The key challenge I’m trying to address in my book is the fact that selling in a b2b context is changing because of the internet. The shift has happened mainly in the way that buyers are acquiring information to make decisions.  In the past, as a buyer, you would call in vendors to inform yourself about the market.  This was the most important way that information was exchanged; essentially it came down to direct selling.  Also, there was a definite split between marketing and sales.  Marketing concerned itself with high-level communication and campaigns.  But the day-to-day contact with customers happened via the sales team.  

 

That situation was to the advantage of sales people because they could see immediately if their prospects expressed interest or not, or what their concerns were.  You’d be listening to what your prospect had to say and could even read their body language.  And as a sales person you would adapt your approach as needed.  But today buyers tend to rely on the internet to do their research.  They first read a great deal—supplier websites, trade publications, white papers, etc.  And that is far more efficient way of working for buyers, but in the process the sellers have lost insight into how their prospects are making their purchasing decision.  That is a shift that b2b sellers are still trying to respond to.  And it is clearly changing the way that sales and marketing is done.

 

Social media is accelerating that same trend.  Information that is readily available in social media continues to shift control away from the provider of information, to the consumer of information.  It is an important transition.

 

My book—‘Digital Body Language’—is basically about the online indicators of how prospects are looking at your information.  Some companies are clearly beginning to get it.  They are beginning to focus their efforts on prospects who are engaging with their content, who are expressing interest.  But first the point is obviously to provide good, useful information for your prospects—that’s content marketing.  If you prospects are using content to make decisions, then the best thing you can do is provide great online content. But next you need to start analysing the way that your prospects are using your content: who is looking and what piece of content and why, and this at the level of the individual prospects, because that is what interests the sales organisation. And then you respond to that insight. Think of it as another way of doing web analytics, at the level of the individual and in an interactive sense.  It is a form of two-way dialogue.

Well, it is all about managing the balance between interruptive marketing and privacy.  I think youngsters are accustomed to sites that deliver relevant content; they don’t tolerate interruptive marketing.  So in a way it is up to the user to determine his or own balance on that axis.  Although obviously the vendor needs to be totally transparent about the way it is using personal data; full disclosure is required.

If you look at the way that a person buys, then it is possible to distinguish several different levels of information gathering.  First you gain a high-level awareness of the category; then you begin to dig deeper by looking at case studies; and finally you access sales-related information like product specs and prices.  For sellers this middle band of information—case studies and best practices—is new territory.  Trade publications are traditionally very good at this creating this type of information.  But now vendors are realising that they have great content assets in their people, that they too can create good, useful content.  So you’re seeing a merger there, in what vendors and trade publications do.   

 

Social media is changing that relationship between vendors and trade publications too.  Many experts—whether they carry a vendor business card or not—are developing their personal brands via their blogging or micro-blogging.  As a result, trade publications increasingly are bringing in guest authors from vendors.