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Insights

The value of understanding the story

Having designed and delivered insights projects for a lot of different B2B clients over the years, the one thing that still holds true is how different the story is behind each one. Each organisation has its own narrative, characterised by mergers and acquisitions, restructures, cultural change and innovation - the cumulation of years, if not decades of operation; that same organisation is subject to a set of external forces which are continuously evolving such as rising competition levels, maturing technology, shifting regulation and economic instability, all of which bring different pressures and demands.

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Then there are the the clients I speak to, the individuals that typically sit in the middle of all this. These are the people tasked with making sense of the markets and categories their employer operates in, trying to reconcile their organisation’s objectives (which are influenced by all that history) with their own personal goals and measures of success.

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Understanding and accounting for this diverse set of factors is crucial in determining the success of any project, and critically, is often overlooked in in the rush to recommend a pre-packaged approach or product. Maintaining knowledge of an organisation's story, their markets and their view of the world demonstrates both your commitment to the relationship and helps inform the design of the next piece of work. Additionally, knowing something about your client's story is extremely valuable at the start of a project - their motivations as an individual, where they seek meaning and purpose, their storyAll of this sets the context for the request and what the parameters for success are.  

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This last part is critical - going back to those personal goals and measures of success mentioned above. I recently saw a presentation from Gideon Wilkins from McCann Central, where he referred to a study of B2B buyers he had conducted, which showed personal payoffs are twice as motivating as business outcomes when buyers are considering a new B2B deal. This is where additional value comes from, because understanding more about what your client wants to personally achieve should shape what you recommend. Whether it’s creating an impact in the boardroom by presenting a new view of the customer, or driving up pipeline conversion to demonstrate how well sales and marketing can work together, or quantifying the impact of a marketing campaign to boost next year’s budget, these valid, more personal motivations (which in turn support the loftier objectives of their organisation) should be captured to create the impact our clients really need.  

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So dig a little deeper to find out more about the story, both for the organisation and the individual you're working for, to deliver something with real impact. 

Empowering the Agents of Change

Why marketers are Agents of Change

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I like to think of the clients I work with as Agents of Change – they are the people tasked with delivering the big initiatives that alter the way the market thinks about their brand, its products and its pricing. They are evangelists for their employer and their brand, but they must also ensure an accurate and objective view of the customer is integrated into their decision making.  

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Reconciling the two forces of what the company wants and what the customer wants remains an eternal challenge, and marketers are the people who have to do it. On the one hand, companies want to be able to justify higher prices, simpler product ranges or lower-cost customer interfaces; on the other, customers want familiar brands, services which are easy to buy and access, and of course, lower prices.

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These are all valid strategic levers which marketers can recommend pulling to either boost profitability or drive sales growth, but if you pull too hard on any of them in the short term without knowing the likely customer response, don’t expect to see a good outcome in the long term.

 

Accounting for external conditions and internal constraints  

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Added to this, the marketers I work with also face continually evolving supply-side environments, and this is especially the case in software and technology services. The barriers to entry are relatively low compared to other categories (think automotive or pharmaceutical), with a large pool of skilled developers available, easy to access open-source ecosystems on which to build new services, and application marketplaces that offer global reach. There are literally hundreds of emerging brands across sub-categories (e.g. productivity, ERP, CRM, etc), snapping at the leaders’ heels for market share, each with their own unique take on what the market needs.

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I have nothing but respect for the people and teams trying to make decisions about marketing strategy and tactics in this environment, especially when budgets remain under pressure [see here]. These are the dynamics for people like me to understand when I start engaging with clients.

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The questions to ask

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In my last thought piece [see here], I discussed the value of the knowing the story (both the organisation’s and the client themselves) and this remains a critical part of delivering impactful work. But, from a client’s perspective, asking the right questions when you start working with an insights provider allows you to both quickly define the scope of work and identify what kind of changes you really need to make for your organisation’s benefit.

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​The 3 key questions I would suggest asking at this point are: Who is my buyer? What do I want my brand to represent? And how do we get there? This is an intuitive flow from defining your customer or ICP, reflecting that profile in what your brand stands for and offers, and then developing the strategy and tactics that will allow you to deliver that desired brand experience and offer.  

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I love getting deep into this stuff with clients when kicking off a project, and it was reassuring to see customer insights as coming out top as the most in-demand quality for B2B marketers in a recent survey [see here]. Ultimately though, this is all about empowering the clients who have to come up with the ideas, manage the risk, and make the tough calls.....the Agents of Change.

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