinking martech investment may not be so bad.***" --Gartner
- Marketing leaders continue to see martech as a tool for driving customer engagement and growth.
Connecting with website/mobile users.The greatest B2B marketing challenge that faces our business is identifying who makes up the traffic to our website, what their problems are, and how we can offer solutions.
Identifying your audience & their revenue. It becomes an art and science to identify the likely prospect to nurture into a final sales and ongoing relationship.
A challenge with follow-up accountability. Followup is something some personnel fail to persist on. Some do it for a few frequency and with poor tactic. And some are fully accountable for follow up with tenacity.
Constant need for personalized message. When you want to address B2B leads or clients you have to personalize the heck out of your message to make that certain representative or business owner feel like the message resonates with him or her.
It is still tricky to track the source or the B2B journey. It becomes difficult to determine which avenues are successful and which are not.
Measure properly. One of the biggest challenges companies face when marketing their B2B businesses is often determining how to measure success across all the numerous channels, media, people, event, content, etc. In addition to the issue, is metrics and KPI that might not be accounting for other factors. And the fact that analysis might not cover the ones that add non-monetary value.
Multiple points of contact. This realty sometimes means sales takes longer to start, close, or implement. People are engaging with your brand in many ways that it becomes difficult to track.
Labor cost keeps going up. Plus attracting the best of the labor force becomes challenging.
Internal labor spend has grown which means companies are making effort to reduce their dependency on outside help like marketing agency.
Identifying your audience & their revenue. It becomes an art and science to identify the likely prospect to nurture into a final sales and ongoing relationship.
A challenge with follow-up accountability. Followup is something some personnel fail to persist on. Some do it for a few frequency and with poor tactic. And some are fully accountable for follow up with tenacity.
Constant need for personalized message. When you want to address B2B leads or clients you have to personalize the heck out of your message to make that certain representative or business owner feel like the message resonates with him or her.
It is still tricky to track the source or the B2B journey. It becomes difficult to determine which avenues are successful and which are not.
Measure properly. One of the biggest challenges companies face when marketing their B2B businesses is often determining how to measure success across all the numerous channels, media, people, event, content, etc. In addition to the issue, is metrics and KPI that might not be accounting for other factors. And the fact that analysis might not cover the ones that add non-monetary value.
Multiple points of contact. This realty sometimes means sales takes longer to start, close, or implement. People are engaging with your brand in many ways that it becomes difficult to track.
Labor cost keeps going up. Plus attracting the best of the labor force becomes challenging.
Internal labor spend has grown which means companies are making effort to reduce their dependency on outside help like marketing agency.
Every b2b is still seeing the value of content marketing. B2B however are shifting more into content that will bring value
Importance of Values. Emphasis on business social values when making partnership or purchasing decisions is growing. Chasing short term gains at expense to the values, employees, and consumers is going to be unsexy.
NOT REALIZING EMAIL MARKETING WORKS & THAT THE TREND IS MORE EMAIL WILL GET IGNORED 2020
Every B2B still considers email marketing as a must however more and more people on receiving end are likely to avoid most that are not relevant to them at the moment. It is still considered a great way to nurture targets as well as a way to stay connected.
["The study shows that 83% of consumers prefers to receive messages from businesses by email. But 94% are annoyed by communications. Specifically, they are irritated when:
Content is not relevant — 56%
Don’t remember opting in — 41%
Being contacted in the wrong communication channel — 33% ]
["The study shows that 83% of consumers prefers to receive messages from businesses by email. But 94% are annoyed by communications. Specifically, they are irritated when:
Content is not relevant — 56%
Don’t remember opting in — 41%
Being contacted in the wrong communication channel — 33% ]
SOLUTION FOR 2020:
l Email readers/ platform are going to get better and better at helping recipients manage their email by factoring in contextual information and not relying on just arrival time
l Expect more automated personalization in marketing
l More rules-based triggers and filters
l More association of data and behavior to other platforms and medium like users online behavior, smart car, smart home, smart phone behavior, etc.
l Email will leverage every interaction from the Internet of Things, location, behavioral data, and customer preferences to deliver messages to the customer in exactly the right context.
l In some ways email will improve ROI by integrating more value to it and guidelines
l Will be able to make purchases right inside email messages without ever leaving their inboxes.
l Email platforms will need to be able to integrate with platforms that handle the anonymous marketing data.
l Email volume is going to increase dramatically by 2020
l Many emails won’t feel like emails at all
l I see interactive email as a huge shift in email development. Early analytics have shown far greater engagement from users who receive interactive messages.
l Expert that more regulation and rules like GDPR to become even more sophisticated
l Expert more and more security feature to prevent scammers, fraudsters, or bad actors from every getting into your attention. People even elders will be safer checking email
l Whatever data companies are exposing or leveraging will be visible to you and you will be able deny access or exchange it for money. Also the possibility of companies not retaining their users data
NOT REALIZING COLD EMAIL MARKETING IS STILL A GAMBLE
The thing about cold emailing campaigns or any emailing efforts is that it is a gamble. It is based on hope that target receives, reads, response, and acts on it. However if you do result to these tactics make sure it is towards targets likely to be receptive to your email, offering, and your business. And it starts with the right credible company email address, subject line, body contains a relevant hook for the purpose of your email and a relevant CTA(call to action), right tone, social proof.
Also key point to remember, b2b decision makers and influences come in different flavors so vary your message. Aligning your content with the needs of different stakeholders in a B2B organization is important.
More FYi
More FYi
[ Frequency is another key factor. Consumers prefer to receive messages about promotion, sales or discounts from individual businesses:
About once a week — 29%
About once a day — 17%
Several times a week — 17%
Once a month — 10%
Several times a day — 8%
Several times a month — 8%
Never or rarely — 8%
Less than once a month — 5%
Millennials want to receive promotions more often than baby boomers. But they are less likely to tolerate bad marketing outreach.
In general, people value these conveniences:
Easy to opt out of receiving messages — 54%
Can choose the way I receive communications — 52%
Only receive messages when I’ve opted in — 49%
Can specify the types of communications I receive — 44%
Can easily reply to the message — 32%
Can specify the frequency I want to receive messages — 29%
Communications are personalized — 21%
Predictably, promotional emails rank near the bottom in urgency. These are the situations that demand immediate communication:
Change of plans — 63%
Delivery or arrival communication — 56%
Appointment reminders or communications — 53%
Order notifications — 48%
Weather warnings — 45%
Bill due notifications — 44%
Work or school safety notices — 32%
Receipts — 31%
Flash sales or promotions — 25%
None of the above — 3%
]
About once a week — 29%
About once a day — 17%
Several times a week — 17%
Once a month — 10%
Several times a day — 8%
Several times a month — 8%
Never or rarely — 8%
Less than once a month — 5%
Millennials want to receive promotions more often than baby boomers. But they are less likely to tolerate bad marketing outreach.
In general, people value these conveniences:
Easy to opt out of receiving messages — 54%
Can choose the way I receive communications — 52%
Only receive messages when I’ve opted in — 49%
Can specify the types of communications I receive — 44%
Can easily reply to the message — 32%
Can specify the frequency I want to receive messages — 29%
Communications are personalized — 21%
Predictably, promotional emails rank near the bottom in urgency. These are the situations that demand immediate communication:
Change of plans — 63%
Delivery or arrival communication — 56%
Appointment reminders or communications — 53%
Order notifications — 48%
Weather warnings — 45%
Bill due notifications — 44%
Work or school safety notices — 32%
Receipts — 31%
Flash sales or promotions — 25%
None of the above — 3%
]
SOLUTION FOR 2020:
l Having a Artificial Intelligent assistant answer your email like you would. Which means some target mail boxes will do a better job filtering your message to the important pile. Also the less important will be managed by a A.I. bot.
l Email platform construct the right message, dynamic messages. Right send time, right moments based on readers mood, etc
l With more profile and behavior data you can send out a single email where content-blocks populate with a variety of dynamic content depending on the user that you’re sending to. For example, you send an email which then continues to update itself
l There might be less emphasis on landing pages and more about proving the landing page within the email itself…therefore users just have to stay on one software platform to complete transactions.
l Emphasis would be made for less gambling email marketing and more precise.
NOT OPTIMIZING MOBILE / VR/ AR MORE
Almost everyone is no longer tied to their desk when it comes to getting work done. Mobility power and possibility are about to explode. Just imagine computing power of a laptop computer with a folder-able screens in the palm of your hands. This 2020 year could be the beginning of the end of laptops.
“The majority of research carried out into email open rates has now concluded that mobile is providing a greater number of email opens than desktop, mirroring mobile shifts across the digital marketing spectrum.”
SOLUTION FOR 2020:
l The digital detox is increasing
l Communities on social media
l Micro and nano-influencers increasing
l Rise of alternative platforms and niche platforms
l Social media as customer service tool
l Stories becoming effective and over used
l Faster-Accelerated mobile pages
l Interactive messaging services
l Increase use of SMS marketing which will then create spam blocking for phone and messaging apps
l Mobile-first web design so it could be the slow end to desktop sites
l More and more wi-fi calling and less cell carrier calls
l More virtual phone numbers, more users with multiple phone numbers
l Better voice messaging management for consumers and businesses
l Expert to see more and more augmented reality use cases
l The increase use of QR code
l The more use of mobile payment and less physical cash society
l Learn from the success of WeChat ….
l Learn more. “VR (virtual reality) is when you are immersed in a totally-new, made-from-scratch virtual world. AR (augmented reality) is when the real world around you is augmented, or enhanced, with digital features.”
l The key here for B2B is to keep exploring relevant ways to create invaluable xp using these technology because many of the current mediums are becoming saturated.
NOT WORKING VIDEO MARKETING
Video and audio / voice are becoming more the source of first form of company or product information. Meaning people would rather watch a video of your product, a demo of your product first before spending hours reading your text based content.
“In fact, 83% of marketers believe that video is becoming increasingly important, which signals the start of more brands using them as part of their digital marketing strategies.”
“It is estimated that people will spend more daily minutes watching video over the next few years than ever before, resulting in more advertisers investing in online video ads in order to drive engagement.”
SOLUTION FOR 2020:
l Expect to see more competition in video content and video distribution
l Expect to struggle to get engagement from videos because of saturation
l Expect to see video personalization based on user data, behavior, and prediction
l Expect a data-first approach to video marketing
l More 360-degree videos and VR (virtual reality content)
l More and more emphasis on Integrating videos across the marketing funnel
l Expect to use more video to assist and answer pain points, support, lead conversion,
l Videos offer consumers content that can be quickly and easily digested
l Videos are a must even if you don’t receive a lot of monetary ROI from them
l Expect to upgrade your quality, format, presentation, editing, and techniques to stay competitive
l You don’t really have to spend a fortune
NOT SOCIAL MEDIA, A.I, DATA ENOUGH ….
B2B marketing are expanding beyond LinkedIn: I hope that's not news to you. I believe it is critical for a world of new social media platform on steroids. You have to keep stepping up your soft skills and your hard technical skills.
SOLUTION FOR 2020:
l We found that social media usage will continue to grow.
l interesting uses of social media will come from Africa which currently has the fastest growth rates, with the number of internet users across the continent increasing by more than 20 percent year-over-year.
l By 2020, we’ll see the increased dominance of Instagram, especially among older demographics.
l According to GlobalWebIndex, almost half of internet users follow brands they like or brands they are thinking of buying something from on social media. Search engines, online reviews, and PR are the traditional discovery channels. But by 2020, we’ll see dramatic growth diverse sources.
l In a study of 178,421 global internet users aged 16-64, GlobalWebIndex found that 28 percent of users turned to social networks during their online product research, a number that we’ve seen jump every year.
l In fast-growth markets such as Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, social media dramatically beats search engines for product research.
l By 2020, we’ll see search’s grip slip further on product research and social’s influence grow, especially among mobile-first consumers and emerging markets.
l Voice will both change how consumers discover products and how they communicate on social channels—a new set of digital behaviors that marketers will need to adapt to.
l Facebook predicts that by 2020, 80 percent of smartphone users are projected to be using a mobile messaging app. Customer service is one of the most obvious use cases. But many local businesses are using messaging apps as their primary customer communication hub. This opens the door for conversational commerce to extend far beyond messaging, with messaging apps becoming the center of mobile commerce, customer relationship management workflows, and product discovery.
l Chatbots will help consumers transition to social commerce, making it easy and seamless to discover products, ask questions, process digital payments, and see automatic updates on your order’s delivery date.
l By 2020, the novelty of chatbots will be gone. But for purchases such as choosing a smartphone package or planning a vacation, they’ll be delightfully helpful shopping social companions.
l And with the rise of messaging—a medium where people type less and increasingly use audio snippets, live video messages, and augmented reality filters—the opportunity of social video has only begun.
l Expect to see more companies shorten the path between awareness videos and direct purchases on social platforms.
l Teens are typing less in messaging apps and using videos and audio snippets more. Over 100 million people use WhatsApp’s in-app video calling to connect with friends and family.
l Social video will need to become social
l An experience that builds a customer community rather than broadcast-style content and product teasers.
l People are sharing less personal information on major networks. Instead, they’re watching videos, killing time, and sharing things to connect with friends.
l Social videos can boost traffic. But chasing traffic and adapting to the whims of social algorithms isn’t a winning strategy.
l But the next phase of innovation in social won’t come from advanced economies. It’s the emerging economies—consumers that have skipped desktop and traditional search engines—that will lead the way.
l It shows how mobile-first consumers are using social across the complete customer journey in China, a glimpse of the trends that will soon sweep Europe and North America.
l By 2020, we’ll see more practical uses of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in marketing.
l creating location-specific videos to influence nearby customers such as event attendees or pedestrians near a store location.
l They also are influenced by social reviews, admitting that lots of “likes” and positive comments on social media motivates them to make a purchase.”
l Whether tracking employee perceptions of new leaders to prioritizing critical problems in corporate culture, social data will become a new area of advantage. Using publicly available data (such as comments on Instagram or perceptions on LinkedIn), social data will provide a true look into the health of an employer brand.
l As social channels continue to grow as the dominant communication channels both within and outside of company walls, CEOs who ignore these channels will be at a disadvantage.
l Amazon’s ad business is expected to grow due to the accumulation of consumer and business behavior history
l Having a ‘total wallet’ perspective
l Organic social content will play a critical role, helping shoppers to evaluate products, be inspired by curated product collections, and seek advice from like-minded customers.
l Gartner has been bullish on their AI predictions. They estimate that by 2020, 30 percent of all B2B companies will employ artificial intelligence (AI) to augment at least one of their primary sales processes.
l By 2020, we’ll see digital communication dramatically evolve. To keep up, brands need to rethink their strategies, build new capabilities, and quickly adapt.
l Social platforms will be regulated. Governments and consumers will look to better guard personal data. And rather than being impressed by data journalism or clever personalization, tech companies will be seen in a darker light by the public.
l Is our information really safeguarded?
l Augmented reality, on the other hand, takes the real world and projects virtual, computer-generated augmentations to it, in order to enhance our experiences. The reason being it can drastically improve the engagement experience on social media.Some potential features of AR in the social media future:
- AR live events
- AR videos
- Create more brand awareness
- Enhance the buying experience and a lot more
l Become the primary source of insightful information
l In 2020 and the near future, AI will do better and better in segmenting data, and make sure that the algorithms provide the best content possible.
l Fake news and sensitive information will be filtered out in a more advanced way than today.(some of the information still need to be filtered out manually by a human) and overall the information consumption experience will be enhanced more and more.
l The core idea of why they would be interested in doing so is because all of the stuff we usually do online can be focused or presented on a single platform. The ability of social media to connect is also another reason why this would prove to be a powerful feature if implemented.
NOT CONTENT, INFLUENCE & COMMUNITY MARKETING LIKE A PRO
Let’s see how these content marketing trends for 2020 will affect the world of marketing. The reality is that content marketing is not going anywhere however expect more efficiencies and quality.
SOLUTION FOR 2020:
l Expect more data driven content marketing
l Expect more content being written by A.I.
l Expect more content being written by A.I.
l B2B especially not interested in being thrown garbage content, vague, and irrelevant content
l Content with extraordinary insight, facts, arguments, stats can be used to persuade and influence
l Expect to embrace an organization that seeks to collect more data. And the use of IofT will play a role.
l Expect to see A.I, Machine Learning to sort, segment, analyze data regarding all aspect of content, from concept to life cycle
l The long form content (aprox. 1000 words) and topic clusters will still be embrace by some people because people consume information differently
l To stay relevant in 2020, your content must continue to be engaged and be interactive
l Expect to to see more collaboration from individuals, consultants, competitors, associations, institutions, etc to deliver invaluable content to much more variety of audiences
l Expect to see a growing use of influences. In B2B the messages sometimes get drowned out by the noise. Influencers allow your business to get your message above the noise. Also remember to work with influencers like partners not pawns.
l It is recommended that you must recognize the small and big moments in your organization and in your users lives so that you demonstrate to your team and users that the money is not the only thing you value. Think along the lines of following below:
- I-want-to-know moments
- I-want-to-go moments
- I-want-to-do moments
- I-want-to-buy moments
l Using content to reduce friction in the decision journey
l It is often stated that if your customers are not referring you business or promoting your business even without an incentive, then you may want to check your business or value proposition.
l B2B should always shoot for global ambition however learn how to perfect their content game for the local market, for the persona, for the culture, for the languages, etc
l It is expected that B2B and B2C are embracing the idea of surrounding their content, products, experiences with a community
l Keeping in mind community content marketing is all about providing real time answers to questions, testimonials, feedback without the members of your community loving your products or services.
l Expect that people craving conversation with peers, others, expects is something to consider for your content mix. B2B People want online and offline experience as well. They want food, drinks, connections, love, safety, respect, diversity, success, lessons, etc
l Leveraging current news for inspiration for new content ideas
l In addition , learning that influencers come in many forms micro and macro so having the necessary tools / software to help you manage that will be important in 2020.
l “Influencer Tech Integration with other Martech – Influencer identification, engagement and measurement technology will increasingly become integrated with cloud marketing platforms. As B2B brands mature in their influencer marketing practices, the need for integration will increase."
l “Far too many B2B brands they treat their influencer relationships transactionally and in terms of what the brand can get from the influencer. B2B brands that make any effort at all to learn more about influencer goals, preferences and capabilities in combination with providing opportunities to “
"It is also important to keep the following when you design product, advertise, sell, support, assist, etc: The 5 Human Truths to Guide Human-Centered Marketing"
- People want to belong.
- People want to be respected.
- People want to be loved.
- People want to protect their self-interests.
- People want to find meaning in their lives.
NOT VOICE INTERFACE & NOT MORE OMNI-CHANNELS ENOUGH
With the rise of voice command devices like Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, Apple’s Siri, Google’s assistant expect to see voice drive search behavior by more consumers and businesses.
The other thing is not having presence in the diverse mediums ,methods and platform which people use to get to your business, is just asking to fail. So get in and begin to immerse yourself.
The other thing is not having presence in the diverse mediums ,methods and platform which people use to get to your business, is just asking to fail. So get in and begin to immerse yourself.
SOLUTION FOR 2020:
- Expect more business decision makers and their influencers wanting to consume goods and services almost the same way as consumers.
- Expect that businesses want to be connecting with brands across channels, including apps, voice, websites, blogs, YouTube, social media, events, conferences, video messaging, chat rooms, etc accounts.
- Expect the challenge to be keeping the brand voice consistent across channels
- Expect to see a new role or a spin off from the brand manager that tries to upholds the voice, feel, persona, etc of the company across everything. Or more a ever present guideline of standards.
- Expect to see more omni-channel specialist
NOT COMMODIFICATION YOUR SERVICES & PRODUCTS
There are just some businesses that can not escape the pull of being commodities. However the reality is your b2b must fight this battle everyday and keep adding value.
“If you want to get your business out of the commodity game, and into delivering higher margin, value-added solutions, you must find the people with the problems that need solving. “
Your team or business must get to people who can most benefit from your services.
SOLUTION FOR 2020:
- Expect to seek out and work with an experienced sales trainer who know how to get to decision-makers. And who will help you avoid being a commodity.
- The following technique might be considered to present:
- Using The Front Door. Use a targeted direct marketing approach that doesn't emphasize price to capture the attention of the decision-makers. A highly tailored message to each individual with a message that matches the needs and interests of the decision makers.
- The Side Door. Network and establish relationship with people from your target company. The side door simply means using connections to assist you better understand or get to the ultimate buyer and users.
- The Back Door.You might be able to strike up an alliance with another vendor who is providing services to the target company, or network with professional advisors (e.g., accountants and attorneys) who might see value in recommending your services.
- Knowing the motivation and needs. There are few key things to keep in mind about. How do they increase revenue, manage cost, recruit top talent, stay relevant, differentiate themselves, and / or add value.
- You need to discover the challenges and opportunities. Then position your services by demonstrating how you will deliver the benefits the decision team needs to overcome.
- A trick to consider is to incorporate experience, services, products, benefits, people, location, etc Avoid the game of competing on price alone.
NOT ASKING, "ARE WE OVERDOING THIS"
I believe there are just some tools, tactics, keywords, technical words, etc that have just become overused. Overused to the point that you need to take more and more attempts just to get to effectiveness.
And people have lost the ability to innovate, adapt, and adopt different ways they just do things for the sake of doing something. For example, blasting email subscribers and expecting a different result from last blast.
We've also overdone the number of marketing and technology stacks we need to do our job. Many business are paying for numerous SaaS programs they hardly use because they are just looking for that edge.
SOLUTION FOR 2020:
- Expect B2B marketing trend will be pulling back and focusing on what works, and reducing the less effective sales / marketing technology stacks. A good blend of marketing stacks will help.
- Overdoing templates. If your mobile, web, AR/VR, store, messages, etc appears like a template similar to many other providers or competitors some users may not be impress.
- Overdoing the things that's not helping in differentiating your brand, services is just asking for future challenges.
- Overdoing gathering data and not using most of the data is just wasteful. And if the data is based on junk therefore the metrics could be junk as well.
- Overdoing metrics. Expect to see more pressure and demand for metrics that help monitor key performance bottom line.
- Overdoing marketing. Both B2C / B2B / B2G etc are going to stop selling and marketing for it's sake but focus is going to be finding ways reach their targets more effectively. More focus on users, decision makers, and what they want and likely might need.
- Expect the growing demand for marketers with sales, tech, analytics, AI, ML, customer service backgrounds.
- Overdoing content. Expect more quality content being produced and better distribution tactics.
NOT PRACTICING GREAT PRIVACY & SECURITY
People may be getting use to idea that their information on many top platforms like Google, Verizon, Netflix, Amazon, Wordpress, Banks, etc are never 100% safe. Everyone pretty much knows privacy and security are not guaranteed.
SOLUTION FOR 2020:
- Expect to see more people seeking more secure ways to communicate, pay, watch, drive and etc in their consumer life as well as their business life.
- Expect people and businesses to grow more concern about Big Brother or Surveillance Capitalism.
- Expect to see more Privacy regulations like GDPR increase around most countries
- Expect to see CMO and any marketer to be speaking up about their users data and engaging the CIO, CTO, CFO more often to ensure the right tools are in place 24/7.
- Expect security breaches to become more intolerable
- Expect Government, Marketers, Businesses, and others pushing for enhance identification which will enable better ways to link more data and behaviors to predict / manipulate / influence / punish...like the Sesame Credits.
- Expect the introduction of services that will help people or businesses stay anonymous online and offline. Think of a mask that can deceive a facial recognition camera at a cashier-less store.
The sales success of 2020 will consist of many factors plus ever increase of more sophisticated technology. Sales people will have to learn about caring, technology stacks, A.I, ML, etc. . .well enough to utilize the tools.
Expect to see more ongoing training for sales and front facing staff. More tools to improve Product knowledge, Company knowledge, Sales skill knowledge, Tech knowledge, Buyer behavior knowledge, Social sales skill knowledge, and leveraging influence to achieve sales goals.
Expect to see more businesses willing adopt more patience and assertiveness in shortening the sales cycle. So many will add value, entertain, offer trials, make introductions, build relationships,
SOLUTION FOR 2020:
- Expect training in going the extra mile
- Expect more training in lead generations
- Expect more collaboration with marketing
- Expect more training in developing personal brand and being in sync with organization brand
- Expect to track their leads and prospects better
- Expect some budgets to tighten and ROI from new and current sales personel has to be quicker due to the many organization fixed cost
- Expect demand for productivity and efficiencies. That also means hiring who can accept accountable, driven, proactive, work habits, good routines, values
- Expect more engaging to gain trust and credibility
- Expect more training on listening well and digital listening
- Expect more push for more business from current customers
- Expect management styles to change which will involve more emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence.
- Expect more pressure for social responsibility operations
- Expect sales leaders, management to feel the pressure to create organizational structures that support innovation and change.
- Expect to see more and more organizations leveraging outside experts to assist them in staying relevant in a hyper-competitive world
- Expect to see more speeding up time-to-market, optimizing business processes and reducing costs.
- Expect to fight complexity from top to bottom
The need to inquire about the prospect’s pain points quicker and experiences so your sales team can begin the prescription process.
THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A PLAYBOOK GROWS
[ Here are 7 essential elements that belong in every winning sales playbook:
Strategy: The strategy in a sales playbook sets the tone and positioning.
Goals: Once you have an understanding of the purpose of the play, the goals provide insights on when and how you can leverage the content and information. The goals in a sales play do a great job of creating the framework for not only what to say, but how to say it and when to leverage templates and different materials.
Goals: Once you have an understanding of the purpose of the play, the goals provide insights on when and how you can leverage the content and information. The goals in a sales play do a great job of creating the framework for not only what to say, but how to say it and when to leverage templates and different materials.
Talking Points: Leverage a talking point that would be most relevant to the prospect because they add value quickly when leaving messages and help guide to have conversations that are meaningful and will quickly resonate with my prospect.
Templates: Using templates effectively requires a touch of art and science. The art refers to the messaging within the template, which undoubtedly needs to be good content. But when you pair powerful messaging with the ability to recommend materials to ensure sellers are leveraging the template in the correct scenario, it turns into a powerful sales play. [Keep in mind] 1.) ensure that I’m using the best template for my specific scenario, and 2.) make sure that the template I’m using is the most up-to-date. [3.) make sure to personalize it]
Content for 1:1 Engagements: Strive to use the most effective content. Use sales plays as away to narrow content search to a few items that ultimately fit what the prospect wants.
Content for Social Posts: For social to be successful determine the audience you are addressing. What persona should you target? What industry? Should it be product-related? When a sales play has content specifically recommended for social, you can post easily, quickly, and with confidence. [Based on having a plan already in place]
Suggested Follow-Up Content: For situations you will know your next move like knowing what content to send for follow-up. Always find the most relevant content to the current scenario and checking for the best collateral should be a daily routine.
The World of B2B Sales & Marketing Into 2020 Take Away
So the big take away is that your sales game plan or sales playbook should be based on guidelines and best practices yet have some room for agility. Make it easy and make sure it adds value.
When in comes to marketing be prepared to be more agile and adopt technology. Prepare to reinvent the wheel even if you have to break the mold.
If you need more resources for designing a Sales Play Book for 2020, reach out to myself, Manny Omikunle. I personally I'm open to assisting SMB / Freelancing service businesses with their business and marketing. You can reach out for a 15 MINUTES - 60 MINUTES Confidential Chat. Ask For Detail
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