THE TRUTH ISSUE@marketingmag
A simple fi rst step would be to look
at the composition of the marketing
team, says Haussegger. “If you’ve got a
marketing team that are awesome and
creative – they come up with the best
messaging and visuals – but aren’t
able to execute that with eff ective
digital data, systems and support,
they’re not going to be winners.”CX STRIKES BACK
Green Hat’s research shows a rise in
respondents seeking to understand
their customers. Seventy percent of
B2B marketers have developed either
customer journey maps, personas or
both. Nevertheless, CX optimisation
remains a primary challenge. B2B
marketers still have a long way to
go in converting the learnings from
their friends in “consumer land”, as
Haussegger calls it.
“If you asked for the one word
that describes the key driver for your
customers, I think a lot of them would
talk about emotion and emotive
buying, drawing on emotions.
“It’s not as prevalent in B2B, but
it’s still there. What have we learned?We have developed both personas & customer journey mapsWe have developed both personas & customer journey maps
We have not developed either of theseWe have not developed either of these
We have only developed personasWe have only developed personas
We have only developed customer journey mapsWe have only developed customer journey maps
32%
23%23%
15%15%
30%30%
WHICH STATEMENT BEST DESCRIBES
PERSONA & CUSTOMER JOURNEY
DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUR AUDIENCE?
There are going to be small steps
along the way. If someone were to ask,
‘how do I get started on improving
my B2B experience for my customer?’
The fi rst thing I would be asking
is: do you understand how your
customer buys? Customers have
changed the way they buy, but
many of the sellers haven’t changed
the way they sell. What I mean by
that is, the internet has changed
everything, or it’s the one key
determining factor. It didn’t happen
on a particular day; we didn’t wake
up one morning in B2B and say,
‘Look what’s happened!’,” explains
Haussegger.
“It’s evolved. Most of the
information a B2B buyer needs is
available to them at their fi ngertips,
without needing to speak to the
vendor – meaning the B2B buyer can
engage the seller much later in their
buying process.
“What does that mean? That
means that the B2B sellers and
marketers cannot now sit back and
just rely on what the B2B salespeople
tell them.”HOOK, LINE AND
NURTURE
Lead generation and management
topped this list for B2B marketers’
objectives in 2019 (68 percent),
nurturing and progressing leads
followed shortly after (66 percent)
and yet less than a third (32 percent)
report having a documented lead
generation/nurture strategy.
Haussegger attributes much of
this to complications with marketing/
sales alignment (more on that later).
“Here is the point. About half of
the respondents (47 percent) said
there is a strategic partnership in
their business between sales and
marketing. The fact that less than a
third have actually got a lead plan is
not a good sign, because typically a
lead plan would be something you’ll
develop with sales.”
The report advises that more
marketers need to be planning lead
process fl ows for the buying journey
and implementing lead management
processes. This helps minimise lead
‘leakage’ and puts rules in place to
address lead ‘lag’,” he adds.