Financial marketing

The Bare Necessities of B2B

15th August 2021

An old friend of mine was recently tearing his hair out at work.

His company sells a sophisticated business to business service and my friend is a very good and experienced B2B marketer. But he was now at a point where he could not see the wood from the trees. A communications overhaul had everyone giving their ‘fourpenneth’ and the project was in serious danger of not just derailing, but careering through the neighbouring town and taking out all the lamp posts.

We have all been here at one time or another. At such times it is essential to strip everything back to the essentials. To look for the bare necessities.

After many years of every shape and size of challenge and project and having poured over every theory, model, acronym and mnemonic, for us it all comes down to 3 simple ingredients. There’s lots more to look at than this. But these are the core.

Elevator Pitch
You’ve got a few precious seconds to make an impact in today’s attention deficit business world and you have to make it count.

You’ve got to be distinct, unique and utterly compelling in few simple sentences. So compelling in fact that you blow your audience away enough to say one simple reply – ‘Ooooh! Tell me more!’

Too many companies concentrate here on reciting what they do and how long they have done it for, when they really need to be capturing the lightening in the bottle of better, stronger, faster etc.

Evidence
“I was the greatest, and then these guys came along!” Sliced Bread, London, 2021

Every claim you can ever make is hollow when compared to someone of stature and influence saying it for you.

Think about how you can utilise your excellent client list. Show the world you have fans that are willing to go on record. Anonymised testimonials and case studies are like a blunt pencil…..pointless. It’s hard work gathering great testimony, but it’s worth its weight in gold.

Resistance
It’s so much easier to say no. After all, the consequence of saying no is that nothing changes and we all continue to cruise on down easy street.

The more people that are involved in making a purchase decision the more likely it is to be a no. So, you have to break down each and every form of resistance and head them all off at the pass. Think through all the scenarios where you might get faced with a no and have the answer at the ready.

So, there you have it. Three foundations from which you can build killer B2B communications.

Sometimes it’s good to go back to the bare necessities to build something beautiful.