Growing up in New York, Yogi Bera was one of my favorite characters. He was a good player but even more of a philosopher (well, sort of). Some of his most famous “Deep Yogi Thoughts” include:
“It ain't over 'til it's over.”- “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
- “It's like déjà vu all over again.”
- “You can observe a lot by watching.”
- “Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical.”
- “You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.”
- “Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.”
Baseball is a sport. It's not quite as life-or-death as a gladiator in a Roman coliseum, but some people feel like it is (especially in the payoffs). But it's certainly not war, or is it?
Speaking of war, Donald Rumsfeld had a Yogi Bera moment during a press conference in 2002. Rumsfeld was the U.S. Secretary of Defense in the period right after 9/11 when our leaders were contemplating attacking Iraq for possessing weapons of mass destruction.
The direct quote was, “Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me because, as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know, we don't know.”
While that quote may be a bit confusing, the underlying concepts of “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns” have been used in various fields like project management, risk assessment, and strategic planning for decades. I would like to look at it from the perspective of marketing in today's multigenerational, AI-infused digital online marketing world!
Marketing to “Why People Buy”
Yogi Logic: “People buy things because they don't have them yet.”
Although that's kind of true, there are three main reasons people buy things:
- To solve a problem or fulfill a need
- For convenience or to reduce hassle
- For emotional reasons and self-improvement
I am sure there is always a mix of all three. For example, I am paying a landscaper to put bricks around my parkway trees. The problem is that it would take me days to buy the bricks, dig the trench, and get the project done. The convenience is that it will make it easier to mow the lawn. The emotional benefit is the compliments we will get on our landscaping; those trees looked unkempt and unruly.
I would say that all three are embedded in decisions to make B2B purchases as well:
- To solve a business problem or increase profitability
- To overcome a lack of people or resources to do it in-house
- To make the buyer look better and most importantly… not get fired
So, your marketing has to make clear the problem-solving, convenience, and emotional benefits of choosing your product, service, and/or solution.
The Known, Unknown, and WFT?
When it comes to business-to-business marketing, there are a series of knowns and unknowns. I wanted to help you think about how you can use these to define better who your content is intended to reach and how you can get them to engage more with your content.
The Known Knowns
The People
If you are already selling to people or have sold to them in the past. There is a relationship and a strong bond. You have a great opportunity to connect and communicate in ways that you can do with prospects or people you are hoping to influence and convert to customers.
That creates an opportunity to informally survey them through phone calls and emails to get the pulse of where they think business is headed, how you solve their problems, satisfy their needs, and what your product or service means to them emotionally.
The Message
Your messaging can have a more personal feel because you can and have gathered intelligence about what messages resonate with them and how you can create a clear pathway to website interactions and open conversations through email, text, social media, and phone calls.
The Technology
You have various ways to collect data and track interactions with your emails and interpersonal interactions. The biggest challenge is getting your staff to constantly update that data. This is important because it's the most solid marketing information you can gather in real-time, with little to no friction or speculation.
The Known Unknowns
The People
Based on the people, business size, and industries your current customers belong to, you have a great idea of the type of business and industry verticals your perfect prospects belong to.
The problem is that they may or may not know about your company. They may already be purchasing from a competitor. Another challenge is not knowing if they are Gen Y, Gen X, Millenials, or Boomers.
The Message
Gen Y, Gen X, Millenials, and Boomers most likely have different takes on their emotional triggers. You can count on them still having problems to solve, challenges with staff and resources, and a need for what you sell.
So, the Known Unknown will probably be attracted to the solutions and the resource-based messaging. That means that you will have to get to the point in the one-on-one communication where you can gather more of the emotionally charged focus that you can use to help them come around to buying from you.
The Technology
The best way to get people to pay attention is to find short ways to grab their attention. This is where social media posts and short videos work best. The goal Is to find the people who want to learn more and get them back to your website, where you ultimately control the messaging and can collect more data.
The Unknown Unknowns
The People
Some people work for companies in industries you may not know about or have even heard of. Companies are changing things like titles, structure, and even communication methods. Some companies may ban social media or spend 100% of their time on Reddit, Slack, Alignable, or something other than the top five social media and messaging platforms.
The Message
In this crazy, oversaturated, message-overloaded world, it's war. You are fighting enemies, you can see, who have drones, AI, and budgets that can range from $0 to $1 billion. The only thing you can do is appeal to emotion and hope that it resonates with the right people at the right time.
The Technology
You can't fight a war on all fronts, so you must pick your battles strategically. An example would be posting graphics on Instagram, short videos on Facebook and LinkedIn, webinars on YouTube, and matter blogs and long-form content to everything with the hope that people will find it interesting. In other words, new content can be created, and old content can be used to flow into the web with the hope of being found.
Closing Thought
In the long run, spending more time on the known knowns gives you a better chance of success. That offers you the best and easiest way to serve and sell. It also gives you the data and content to try to find some known unknowns to help grow your business and deal with attrition. All of that gives you content and context to approach the unknowns.
Where I see more businesses struggle is thinking that the unknown unknowns can easily convert into customers with a little effort and strategy. In reality, I believe that these are three legs of a stool and not necessarily a sequential one.
When it comes to Internet Advertising and Search Engine Marketing, Yogi says:
- “Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.”
- “A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.”
- “We made too many wrong mistakes.”
- “If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be.”
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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.
