Pay To Play

Back when I was a little kid, my father was very nurturing of my desire to play music. He invested in a cheap acoustic guitar (hand me down from my sister) and guitar lessons (from a drill sergeant at West Point Military Academy – I kid you not!) Now keep in mind, that I wanted to be Paul McCartney (I had no idea he was the bass player for the Beatles). I wanted an electric guitar and an amp.

My dad said, “Once you get good enough I will buy you one.” So I worked hard and got better. In order to prove it, my dad would drag me out at dinner parties and make me play a song or two for his guests (embarrassing for a 10-year-old.) Especially since he wanted me to learn and play songs that he and his guest would like.  “I Wanna Hold Your Hand ” was not gonna cut it.

One of the songs he made me learn was called “L-O-V-E” by Nat King Cole. At 10, I loved my parents, brother and sister, and even my dog, but I had no idea what the lyrics meant. Yet, I crooned and crooned until my dad and his guests said, “That kid is pretty good… and I achieved my goal – A Fender Jaguar, that my dad had refinished at the Fender factory in California. It was the Red Ryder BB Gun (A Christmas Story) of electric guitars and I started to rock!

So at this point, you are probably asking yourself… “What does this have to do with marketing or sales?” Well, it's all about L-O-V-E.

Advertising Vs. Marketing

You may (or may not agree with the statement of concept… Marketing & Advertising are different. Advertising is about creating brand awareness. Marketing is about human interaction, behavior, and relationships.

The problem businesses run into when trying to boost sales is that they conflate the two as one. Advertising will get attention because it focuses on creating brand and company awareness. Marketing does the same with the added benefit of connecting prospects with salespeople, who will nurture them through the buying process.

Agencies offer a mix of content marketing (blogs, videos, infographics, and more) with SEO (search engine optimization) with SEM (search engine marketing that bleeds into Facebook, Instagram, Google, and LinkedIn ads). What they focus on is website traffic and they are very successful at it. That leads to a lot of tire-kickers, looky-loos, and price-shoppers.

Consumer Vs. Business

Another issue is that there is a huge difference between selling to consumers and business-to-business. Consumers are focused on price, value, convenience, and immediate needs. Business-to-business buyers are focused on consistency, accuracy, return on investment, and long-term strategy and relationships. Consumers are fickle and can change brands and needs at the drop of a dime. Business-to-business customers tend to make both decisions and changes much slower and more deliberately.

I have worked in both consumer and B2b business. I have found that consumer advertising can have quicker short-term gains, but must be constantly fed a stream of new leads and customers. Business-to-business is more of a long game. It takes time to nurture relationships but requires a smaller target group of prospects to flow through your process.

With consumer advertising, you can always count on the 1-2% lead to buyer ratio but you need more of them to keep the engine running (paying for advertising to keep the steady flow of new business to make up for attrition.) This often needs hundreds or thousands of customers to maintain stability or growth.

In the B2b space, you only need 10-100 buyers to generally fill the need for growth and attrition. That means you can have your sales team invest in more personalized service and support to nurture long-term and more profitable relationships.

So what does B2b business need to do that consumer businesses can usually skip? L-O-V-E.

L-O-V-E

If you are a fan of my content, you know I love acronyms and this is no exception. The L-O-V-E I am talking about here today is about showing interest, patience, and consistency in getting to know your clients or prospects and their level of desire to solve their business problems, either today or in the future.

LISTEN – God gave us two ears and one mouth to listen twice as much as we speak. Even an atheist can agree that anatomy works.

In B2b sales, the more questions you can ask, the more insight you have into a client's past problems and current needs. The key is to ask very targeted questions and just listen to the answers. They will share nuggets of information that can help you understand how you and your business can provide the solutions they are looking for.

OBSERVE – Next, use your eyes and perception to find a deeper understanding of the words your customers and prospects are speaking.

Learn to watch facial expressions and body language to get clues about how they feel when you ask those questions. The same goes when they are answering. Observe how they tend to open or close their posture throughout the conversations.

VALIDATE – Now is the time to dig deeper, ask questions, and validate perceptions. We may think we understand, but you have to confirm.

After you have some of the above insight, try to ask questions that help you better understand the temperature of their desire to solve the problem. Is it a hot button, or just fact-finding? Either way, that can help you gather and plan for what your next steps should be.

EVOLVE – Learn to re-think the hows and whys of what your customer or prospect perceives as their needs, motivation, and interest.

Now is the time to be patient. Follow their lead, and give them time to get to know, like, and trust you. Provide them with additional information, or just be patient and stay in touch. Ultimately you have to evolve your thinking and tactics to guide them through the buyer's journey. Give them space and time. It may be weeks, months, or years, but it's up to you to change and grow your communications with them.

Final Thoughts

Although the song lyrics I used to sing as a kid have more meaning today as an adult, I think they can have relevance today in our marketing and sales processes.

• “L is for the way you look at me”
• “O is for the only one I see”
• “V is very, very extraordinary”
• “E is even more than anyone that you adore can”

Learning to Listen, Observe, Validate, and Evolve, will help you nurture the business relationship much more productively and profitably in the long run. It is much better than most sales trainings that promote Listing (features and benefits), Objections (and overcoming them), Value (pushing your strengths), and Execute (closing the sale).

Go show your customers and prospects some L-O-V-E!

I would love to hear how you feel about being cold-called or cold-pitched. Have you ever bought from these people? How does it make you feel when they interrupt your workflow and day? Tell me about your challenges or successes in establishing long-term business relationships!

Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about listening, observing, validating, and evolving.

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.