Buyer-Centric B2B Marketing Paths: 7 Principles You Should Know
Buyer-Centric B2B Marketing Paths
Today’s buyers are decision makers. They tend to go their separate ways. Still, the role of B2B marketers is very important. Especially because to survive and thrive in the current economic climate, your team needs to be present in the right, personalized way and ready for the customer-engaging moment.
Successful B2B marketers need to think more holistically and organically to meet new challenges and deliver the insights they need at the right time to attract and retain customers. The days of top-down command and control marketing are over. The rise of empowered digital marketers and relationship builders is underway. In fact, today you shouldn’t be thinking as a marketing executive, but as a state. As with the Tao teachings, work with the flow.
How Tao Helps His B2B Marketer
Tao literally means “way”, or an overarching philosophy that provides a way to understand the interrelationships between all living things. It helps us navigate life with more flow and is the perfect organizing principle for building productive relationships in today’s highly fragmented and chaotic business environment. Let’s take a look at the Tao Principles and how they can be applied to bring about a paradigm shift in marketing.
1. Non-action (Wu Wei)
Together with the idea of ’oneness’, this brings about the understanding that each of us is part of the whole. Marketers are just a small part of a larger ecosystem. Coordinating attractions to be ready when shoppers are ready is both an art and a science. But most of all, I can’t push it. Conditions must be created so that the right buyers come at the right time. It should feel simple and authentic. let go of preconceptions
2. Release preconceived ideas
This second principle of his fulfills his third principle, making all life a harmonious and balanced energy. The rise of ABM has brought sales and marketing much closer to real opportunities and well-organized strategies, but the decline of traditional demand generation has forced marketers to foster deeper relationships between potential and existing customers. , has forced us to look deeper and connect across our customers. Marketers are realizing that just because they got here doesn’t get them there. Therefore, we need to consider how we work together and what tools we can use to make our work more efficient.
3. Become an observer and witness the cycle of life
The nature of the four seasons can be directly transferred to the customer journey. For example, in the winter of hibernation, think thoroughly and research what to plant in the spring. In spring, seeds are sown and ideas grow. All bloom in summer and harvest in autumn. When marketers pay close attention to these cycles, it’s easier to imagine what happens next. Harmony is the natural state of existence
4. Harmony is the natural state of being
Or “yes to everything”. In other words, we are both passive and aggressive. We are all and nothing. This really speaks to the democratization of enforcement. Empower everyone in complex organizations to meet buyers wherever they are. Team members should be either active or passive depending on their role and signal at the time. Everyone should be able to seamlessly understand what customers need, what they’ve been through recently, and how to provide the right experience for the moment. Forget what has been done in the past and transform it into a new way of becoming a marketer and salesperson. By becoming an on-demand Sherpa of sorts, you can see the buyer experience across the engagement spectrum.
5. caring
The industry has changed so much in the last few years that the relationships between teams have changed a lot. Buyers are part of that equation. Today’s marketers don’t want to bombard other humans with overwhelming hype. Rather, we want to meet their needs, build trust, and demonstrate that we really understand our customers. live humbly
4. Living in humility
It means thanking others. Feel deep respect and gratitude for those who serve as mentors and teachers. Remember when sales and marketing were at odds? There was a lot of finger pointing on both sides. Today, these teams need to not only care more about each other, but give them the tools to tie themselves closer together to their common goal of delighting customers. lead a balanced life
7. Living a balanced life
That is the goal of Taoism. It doesn’t mean living in poverty. It means living in moderation. Especially these days, if a business has purpose, financial management, and buyer-centric intent, customers and prospects must follow. Marketers definitely have an obligation to “do more with less” and they need to embrace it. Buyers want valuable and meaningful experiences. No need to buy them.
Benefits to marketing by following of the Tao
By becoming buyer-centric marketers who adopt the principles of a natural system like the Tao, there are some exceptional benefits, which resonate deeply in today’s world:The approach provides a human-oriented framework from which to view marketers’ roles in a more purposeful and meaningful way. It becomes humans engaging with humans.
There is a context from which to build the components that help marketers construct their practice:
the people, processes, and tools used to make fruitful connections. The decision-making lens of principles like harmony, balance, and witnessing can lead to more reliable and sustainable choices, like consolidating down to tools that bring teams together around a customer, or building processes that help people have compassion and understanding in critical moments.
Following the teachings of the Tao creates an environment that supports healthy, natural, and systematic growth rather than the old grind, grind, grind way of working that no longer serves marketers or their customers. To advance the application of Tao in marketing, the entire organization must become an integrated go-to-market flow along the customer journey. Marketing teams need to empower everyone with the insights they need about their customers and with a shared set of tools that give everyone the freedom to act in their best interest and that of their brand in the moment.
It represents a whole new way of working, but the path is a productive one, delivering a richer experience for marketers, businesses and customers. And it’s more important than ever.
