broadfield Five Deadly Industrial Marketing Mistakes How Industrial CEOs Are Stunting Their Business Growth In Today s Rapidly Changing Marketplace

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1 broadfield C O N S U L T I N G Five Deadly Industrial Marketing Mistakes How Industrial CEOs Are Stunting Their Business Growth In Today s Rapidly Changing Marketplace Andrew Shedden Broadfield Consulting

2 2 Introduction The first step towards change is awareness. The second step is acceptance. Nathaniel Branden Dear Industrial CEO: Thanks for taking the time to download the Five Deadly Industrial Marketing Mistakes report. This short report has been written to reveal the five mistakes I consistently see with the majority of manufacturing or industrial (B2B) companies I encounter in my consulting work. These mistakes form the creaky foundation upon which many of these companies base their industrial marketing. By making these mistakes industrial CEOs severely compromise their company growth. By recognizing these mistakes within your own company and taking effective action you will maximize your revenues. As with all things in the marketing world there is no one black and white solution to putting your marketing challenges behind you. The key to success is using a multi-modal approach, testing you results, and committing to ongoing optimization. If you find this short report helpful please pass it on to any fellow manufacturing or industrial (B2B) CEOs who might also find it beneficial. Sincerely, Andrew Shedden President Broadfield Consulting Website and blog: Phone:

3 3 1. Marketing Your Company Like It Is 1999 (OR 1949) The first deadly mistake is marketing your company like it is Sounds harsh? Not really. Many industrial executives continue to think the old ways of marketing are still the best ones. They are reluctant to accept the fact that the Web is profoundly changing the entire buying process. It is more imperative than ever to be aware that products are being bought, not being sold. Early stage purchasing choices are being made online by busy buyers who do not want to spend their time listening to salespeople. These buyers are pushed to the limit and do not have one minute to spare. The last thing they want or need is any type of a sales pitch. Your website must provide the kind of information being sought by your buyers or you are out of the race. In addition you need a comprehensive online marketing program if you are to be found by the right people at the right time. Ignoring the critical importance of both an excellent website and effective online marketing harms your credibility, and your bottom line. 2. Being Product Focused One of the fundamental errors made by industrial executives is that they fall in love with their products instead of their prospects. If your business growth strategy revolves around the wonders of your products you are making a deadly mistake. Here s why. Industrial executives who choose to market with a product focus tend to spend a lot of time promoting their product features. They do not consider that buyers make purchases for their own reasons, and these reasons rarely have much (if anything) to do with product features. Buyers purchase products for what they do, not for what they are. Buyers are influenced by, and purchase products that will: 1. Create favorable outcomes 2. Reduce their level of stress 3. Improve the performance within their companies If your goal is to grow your industrial company you need to focus your marketing efforts on how your products will improve the performance within your customer s business. All of your marketing activities must be directed toward illustrating your complete understanding of your buyers including: their specific problems, how you can help them solve their problems, and the positive outcomes they can expect as a result of making a purchase from your company. Ultimately it is not that your products and services are the best, but that your customers who are using your products and services are doing the best.

4 4 3. Relying Exclusively On Inbound or Outbound Marketing If you make the deadly mistake of relying exclusively on inbound or outbound marketing your salespeople will miss out on plenty of sales opportunities. Is inbound marketing the answer to all of your marketing problems? If you spend more than five minutes online you will notice that the answer to all business growth today is to focus all of your efforts on inbound marketing. Wrong. Of course any industrial executive who does not know early stage buying decisions are being made online should be relegated to running a buggy whip factory. We all know that prospects are going online to search for potential suppliers and are more heavily influenced by finding suppliers rather than being found by suppliers. Having said that, it is a big mistake to think if you have a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook Fan Page, a LinkedIn Profile, and whatever other kind of social media you might be able to think of, the leads will just come rolling in. Inbound marketing will generate leads, but, generally speaking, not too fast. It pays, but over time. I believe that many industrial executives grossly underestimate the amount of time it takes to make inbound marketing work. They also overestimate the speed at which they will get results. In addition, many industrial executives consider inbound marketing to somehow be free. It is only free if you discount the amount of staff time necessary to make inbound marketing effective. Saying that your lead generation strategy is for your salespeople to wait around for someone at General Motors to download your white paper and call is not very proactive. Depending where you sit on the inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing debate, waiting for the phone to ring might also be more than a little delusional. You need some outbound marketing in your mix. So what about outbound marketing? Is outbound marketing still relevant in today s Web-centric marketplace? Of course it is. Unfortunately due to the massive levels of over-communication many of your prospects are able to completely tune out any information they are not actively seeking. In effect they block you out. This is making outbound marketing more challenging than at any time in the past. There is still a place for outbound marketing techniques some of which are: advertising, trade shows, direct mail and telemarketing. Sometimes it can be time consuming or even impossible to wait around to get found by your prospects. Outbound marketing is fast, changeable, and, when done properly, can give you a laser-like approach to reaching specific markets. It is not, however, enough on its own. Get some inbound marketing. Winning industrial executives utilize a skillful blend of inbound and outbound marketing that takes advantage of the strengths found in pushing and pulling.

5 5 4. Not Knowing Who To Target Successful industrial executives have comprehensive knowledge of who they are choosing to target. They do not make the deadly mistake of considering basic demographics and rudimentary profiling as being adequate prospect knowledge. In today s competitive environment complete prospect knowledge provides you with a competitive advantage at best. At worst it allows you to stay financially solvent. If the level of detail in your current target market profiling consists of nothing more than companies with over 50 employees in the northeastern United States, then you are strangling your business growth. The big buzzword today is personas, and rightly so. Personas are highly detailed profiles of potential buyers. Your personas must be very well thought-out and developed around what keeps your target buyers awake at night, what concerns they have about buying a solution, and what constitutes their most highly-sought outcomes. Leading industrial executives are giving great care to their persona development prior to attempting any type of lead generation or lead development activity. You will get fabulous results if you gear your marketing activities and your marketing content to satisfying the needs and alleviating the concerns of your personas. 5. Not Knowing What To Offer If your content strategy is to mail prospects your product information then you are making a deadly mistake. The last thing your prospects need is more product information. Prospects in your target markets want help to make quality buying decisions. They are crazy busy multi-tasking dynamos who do not have a single spare minute. They do not need more information. They do need more of the right information. The right information is quality content that addresses specific buyer concerns and provides them with guidance. Whether you are currently a fan of outbound marketing, inbound marketing, or you are utilizing a combination, it is critical to offer your prospects high quality content. Be certain every piece of content you create helps your prospects: 1. Reduce complexity and ambiguity 2. Make wise purchasing decisions Winning industrial executives realize one size content does not fit all. Your content needs to be developed around the creation of detailed personas. It must delineate buyer concerns and aspirations. Lastly, your content must address the specific needs of the economic, technical, and user buyers at every step of their buying cycles.

6 6 How We Can Help You Broadfield Consulting makes it easier for manufacturers and industrial (B2B) companies to increase profitable revenues by improving their marketing and selling methods. You will get a predictably profitable outcome from our fully-guaranteed industrial marketing consulting services. Whether you want to: Create and successfully execute a competitive strategy that strongly positions your company in your marketplace Create and communicate a sustainable competitive advantage that creates buyer value not easily matched, establishes brand loyalty, and allows you to outperform your rivals Generate more inquiries at lower cost from online or offline marketing Develop a higher percentage of your longer-term inquiries into qualified opportunities Convert more of your qualified opportunities to customers through improved selling skills We ll customize our proven marketing and selling methods to your needs and implement them in your business so you can enjoy reliable and profitable growth fast. What You Will Get At the conclusion of our time together you will have a marketing and selling system in place that will allow you to create predictable and profitable growth in your company at will. No more wildly swinging demand, no more fits and starts, and no more directionless wandering and wondering. What s Next? If you are a manufacturing or industrial (B2B) company CEO/business owner who would like to discover what s working in industrial marketing today and discuss your industrial marketing challenges and aspirations, the next step is a 15 minute Strategy Session telephone call. You can find out more at: Sincerely, Andrew Shedden President