An integrated approach to transform your go-to-market strategies

At a glance

• Effective integration of sales and marketing is crucial for navigating the complex B2B purchasing process, ensuring that buyers receive consistent and detailed information throughout their decision-making journey.
• Implementing a Customer Surround Model that stems from a deep understanding of customer needs ensures optimal interaction at key stages of the sales cycle.
• A hybrid approach that both frames and affirms value is essential to guide buyers throughout their journey, from problem identification to the final purchase.
• Success in go-to-market strategies also depends on cross-departmental collaboration and establishing clear metrics to gauge the effectiveness of various tactics.

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Introduction

A Gartner study revealed that 75% of B2B buyers prefer to make purchases without interacting with sales representatives. However, many self-service digital commerce platforms might risk allowing customers to form opinions and make judgments about a product or service before a sales rep has the chance to thoroughly explain its benefits and specific applications.

When left to their own devices, buyers might rely solely on marketing materials from company websites and other easily accessible sources to determine if a solution fits their needs—but the succinct nature of these marketing communications often falls short.

Sales teams frequently need to step in to provide a more detailed explanation, helping buyers grasp the true value of the solutions offered.

So, what is the ideal balance between sales and marketing when engaging with B2B customers? Growth leaders must identify the optimal mix to effectively adapt their go-to-market strategies and secure high-quality transactions.

In this article you will learn

1. How to employ the Customer Surround Model for effective omni-channel communication.
2. The importance of a hybrid approach that both frames and affirms value, essential for achieving success.

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Reason 2: Focusing on vanity metrics

In B2B marketing, it's easy to get caught up in vanity metrics. These are impressive-looking numbers that, sadly, do little to show real business success. Many marketers track page views, likes, and shares because they're easy to measure, and frankly, they look good. But how often do these metrics correlate with real ROI?

"The marketing that you’re used to is obsessed with vanity metrics, but when sales is the name of the game, real beauty comes in the form of something entirely different—tangible business outcomes."

Start asking the critical questions. How many of your prospects actually match your ideal customer profile? How many are truly qualified? We once had a client who was thrilled about their social media growth, but a closer look revealed that 70% of their followers were from countries where they didn't even operate in. Pretty on the outside, irrelevant on the inside.

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Focus on putting your customers at the core and providing the necessary touch points throughout their buying journey

A successful go-to-market strategy begins with the development of a customer surround model (CSM) tailored to the specific product or service.

The goal of a CSM is to offer optimal interaction at crucial points throughout the sales cycle, which demands a deep understanding of customer needs. This can only be achieved with comprehensive insights that foster an exceptional customer experience and drive desired outcomes.

Often, organisations mistake customer engagement for mere marketing reach: ensuring that the right channels are active to maximise impact at each funnel stage. But a truly effective CSM integrates a balanced mix of marketing and sales, and digital and human efforts.

This enhanced approach to customer engagement uses strategic marketing to deliver the right content at the right time, significantly improving the effectiveness of the CSM.

Here are three factors that are key to the success of the CSM:

1. A deep understanding of the customer: To understand the right mix of channels, content formats, and information needed at each stage, a deep understanding of the customer is a must. This can be achieved through thorough customer research and studying buying behaviours and patterns.
2. Close cross-departmental collaboration: Beyond sales and marketing, other functions can also include customer success and product. This ensures that your CSM captures a holistic view of the buyer’s journey.
3. Metrics for each tactic: Understanding the impact and success indicators of each tactic is crucial to continuously optimise your go-to-market efforts.

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Value frame and value affirm to drive conversions

The B2B purchasing process is inherently complex, involving numerous stakeholders and a detailed decision-making journey.

Starting from the identification of a problem or opportunity, through researching potential solutions, evaluating the requirements and feasibility of implementation, to the final purchasing decision, the journey typically spans 3 to 6 months.

During this period, buyers engage in multiple interactions with an organisation’s sales and marketing teams.

Problem identification or initial awareness of a solution can begin from exposure to an organisation's marketing efforts—through events, articles, insights, amongst other marketing efforts.

As prospects move down the funnel, they begin to delve deeper into the solution. At this stage, it could be beneficial to equip them with the necessary tools, or perhaps involve a sales representative to offer early guidance on how the solution could address the identified problem. Utilising case studies that demonstrate how similar industries have successfully implemented similar solutions and detailing the impact on their businesses can also be effective.

And as buyers develop a deeper understanding of the solution, they will begin to envision how it can be tailored to meet their specific needs. Building requirements and business cases often involve processes such as demos, evaluating the business impact of the solution, and assessing implementation feasibility. This stage may require coordinated efforts from both sales and marketing teams, sometimes involving customer success and product teams to provide answers to their questions.

To effectively map out the buyer journey, aim for an integrated and consistent engagement throughout their journey.

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"Buyers are 2.8 times more likely to complete a high-quality deal when they experience a high level of information consistency between a supplier's website and interactions with the supplier’s sales representative."

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In Conclusion

The integration of sales and marketing functions is essential in crafting and implementing a powerful B2B go-to-market strategy. Growth leaders must acknowledge and advocate for the significance of digital communications and experiences that offer buyers content that frames and affirms value.

Simultaneously, it's crucial to equip sellers with consistent messaging that serves as an additional source of value affirmation, tailored to the specific needs and desires of the buyer.

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