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Finding the right message for B2B decision makers
New research from McKinsey & Company reveals a gap between the messaging themes that B2B companies communicate and the attributes most valued by B2B buyers. While most B2B companies emphasis themes like corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and global reach their target audience is most influenced by messages about honest and open dialogue, responsible supply chain management, and specialist expertise. In addition to this gap, the research also shows a lack of differentiation among B2B brand messages: Most B2B companies are communicating the same themes.
Read MoreEntering new B2B technology markets and the planning fallacy
When B2B technology vendors enter new markets they often find that their success falls short of their expectations. Some of this is due to their go-to-market strategy, competitor actions and unpredictable market changes. However, many technology vendors fall victim to the planning fallacy – the tendency for individuals and organizations to under estimate challenges and to over estimate their chances of success. A useful for tool for mitigating the planning fallacy is reference class comparison.
Read MoreRelevant messaging in a changing IT outsourcing landscape
IT organizations are becoming more mature users of outsourced services and delivery models. Isurus’ research across multiple technology categories shows a shift in how IT evaluates outsourcing options and its use of various models (offshore vs. domestic, in-house vs. outsourced, on-premise vs. offsite hosting, etc.), and these trends are also evident in research conducted by CIO Magazine, Forrester, and others.
Read MoreImproving innovation through better questions
Dwayne Spradlin, President and CEO of InnoCentive, recently contributed an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review that identified asking the right questions and defining the problem as critical elements of successful innovation: “When developing new products, processes, or even businesses, most companies aren’t sufficiently rigorous in defining the problems they’re attempting to solve and articulating why those issues are important. Without that rigor, organizations miss opportunities, waste resources, and end up pursuing innovation initiatives that aren’t aligned with their strategies.”
Read MoreDistinguishing the Next Big Thing from the Next Big Sell
A recent article in the MIT Sloan Management Review provides practical guidelines to help IT buyers make better decisions about which new innovations to adopt. The article points out the risks of being persuaded to invest in new technology by the hype that surrounds it, only to be disappointed by the lack of business value it provides. They advise IT buyers to assess where and how quickly the technology is being adopted, the pace and success of implementations, and value achieved by other companies that have implemented it.
Read MoreWhat type of innovation is your customer buying?
In a recent opinion column Clayton M. Christensen, author of The Innovators Dilemma, identifies three types of innovation that drive capital markets: Empowering innovations, sustaining innovations, and efficiency innovations. Mr. Christensen’s hypothesis is that all three innovation types are needed for a robust, fully functioning economy.
Read MoreMoving prospects along the buying process
Patrick Spenner and Karen Freeman recently published an article in the Harvard Business Review on the importance of understanding where a customer is in the buying process and of helping customers simplify the process itself: To keep your customers keep it simple. The article focuses on consumers but parallels exist in B2B markets and we have long championed these ideas among our B2B clients.
Read MoreSometimes your channel is your brand
“There is very little loyalty left. Manufacturer X is mercenary. They just want to make money, and I’m mercenary. In other words, Manufacturer X doesn’t care about me, and I don’t care about Manufacturer X. They just make a good product.” This quote from a recent study sums up the state of many of the channel relationships we see across a range of technology and industrial B2B markets.
Read MoreWhy likability matters
Likability is also one important criterion we use to test advertising. Even as advertising and advertising research have become much more sophisticated over time, likability continues to be a useful predictor of effectiveness.
Read MoreMarketing and selling to the reptilian brain
Tim Riesterer’s recent HBR blog post about stimulating the customer’s “lizard brain” to make a sale correlates with Isurus’ work on messaging and sales effectiveness. Riesterer points out that most sales messages fail to compel buyers to move away from the status quo because our “lizard brain”—the brain stem and other structures responsible for our survival instincts—prefers safety and avoids risk. Implicit in this message is the idea that a purely logical message often isn’t enough to drive change. To make a sale that breaks the status quo, the sales message must appeal to the lizard brain.
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