In business, we need to embrace systems to align people with processes. Companies spend time and money on systems to speed up or simplify processes. The one thing that stands in the way of business systems being effective is people.

You are working with a group of people with different life experiences, goals, and beliefs. As much as we try, we can't dig deep into each individual and try to align them based on their unique perspective, so we try to find a middle ground with the expectation of varying degrees of adaptation.

We then create documents and training to help the alignment process. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) help us to set expectations, give instructions, and align expectations. Then, just like a kindergarten recital, you have some who fidget, adlib, or move to the beat of their own drum.

Since the beginning of time, trying to align a group of individuals has been the cornerstone of history, society, politics, and religions. We organize with laws, scripture, or proclamation. Yet each has both aligned groups and created factions within.

So when it comes to business (and my focus on B2b Relationship Marketing), “The struggle is real!”

Embrace The MASSES?

With marketing, we often try to reach the biggest audience possible. In most forms, advertising has a response rate of 1-2%. That means for every 100 people you actually reach (not counting those who delete or never see the ad) 1-2 people will act (click, read, do something). Yet, media and ad companies will tout the size of their audience. “We have 1,000,000 readers (or followers), giving you access to that target market. Although there is some truth in that, perception is not reality.

One of the most distorting measurements in digital marketing is impressions. In Analytics, Google has rebranded that to views, but with Google and LinkedIn ads, success is served up as impressions and clicks. A client example is that they have 74,000 impressions with 600 clicks. That is a .8 (>1%) ratio of success (an action). Yet the optimist in us will say, “Some of those 74,00 people saw it so that they may click tomorrow”. It feels like success, but you can't measure it like you can with a click.

The big audience mentality is very consumer-based, while B2b marketing has a different dynamic.

• B2C: Larger audience size, broader and more diverse market, shorter decision-making process, and mass marketing strategies.
• B2B: Smaller and more specialized audience, niche market, longer and more complex decision-making process, and targeted marketing strategies.

I think of B2b marketing as Micro-targeted Marketing Strategies. Let me explain.

Embrace the Individuals

I am sure you realize that B2b has a more niche audience, but I have found success relies on micro-targeting down to individuals. That requires more time than money, making it harder and less attractive than mass marketing. Yet, when you define success as a sale, it's one person with a team of decision-makers that you ultimately must convince to buy from you rather than your competition.

The more you can get to know that individual and converse with them, the more they will trust you. Trust has to be earned and maintained. Usually, it's your salesperson or customer service rep who builds and maintains that relationship (even if that's you). It goes beyond just adding a customer to your CRM or email list or adding them as a social connection. It takes personal interaction. That interaction could and should be part of the data stored in your CRM or ERP.

The simplest thing you can do is connect with them on LinkedIn. LinkedIn alerts you when your connection has a birthday or job change. Reaching out to that individual with a message on LinkedIn, mailing a card, or emailing them (in a non-automated way) will raise that relationship bar.

Posting content can help you stay top of mind so customers may contact your salesperson, or at least make it less intrusive when your salesperson contacts your customers.

The inherent problem is that you must convince your sales team to connect, post content, send messages, and document interactions.

Embrace the Resistance

With marketing, we often utilize systems and SOPs to reach our current, past, and prospective customers. We would all love it if one system (law, scripture, or proclamation) reached all three audiences because it would simplify and reduce time and expense.

All the SOPs in the world won't change the fact that salespeople want to sell. Many (if not most) are great at building and maintaining relationships but not good at or interested in collecting and documenting data or reposting your thought leadership content on their personal social media profiles.

In reality, we have found that having a vetted and trusted internal or outsourced relationship manager (RM) can help. They can log into a salesperson's LinkedIn and create a personalized connection message, wish them a happy birthday, and post content to their profile. That RM can also help monitor direct messages from customers and forward them to the salesperson's email or text to ensure they reply in a timely manner. It can even be taken a step further if given access to a CRM. They can receive meeting notes from a salesperson and add them to the CRM or update additional details.

The Small Wins

In the B2b world, sales don't just happen. They are usually a sequence of small wins that all combine to add up to a transaction.

“Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they'll come back. We have to be great every time or we'll lose them.” – Kevin Stirtz

When I meet a new person in a business setting, I do my best to reach out and connect with them on LinkedIn. In the case of the new AMA 2024-25 board, several new people joined who I have never met. I sent a personalized connection request and have since had some “Get to know you” Zoom meetings. During those calls, we exchanged what we do outside of volunteering and explored what resources we have to offer each other. I also made sure that I added and tagged them in my CRM. It's a small win!

I make it a point to wish people a personalized “Happy Birthday” or “Congrats on your new gig” on LinkedIn. If they respond (which many do with “Thanks”), I respond back to let them know it was a real person and not automated. Many of those have prompted meetings, calls, and even referrals, but it is very rare that it has produced a direct sale. It's still a small win!

My personal RM helps me stay ahead of all the activity I get on my personal and company social media profiles on LinkedIn. She helps me ensure that my data is solid, meaning I have the most up-to-date information about the company they work for, their contact information is current, and they are tagged properly. It's still a small win!

Closing Thought

I realize that in business, money is more measurable than time when it comes to marketing or relationships. Taking time to form better-quality marketing relationships will generally create more measurable money. If it were all easy, we would be visiting each other on our yachts near our own private islands.

Getting people to change habits, beliefs, and philosophies is hard. Yelling at a crowd just creates a more angry crowd. Meeting an individual where they are at, at this moment, takes energy, empathy, and effort. You are not going to influence or convert everyone you have a conversation with, but you will make an impression—not the Google type of impression, but the relational kind.

Now, more than any other time I have experienced, people want to be seen, heard, understood, respected, valued, appreciated, engaged, and safe. While society, politics, and religions are biasing, stereotyping, segmenting, and fracturing groups, listening, hearing, and affirming can turn small wins into BIG ones!

______________________________

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.