B2B Marketing skillset

May 04, 2022 12:01 pm

Hey ,


Today we are going to chat about the critical distinction between the marketing skillset required for marketing to SMBs and marketing to Enterprises.


Before we dive into it, quick reminder. If you are hiring or looking for a job, post your job offer here. We helped Tyk recently to hire a great marketer via it.


Now let's dive deeply in the topic.


Skills for SMB and Enterprise marketing

Fundamental skills needed for B2B marketing to SMBs.

 

- Social media direct ads

- PPC

- SEO

- CRO

- Viral loops & referral marketing

- Marketing & email automation

- Google & data analytics

- Storytelling

- Content marketing

- Maximizing audiences

 

Fundamental skills needed for B2B marketing to Enterprises.

 

- ABM

- Demand generation & capturing

- Sales & buyer enablement

- Lead scoring and nurturing

- Account qualification

- Leveraging intent data

- Dark social

- Thought leadership

- Revenue reporting through lagging and leading indicators

 

If you'll try to market to Enterprises with a skillset you used to market to SMBs, your company is going to struggle.

 

Here is why:

 

1. The buying process is not linear.

 

You won’t be able to create a landing page, optimize it for the keyword, set up Google Ads and remarketing, and passively wait for the inquiries.

 

Customers perform the research, have inhouse discussions, and collect their peers’ opinions. You can’t control this process, but you can influence it by:

 

  • Creating consistent awareness with thought leadership on the platform your market uses for research 
  • Running PR and content marketing programs (or doing demand generation, as we call it nowadays)
  •  Tracking the intent and buying signals

 

2. Multiple people influence the decision-making process.

 

The higher your product ACV, the more people will be involved in the decision-making process. HBR reports that the number of people that influence opportunity has increased to 7 people.

 

To win the deal, the company should build a relationship with the entire buying committee, not the decision-makers only.

 

3. The majority of companies in any given B2B market aren’t sales-ready.

 

Direct ads and/outreach are doomed simply because the companies aren’t looking for the solution.

 

The only way to create opportunities (aside from occasional referrals and RFPs) is by creating demand (see p.1).

 

TLDR;

 

The core difference between the skillset is that the sales cycle with enterprises is always longer.

 

More people are involved in the buying process, which is way more complicated than "clicking on ad -> going to the landing page -> paying for the product".

 

Don’t try to sell 5-figure products as a pair of shoes or $5 subscriptions.


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  • ABM essentials: Progressive Outbound Marketing, Thu, May 5, 2022 by Dan Renyi and Ricardo Ghekiere


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See you in Trenches 😉

 

Andrei Zinkevich,

Founder @Trenches 


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