For Success in B2B Marketing Make Your Customer the Hero

If you want B2B marketing success, growth and profitability, make your customers look like a hero to their customers – rather putting your own business in the spotlight.

For B2B marketing success, maximum mix of personal and professional that makes your customer the hero is key.

A Grainger Social Media case study that puts the spotlight on B2B social media marketing provides a message for B2B marketing success across channels.

B2B (organizations that sell products or services to other businesses, organizations or entities) marketing professionals are often faced with the challenge of needing to help their customer’s businesses grow if they want to increase their organization’s sales. While its always tempting to believe that marketing means singing your own organizational praises, a new Grainger case study presented by Sherri Maxon on the topic of social media for B2B organizations points out that the keys for marketing success in the B2B realm lies in making your customer look like a hero, instead.

BlogWell Chicago Social Media Case Study: Grainger, presented by Sherri Maxson from SocialMedia.org

Here are some of the key points from the Grainger study, along with our advice on how to use your marketing to make your customer the hero in order to grow your B2B.

B2B Marketing: 4 Ways to Sell More by Making Your Client a Hero in Their Customers’ Eyes

Tailor Your Marketing So It Speaks to Already-Educated Buyers

60% of B2B buyers already know what they want to buy by the time they make contact with your organization. They may need you to provide a few details, but mostly they are looking for good reasons to choose your business (rather than one of your competitors).

While buyers are already well-down the road to having made a buying decision, you may have an opportunity to increase revenues with compelling upgrade, expansion and package-deal offers.

You Have to Know Who Your Customer’s Customers Are, Too

The best way for a B2B organization to succeed in marketing its products and services are to understand who the end users are in the buying cycle and support marketing of its products and services all the way through to the final buyer in the supply chain. Simply put, if you can help your customers sell more to their customers, you will sell more, too.

The only way to do this is to understand who your customer’s customers are and make them look good to those customers – even if it means leapfrogging over the next party in the buying cycle in order to create demand for your customers (that will result in more demand for your goods and services).

Be Personal

Whether in the B2B or B2C arena, people don’t buy from companies, they buy from people. They buy because the seller has connected the dots between a product or service and a need in their organization (or in their own life).

Without a personal connection, people have few reasons to do anything but purchase a lowest-priced option that meets their needs. Without personal trust, people have few reasons to take a chance on a new product or service or invest in a high-ticket item. Plus, being personal with your customers will provide you with the intel you need to better know their customers and work to create demand for their business that, in turn, creates more demand for your own products or services.

Make Your Customer the Hero

Use your marketing to highlight success stories among your customers and champion the business leaders and values in their organizations. By making your customer the hero, you send the message that in your eyes, your success is tied to theirs, and that you have a personal interest in helping them build their business.

You might also like B2B Buyers are People Too with five keys for success with business buyers.