I’ve heard several people lately discussing the uses for social media in a business-to-business (B2B) environment. Should we? Is it valuable? Can it move the needle?
Yes, yes, and more yes.
Perhaps the single most valuable ongoing activity in a B2B environment is business development. The act of nurturing and cultivating relationships with prospects, embracing a longer sales cycle with the idea that a loyal customer or client will be exponentially more valuable than a transactional one. We even have a term for it: lifetime value. We believe in the inherent richness of a long term relationship.
We spend a lot of money on business development. We spring an average of $2,000 per person to send folks to conferences and trade shows in pursuit of the almighty warm lead. We golf with our clients, with our clients friends. We buy cocktails, break bread together, all in the name of establishing favorable connections on a personal level. We hope that by being hospitable, by being gracious and personable, we can engender a level of trust and affinity for our business that will ultimately lead these clients and customers to our door first.
We embrace the idea that there may not be immediate need. But the very act of investing in these relationships over time demonstrates our willingness to wager that the investment itself will be paid for several fold with a sale. Or two or three. We spend thousands of dollars on CRM systems and processes to steward our prospects through the system, ensure that we keep connected with them at every step of the process and maintain that personal relationship.
Referrals are golden. We know as business people that a recommendation from a happy client is exponentially more effective in closing a new sale. So we cultivate our clients after the sale is over, understanding that not only are they more likely to return, but they’re more likely to bring a friend next time.
We have many tools we use to make these connections: telephone, email, in-person meetings, websites, surveys, client appreciation dinners and awards and events. We get on planes and drive cars to business development appointments. We dedicate full time people to the art and science of business development, and we rest easy in the idea that the payoff is the culmination of all of these efforts over time.
In a 2.0 world, we have evolved business development. We have new and boundless ways to connect with our clients and prospects, to continue stewarding those relationships along the business development cycle. Perhaps we’ve misnamed it.
But social media *is* business development. It’s merely a set of tools – yes, an overwhelming set at times – designed to better connect one person to another, to connect businesses and brands with the people that need and want them. The messages they carry are only as good as the lasting relationships they foster.
What say you?
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In marketing research, embracing the longer sales cycle and nurturing the long term relationship has been our preferred method of business development. The WAY cool thing about social media is that it expands our “net” and connects us with people we would have never before had the opportunity to meet. It allows us as practitioners to develop relationships using a growing set of tools, rather than the traditional letter, call or personal visit.
Social Media can exponentially grow our list of contacts, but it also tremendously facilitates the “connection” – we know more about the client and his business, which helps us do a better job of helping him make informed marketing decisions!
Good post Amber!
Frank Martins last blog post..So…What IS Marketing?
In marketing research, embracing the longer sales cycle and nurturing the long term relationship has been our preferred method of business development. The WAY cool thing about social media is that it expands our “net” and connects us with people we would have never before had the opportunity to meet. It allows us as practitioners to develop relationships using a growing set of tools, rather than the traditional letter, call or personal visit.
Social Media can exponentially grow our list of contacts, but it also tremendously facilitates the “connection” – we know more about the client and his business, which helps us do a better job of helping him make informed marketing decisions!
Good post Amber!
Frank Martins last blog post..So…What IS Marketing?
Coming from the B2B world, I see tremendous value in using digital marketing and social media to connect with partners and customers.
This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but I’ve found that in my line of work, having multiple connections to a company increases the “stickiness” of the relationship from BOTH sides, not just customer/partner to company.
Speaking from the “company” side, I like knowing multiple people at my customers and partners organizations. I like putting faces to names, and personalities to e-mails and conference call quips. Things get done more quickly, and I’ve personally found that not only do I think of them more often, but they think of me more often.
Meeting for drinks with a potential vendor in San Francisco while on vacation? Absolutely. Potential vendor remembering that I like Indian food and sending me a note to visit his favorite place in NYC on my next trip? Great. Me thinking of another company I know that may be able to use their services and passing them a lead? Done it!
Would any of this happened if we kept to e-mail and phone exchange? Absolutely not.
Business may be about making money, but people are about relationships. The successful organization is one that figures out how to allow the two to work in harmony.
Katie Morses last blog post..misskatiemo: @Aerocles I’m a fan. I just started using Google Reader, too. What about you??
Coming from the B2B world, I see tremendous value in using digital marketing and social media to connect with partners and customers.
This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but I’ve found that in my line of work, having multiple connections to a company increases the “stickiness” of the relationship from BOTH sides, not just customer/partner to company.
Speaking from the “company” side, I like knowing multiple people at my customers and partners organizations. I like putting faces to names, and personalities to e-mails and conference call quips. Things get done more quickly, and I’ve personally found that not only do I think of them more often, but they think of me more often.
Meeting for drinks with a potential vendor in San Francisco while on vacation? Absolutely. Potential vendor remembering that I like Indian food and sending me a note to visit his favorite place in NYC on my next trip? Great. Me thinking of another company I know that may be able to use their services and passing them a lead? Done it!
Would any of this happened if we kept to e-mail and phone exchange? Absolutely not.
Business may be about making money, but people are about relationships. The successful organization is one that figures out how to allow the two to work in harmony.
Katie Morses last blog post..misskatiemo: @Aerocles I’m a fan. I just started using Google Reader, too. What about you??
I “quit” freelancing a couple of years ago because I burned out on the hamster-wheel of contacting new sources every month for new articles, none of which I ever thought about again.
This year, as I’m preparing to go full-time, social media has become a lifesaver because it lets me develop relationships with people who have already provided referrals. Ironically it started with a friend who does all his networking in person… but everyone he knows is “a friend of mine” and he has one of the best reputations (as a person and for his work) of anyone I know. So I took his example and adapted it to my online freelance world.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying that work/business takes a back seat to the relationships, but it sure seems that way sometimes. That’s important to me as someone who works with young children at home. Not that I use them as an excuse… but I like my clients to understand, and I think it’s easier to develop those kinds of understandings online rather than over the phone, when my kid is yelling! 😉
I “quit” freelancing a couple of years ago because I burned out on the hamster-wheel of contacting new sources every month for new articles, none of which I ever thought about again.
This year, as I’m preparing to go full-time, social media has become a lifesaver because it lets me develop relationships with people who have already provided referrals. Ironically it started with a friend who does all his networking in person… but everyone he knows is “a friend of mine” and he has one of the best reputations (as a person and for his work) of anyone I know. So I took his example and adapted it to my online freelance world.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying that work/business takes a back seat to the relationships, but it sure seems that way sometimes. That’s important to me as someone who works with young children at home. Not that I use them as an excuse… but I like my clients to understand, and I think it’s easier to develop those kinds of understandings online rather than over the phone, when my kid is yelling! 😉
I think the most valuable part of what social media has brought to me both personally and professionally, is the ability it has given me to listen better and engage in communities I never knew even existed or thought possible. Social media has given me the capability to expand my insight, and participate in conversations that have allowed me to grow intellectually.
Not only do I have a better understanding of all of the things that we hear people talk about regularly, ability to join the conversation, open, honest conversations, etc. etc. but I have learned to open up to people both professionally and personally, and vise a versa. An ability to get to know someone on that next level is the key factor to me.
Sharing how to do that with other professionals/people in the industry is what I love most about these communities. People seem willing and able to help other people, which has fostered an environment of creativity and innovation that has become nearly impossible to keep up with.
Social media is a set of tools that enables business development, but moreover it is a set of tools that gives us the opportunity and reach to connect and build relationships with others completely outside and beyond a network we ever imagined possible. I am grateful for all of the great people I am able to meet in this space, and I think sheer gratefulness, willingness to listen, and sincerity in responding is what makes that development happen–the tools just make it that much faster and easier 😉
I think the most valuable part of what social media has brought to me both personally and professionally, is the ability it has given me to listen better and engage in communities I never knew even existed or thought possible. Social media has given me the capability to expand my insight, and participate in conversations that have allowed me to grow intellectually.
Not only do I have a better understanding of all of the things that we hear people talk about regularly, ability to join the conversation, open, honest conversations, etc. etc. but I have learned to open up to people both professionally and personally, and vise a versa. An ability to get to know someone on that next level is the key factor to me.
Sharing how to do that with other professionals/people in the industry is what I love most about these communities. People seem willing and able to help other people, which has fostered an environment of creativity and innovation that has become nearly impossible to keep up with.
Social media is a set of tools that enables business development, but moreover it is a set of tools that gives us the opportunity and reach to connect and build relationships with others completely outside and beyond a network we ever imagined possible. I am grateful for all of the great people I am able to meet in this space, and I think sheer gratefulness, willingness to listen, and sincerity in responding is what makes that development happen–the tools just make it that much faster and easier 😉
Hi Amber,
I think you can use most of your post too to also combat back the ROI argument, as how does any business value the numerous things you mentioned for a cocktail with a potential client, a golf outing or a dinner, they don’t, but that isn’t what yoru post is about.
Social Media is just another form of communication with people, customers and potential clients, but it is much more than that and fosters an opportunity not previously present.
Eric Browns last blog post..Interview with Shauna Nicholson
Hi Amber,
I think you can use most of your post too to also combat back the ROI argument, as how does any business value the numerous things you mentioned for a cocktail with a potential client, a golf outing or a dinner, they don’t, but that isn’t what yoru post is about.
Social Media is just another form of communication with people, customers and potential clients, but it is much more than that and fosters an opportunity not previously present.
Eric Browns last blog post..Interview with Shauna Nicholson
Thanks, Amber. Insightful and useful. I am always looking for ways to explain the 100,000 foot view of why clients should incorporate social media into their marketing and branding strategy. Your post provides some good content that I can use as I present to clients. Always appreciate your thinking and writing style.
Jack Hadleys last blog post..What’s in a name?
Thanks, Amber. Insightful and useful. I am always looking for ways to explain the 100,000 foot view of why clients should incorporate social media into their marketing and branding strategy. Your post provides some good content that I can use as I present to clients. Always appreciate your thinking and writing style.
Jack Hadleys last blog post..What’s in a name?