As your stomach drops, you feel a wave of nausea. Your sales team just told you that your company has lost a potential client that you wanted to add to the list.
The sales team sends you tracking notifications when the prospect reads your articles, downloads your premium content, reads additional articles, and looks at the case studies or bottom-of-the-funnel material.
You were ecstatic when the best salesperson in your company was assigned to close this deal.
No… and the worst thing is that you lost out to someone you have been watching with envy win over and over again.
What happened?
A competitor offers new insights.
The content is like a newborn baby. To those who created it, it was perfect. But there are probably hundreds of thousands more babies that are “perfect” as well.
Your content must offer a new perspective or insight to capture the attention of your audience and elicit a response. Google is the go-to place for prospects who are looking to solve problems or achieve goals. If your content repeats what appears on the first two pages of Google search results, it will not be well received.
The decision-makers are looking for something new and valuable to impact their business. You want to be the company that has something unique to offer.
Step: Get an accurate picture of your prospects and the challenges they’re trying to overcome. Understanding their level of understanding of the issues that you address at every stage of the buyer’s journey is key. Before you create content, use Google to find out what’s already available. Ask yourself: What isn’t being said about the topic? How can I look at this issue from a new perspective? How can I create new insights if everyone is talking about the same research? What are the opinions of our experts on this topic? Bring something new to the table.
Your competitor delivered personal value.
B2B marketing still involves people-to-person communication. Each of your decision-makers has their daily fears, goals, and challenges. Each person wants to be more efficient, do better work, get that raise, or improve their career.
According to CEB, “personal value has twice the impact of business value on a wide range of commercial goals (such as awareness, consideration, purchasing intent, willingness to pay a premium price, loyalty, and willingness to recommend).
Business value must be present. If you don’t meet the company’s needs, you will not even make the list. Let’s be honest: Unless you are in a niche market or have something truly innovative to offer, the majority of providers (your competition) will also meet this business need.
B2B buyers are looking for personal value when deciding between options. Buyers are interested in…
- Which provider is the most convenient to work with?
- Which service can I use to save the most time?
- What product is the least risky?
- Which decision will my boss approve?
Step: Make a list of the decision-makers involved in the purchasing process. What is the personal value that each person wants? To find the answer, you’ll need to conduct some research. Start talking about your value alongside the value you bring to the business. You can tailor your content so that it speaks directly to each persona.
Your competitor leads the prospect back to their UVP
Marketers often scratch their heads when prospects devour their content and then call a competitor. What’s the reason? You have not convinced prospects to purchase from you, even if you provide new insights and add personal value.
This problem can be solved by directing prospects to your unique selling proposition (UVP), which is what you have that your competitors don’t.
The content that leads to a purchase behavior changes the prospect’s current thinking pattern (“I need so-and-so, and many suppliers can supply me with it; I only need to decide which provider has the best service/product at the lowest price.”) With a new mentality (“I need the exact solution and only this company can provide it. “).
The content that changes the buying criteria can convert prospects into customers.
Step: Determine what is most important to your decision-makers. Find out what they believe about the best way to solve these problems or reach those goals. Find out what they are missing to achieve big success. Your company excels at this. Your content will lead decision-makers to believe that your company is the only one who can solve their problem. They’ll be more inclined to contact you than to contact a competitor.
Marketing leads to success.
When you lose a lead, you may be tempted to blame Sales. However, marketing can be the one to lead new business. You can create the content and strategy that will attract prospects and guide them through the entire buying process, leading them to conclude that your company is the only one that makes sense.