By Whitney Satin
Early results from our commercial integration diagnostic have been telling: fewer than 30% of sales and marketing leaders believe their company’s messages to customers are consistent and reinforce one another.
If that doesn’t startle you, it should. As the number of different information outlets continues to explode, B2B companies must treat every interaction as a critical opportunity to convince customers of their unique value. Everything—from the sales pitch to marketing collateral to corporate communications—is a chance to hammer home what differentiates you from the next guy. And the more consistent you can be across channels, the more likely customers are to internalize this differentiated mantra. But we’re clearly not getting the job done.
If customers are going to have a clear and compelling reason to choose your products and services over competitors’, they need to understand the specific benefits they get as a result of partnering with you. And claiming that you, Mr. B2B Company, are innovative, reliable, or committed to personal service, doesn’t cut it. As marketers, it’s our job to translate what this means into tangible (maybe even financial) terms for customers.
These benefits, then, become the crux of all messaging. Every message should circle back to the unique benefits the company provides, NOT nuanced product differences or the 100-year old corporate legacy.
That makes sense in theory, but what about practice? Sales and Marketing need to be on the same page as far as what unique benefits truly set the company apart. This means building consensus about where the company wins given the rest of the marketplace:
- First, identify your unique strengths. Compile a list of relevant competencies (or core company strengths) that you can validate using business data and experience.
- Next, benchmark against competitors. Aim for competencies where you excel and the competition cannot compete or imitate with ease.
- Finally, match your strengths to sources of customer value. Aim for competencies that are likely to have a significant impact on your key customers’ business or industry.
Once Sales and Marketing are on the same page, socializing the benefits using an internally-facing value proposition can help get other functions onboard. The end result, of course, is a unified front about how the company delivers the benefits to meet specific customer needs—something easily embedded into the full array of messaging outlets.
MLC members, check out examples of benefits-driven messaging from our B2B Marcomm Campaigns database or use our messaging resource center to find more tools to spark the creative juices.
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