A recent studyby the Corporate Executive Board of B2B buying concludes with the dramatic statement, “Solution-Selling No Longer Works.” It’s now all about “Content Marketing” – creating content that a customer really wants because attention spans have dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013.
The findings:
- 57% of B2B buyers have made up their minds before they even talk to a potential supplier of goods or services
- “Emotional” B2B marketing messages beat “promotional” ones by 2-to-1
- To a B2B buyer, “Business Value” (What does your product or service do? How does it help my business?) is now increasingly trumped by “Personal Value” (How do you make me feel?What social and personal benefits do I get?).
Hard to believe? Well, fully 86% of the study’s respondents replied “No” when asked if they saw a real difference between suppliers, and valued the difference enough to pay for it.
As communications consultants, CommCore sees these findings as reinforcing what we tell our clients: good storytelling is more important than ever in B2B presentations and media interviews in vertical industry trades:
- Refine your messages so they resonate with your audience rather than with you
- Develop compelling stories, analogies, anecdotes and 3rd party validations that quickly illustrate that you know how the client or prospect feels
- Data is only data. Stories establish relationships and build trust. Learn how to quickly deliver relevant stories that make data “visual” for the audience.