I have to admit it… I am in the middle of a Bromance with a recent podcast guest Ryan Weiss. If you know me, you know I am a systems geek, and Ryan is a process geek. We both have ADD, work fast, and have one thing in common… our businesses focus on helping B2b businesses become more successful. To achieve this, we align on the fact that people come first.

I met Ryan at a mastermind event and was enamored with his presentation about the process, people, and purpose. This focus makes business more efficient, and it makes people happier.

He has a saying that just resonates with me: “Great processes without people are wasted. People without great processes are frustrated.”

At a presentation and workshop last week, his constant theme and the biggest takeaway was that successful businesses align purpose, people, and processes to achieve success. All are intertwined in a way that has to work for you, your employees or contractors, and your clients or prospects.

The common thread throughout the entire presentation was people!

Shiny Happy People

I have learned over the years that finding quality people is a lot easier than hiring and keeping quality people. This dates back to my days of running my recording studio. I had 5 employees and they stuck around through thick and thin because they loved what they did, the people we worked for, and they were aligned with the vision of what we were doing.

I did my best to build processes at the time, but they were never documented nor designed for profits. They were designed around people. Once I lost focus of people, they all left at the same time to take what they had learned and do it for themselves. That has stuck with me to this day. It was a lesson I had to learn.

I swore never to hire employees again, but now I manage a team of 18 and growing!

The Process

When it comes to marketing, you have to start at the outcome. What are you trying to achieve? In my business-to-business marketing world, it's about creating a conversation between your salespeople and your current customers, past customers, and prospects who have followed your customer journey map. We all want sales, but that only happens between people. There has never been a business in the history of the world, that has ever signed a contract, sent a P.O., or given a credit card. It's people who do that.

So my marketing processes are built around that goal. The content that we create and distribute has to be compelling enough to build just enough trust to get the conversation started.

The system has to provide some indication of interest through the buyers' journey map that entices the prospect or customer to take the action to identify themself and give their name, company email, and/or phone number. This means that the system has to be consistent, and omnipresent (without being salesy and annoying).

The content has to be empathetic and specific enough that the reader, listener, or viewer, feels like you are talking directly with, and not AT, them. It also has to be shown over and over again. You have no idea when your content will get the awareness or attention of someone. Even then, they may not take action at that specific time, but they may file it away in their psyche. Then that day will come where their problem meets your solution and the conversations can begin.

Marketing is a process of awareness, education, and convincing people to take action.

The People

We have discussed the client and prospects, but what about your part of the people equation… your salespeople? They mostly love to have sales conversations (especially those that end in sales). They are not marketing people, yet social media is a reality today. Some of those conversations will happen on LinkedIn.

Having trained thousands of people on using LinkedIn for sales, they love the concept, but they don't want another activity like posting your content on their profiles to execute your marketing system. If you are only posting on your business page, it does not leverage the relationship capital that they have actively built up.

The way we have found to be most successful is to post to their profiles for them. This allows them to be responsive to comments and messages that your content generates, making it as easy as any other sales processes you may already have in place.

Creating great content, and posting it to your sales team's personal profiles, leads to more qualified and more productive sales conversations. That keeps your salespeople and your customers happier at the same time.

The Purpose

We all realize that the purpose of a business is to create a profit. Often businesses start her with big lofty goals to change the world or make it a better place. But when your process is about creating better and more sales conversations, we are talking about people's lives. How can you make your salespeople's lives easier and their jobs more enjoyable? How can you help your customers solve their problems in ways that they need or want at the most optimum time?

It's all about building trust between your sales team and the people who buy from each and every one of them. Trust is where transactions happen. That means that every marketing process should have that purpose in mind.

Ultimately, your marketing process and messages should have the purpose of building trust. Trust that your salespeople can deliver on solutions, and trust that the people they are speaking to have the interest and resources not to be just more tire kickers and price shoppers. There is no tactic, trick, or easy button to building trust. It just takes, producing relevant content that creates awareness, and delivers consistent engagement from people at the perfect time to start or continue sales relationships!

Final Thoughts

Marketing has always been a function to drive sales, but there is a difference between business-to-business and consumer marketing. Consumers don't need or want a relationship with toilet paper, furniture, or their cars. Although you do see more and more people speaking in their cars than ever before. I would love to hear some of the conversations, but I wouldn't want to get that personal with a motor, wires, and aluminum!

“Just as your car runs smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals and values are in balance.” – Brian Tracey

I would love to hear your thoughts on how you build and nurture personal relationships in your business. Are you finding quality people? Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about creating trust with people through your marketing process and messages.

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