Whether it’s clear as day or buried deep down in your buyer’s subconscious, one thing is for certain: your actions influenced him (or her) to buy. This influence is happening every day within the B2B marketplace, but only the most progressive of B2B organizations are tapping into it to enhance their marketing campaigns and sales conversations.
In a recent video chat hosted by Influitive, best-selling author Jonah Berger discussed what influences buying decisions and how B2B marketing and sales teams can leverage behavioral data to understand that influence and enhance future campaigns. Here are my three takeaways from the conversation:
1) Recognize Influence
The first step to leveraging influence within B2B marketing and sales initiatives is to understand what exactly “influence” is and how it impacts your target audience, according to Berger. He noted that there are various types of influence that can affect a buying decision — some more noticeable than others.
“When people think of influence, they think of a certain kind of influence,” said Berger. This, he explained, was the idea of buyers being influenced by others to follow their lead. However, avoiding what everyone is doing is also influence. Therefore, marketing and sales teams have to identify how these various types of influence are being generated by their campaigns.
“It’s important to ask, when does it motivate, when does it demotivate us, and how can this help impact buying decisions?”
2) Leverage The Data
The role of data within B2B organizations is not new; marketing and sales teams know that buyer insights provide key details into purchase decisions. Berger highlighted how there are attribution tools available that can help analyze the channels you’re leveraging and the resources you’re expending, which can help identify influence and predict sales.
However, nothing beats having human-to-human conversations with customers to gain deep behavioral insight into what influenced their buying decision, according to Berger. “Businesses are used to controlling the message,” he said. “Your positioning isn’t what you say it is; it’s what your customer says it is.”
3) Use That Insight To Promote Change
In any business environment, it’s hard to create change — which is ultimately what sales reps are trying to create when selling their product or service. Companies that are doing it well really understand their customer and are customer-focused. Leveraging this influence and insight can help create relevant conversations that prove you value buyers’ opinions — something they will definitely appreciate.
“Their job is to talk about things that make them look good, so getting people to talk and share is to understand those motivations,” said Berger. “How can I link myself to something my clients are discussing? How does it make your clients look when they talk about you and your brand? Ask them for advice!”
Want to see the full video chat? Check out the on-demand replay below. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for more news regarding Jonah Berger’s upcoming keynote session at the B2B Marketing Exchange in Scottsdale, AZ.
