Marketing Interactions

B2B Content Strategy Should Never Be a Wallflower

A B2B content marketing strategy should never be contained in a silo. First of all, to be literal, a silo is a dugout, cave or shelter for grain. Secondly, it denotes walls and barriers that keep its contents apart from everything else. A B2B content marketing strategy must lead somewhere. It should be based on a continuum that matches the needs of prospects and customers wherever they may be in the experience at any time.

The issue I see often, is that content marketing is an add-on to everything else that marketers have on their plates. It's viewed as a campaign, a project or a standalone initiaitve. A silo. This is in part related to the way marketers are wired. In the traditional sense, most of what marketers do has start and end dates and each effort is graded on its own merit (I'm using the word "merit" loosely).

How's our SEO strategy doing?

How many "leads" did that last campaign produce?

Did our webinar attendees increase for this topic?

How many followers did our Twitter account attract last month?

Is our web traffic growing?

Don't get me wrong, we need to measure and evaluate, but we need to quit using our metrics as boundaries that separate one initiative from another. To do this, we need to look at transitions and experiences across buying and the customer lifecycle.

An experience is a set of dynamic transitions that flow together. Until you step out of it or it ends.

When marketers focus on campaigns, they are instituting a construct that boxes in and ends the experience. Three email touches and a sales call, move on. This construct is for us, not related to anything our prospects or customers need, want or value. It was created so that we could manage and measure our efforts based on some ridiculous notion that a short-term campaign can definitively drive sales for a long-term buying process.

But I digress. The point I want to make is about the need to integrate transitions.

Channels are proliferating and marketers need to pay attention to the transitions between them. If your social media team isn't cognizant of your nurturing program, for example, how fluid will the experience be for a prospect or customer taking part in both?

If a buyer watches a video on your YouTube! channel and finds it fun and informative, then visits your website only to see a bunch of dry, product-focused content they find neither fun, nor informative, how will you overcome that disconnect? Or can you?

Often overlooked is the critical transition from marketing to sales. Marketers often plan their content strategy without ever sharing it with sales or - highly recommended - involving sales in its development. If the entire be all and end all of marketing is to help produce and grow customers, why the heck is this transition so overlooked?

It's time for marketing to stop producing more wallflowers and start creating the Belles of the Ball! You may laugh but the Belles of the Ball are sought out, followed and considered highly engaging. This will never happen if we don't integrate all of our marketing initiatives into our strategy and consider how to gain the benefits of dynamic experiences based on transitions.

I know this is difficult. If it was easy it wouldn't be near as much fun!

Take the first step by evaluating everything you're doing and discovering how to create better transitions that tell a story your audience finds engaging. Start connecting the dots. Just don't leave your content strategy sitting on the sidelines as just another project.

 

B2B Content Marketing as Trojan Horse

I sat in on the Content Marketing for Real Marketers webinar, with Joe Chernov and Rebecca Lieb, hosted by #CMI and Joe Pulizzi.

Of course there were many great points made, but two of them stood out and prompted this blog post:

• Content draws 10X more media attention than product launches.
• Diminishing the brand representation in favor of the story enables it to spread.

If you look at the first point, it offers proof that no one cares about products, but rather what they enable — which is what great content marketing is all about.

The second points out that it's not about your company, but about the story you're sharing.

I get asked a lot how to increase engagement with content. In fact, I know many marketers pining for the ability to get their content to go viral. In my experience you can't "make" something go viral. But you can certainly up the odds with the way your content is designed. (As an aside, viral means nothing in B2B if it isn't caused by the market you're trying to engage.)

The issues I run into when it comes time to actually execute a program by publishing content include (but are not limited to):

• Corporate editors bound and determined to get every trademark, service mark, product name and company name mentioned as often as possible when just talking about the product by an agnostic or industry label makes it easier for people to engage with the material.


• Corporate editors who insist that the grammar be perfect, thereby making the content a chore to read by removing contractions, inserting "that" everywhere possible and inserting jargon because it's part of the brand style guide. (e.g. use vs. leverage)


• Companies that insist their logo, tagline and template are prominently displayed on every content asset - even though the corporate brand mafia have already done all of the above.


• Companies that insist that the calls to action must be oriented around selling something.


• The inability to respond quickly because EVERYTHING must be approved before it's published.

The title of this post was also mentioned during the webinar and I love it. The concept is a perfect representation of content marketing done to best effect.

It's really that simple. If your content provides ideas that inspire people to visualize themselves solving their problems or the path to a better tomorrow, then you're on the right track. What you really want is for them to become so engaged that they take your ideas into conversations within their companies.

Such a simple concept, but one often overlooked because of the intense focus to insert the salesperson into the dialogue. Yes, of course that must happen in a B2B sale, but consider this:

If your content is designed to help people think about, visualize and discuss the ideas you share in relation to the problems your company solves, it serves as a Trojan Horse, getting salespeople invited into conversations faster than marketers can accomplish by trying to force the issue.

During the webinar, Joe mentioned that Eloqua's logo is getting smaller by design on the content they share. Do you actually think that no one recognizes that Eloqua is providing the content? By making themselves the secondary focus, Eloqua is actually helping their brand gain prominence, as counterintuitive as that may seem. Because they are not screaming "LOOK AT ME", the company is perceived as being more helpful by placing the emphasis on the content, not its brand representation.

Think about how you read content. Do you look for something interesting before you commit to spending time with it? I bet you do. Then, after you get that light bulb moment, you want to know who provided it. How much better of an impression has been made? How much more likely are you to remember the brand favorably?

It's about using the story as stealth marketing, not clubbing people over the head with your product. Once the story is "in," your company is "in" by association.

Great webinar! If you get a chance to listen to the archive, I suggest you do. There were many other great ideas shared during the session.

What Questions Will You Answer for Prospects in 2012?

I love this time of year. The New Year is stretching out infront of us, an open book ready for a story. That story will be fleshed out by the content you create and share over the next 52 weeks. Seems like a long time, but it will go by in the blink of an eye - just like this year.

One of the reasons that questions are so important is because they drive the curiosity to find answers. In a best case scenario, the answers to your prospects' questions will be found in your content.

So how do you find the questions?

Some resources include:

• Trend and prediction reports for the industries you serve. The analysts are out in force right now and many reports based on surveys of the types of target markets you serve are being published with an eye to what's coming.


• Customer interviews. Not necessarily formal surveys, but one-to-one conversations that help you hear the phrasing, concerns and opportunities voiced in your customer's words. If you can't do this, ask your salespeople to help out. Outline some goals for what you're interested in learning and let them run the conversations. If you can sit in, all the better.


• Social Media listening posts can also help to pinpoint interests. If you've created a list of prospects on Twitter, for example, what are they sharing with their networks? Which prediction posts do they find worthy enough to forward on? What are the trending topics you can identify and how do they line up with what the analysts or top industry bloggers are saying? (You are following them, right?)


• LinkedIn Discussion Groups are also a good source of industry-related topics that are gaining traction. With many of the groups now sporting open membership, you can often gain access where you might not have been been able to gain entry before. You'd be amazed at what you can learn.

You may also take a look at the end goals your customers have stated and then back into the questions they needed to answer to arrive at the decision to buy. LinkedIn profiles and job descriptions for roles your prospects fill can also provide insight to goals people in their positions are responsible for achieving.

Questions can also be indicative of which buying stage your prospects are in.

For example, a question that's equivalent to "Why should I care?" indicates that a prospect is in status quo. They are not actively pursuing solving the problem your products address or they wouldn't respond to that type of question. They would already care. These people are at the very early stages of the buying process and your content's job is to answer that question well enough to get them to assign their attention to learning more.

If the question is the equivalent of "Who can best help me solve this problem?" then it's likely that your prospect is in the options stage where they are in the process of selecting their short list. If this is your first entree to the party, you'd better come in fast and strong with information that will make them stop and consider learning enough about your company to consider adding you to their list.

The beauty of structuring your content to answer your prospects' questions is that you've designed the content to help you learn more about which stage of the buying process they're in. Once you've got an idea about that, you can increase the relevance, and thereby the level of engagement you can establish with them, through subsequent interactions.

To begin generating a list of questions for your prospects:

• Start with the problem they are trying to solve. 
• Narrow your focus to one persona or profile.
• Based on what's involved in solving the problem, what do they need to know?
   - what are their concerns about risk?
   - who else will be impacted and at what perceived level of cost or effort?
   - who do they have to convince to gain consensus for the purchase decision?
   - what could derail the deal?
   - what impact could their decision have on their career?
   - why should they trust your company and solution to deliver?
   - what do they need from a vendor that they don't already have? (beyond product)

Those are just a sampling of questions to ask yourself to get to questions your prospects will have. But hopefully enough to get the juices flowing.

Once you have your list of questions, how will you answer them? The answers will define the content you'll develop.

As you go through this process, you will start to see the order or flow that makes sense for publishing. (You can find more indepth instructions on this process in my book - excuse the self promo)

When it's all said and done, how well you can anticipate your prospects' questions and answer them in a helpful and relevant way will serve to determine your success with content marketing in 2012.

You ready?

Why B2B Content Marketing Themes Fail

Themes for B2B marketing programs are not a new concept. They're used to "organize" marketing programs and create a rallying cry around a market trend that will (hopefully) drive business momentum.

The problem with themes in marketing, as I see it, is that they're used as temporary marketing constructs — generally for the term of a campaign or perhaps a quarter. Themes generally do not originate based on a context that resonates with buyers.

Themes should be used as umbrellas that tie together the brand story with unifying and dominant ideas or motifs. A theme should weave through all of your marketing programs in relation to the brand's promise to customers.

What happens when themes are used as marketing constructs is that they:

• Change — sometimes wildly, confusing our target markets' perception about the company's promise.


• Lack Consistency — once your theme changes, those interested in your past theme may not follow along in your new one.


• Become Repetitious — when themes are used as marketing constructs, they are often too narrow and the content and messaging becomes boring and repetitive because there's no space for new ideas. Or not enough creativity to develop them.


• Lack Relevance — because they're focused on what the company wants to say rather than what the buyer wants to know.


• Become Anti-Social — With the rise in social media, if you're talking about your theme and then suddenly you're not, you appear a bit schizo (technical term) to those who followed you and now can't quite figure out who you are.

Here's an example using common themes for Technology Companies:

Q1: Do More With Less

Q2: Green IT

Q3: Align IT with Business

Q4: Mobility

There's nothing wrong with any of these. In fact the themes here can relate to many IT product offerings on the market today. The issue is the construct of sandboxing the ideas based on time periods.

Themes like this assume that prospects will only be interested in the theme during its assigned quarter. Well, unless you've got telepathic powers, this isn't likely to be true. But, yes, it's much easier to group your marketing efforts and programs based on ideas in a box than to think more holistically about building a storyline that engages prospects continuously and consistently.

Unfortunately, easy isn't the goal. Progressive engagement is.

I hear a lot of reasons for using theme constructs:

• It's the only way to coordinate marketing and sales messaging.
• We need something to present at the budget planning meeting.
• Our CEO wants to know what the themes are for next year.
• These themes match our product-launch roadmap.

I could go on, but you get the gist.

Here's the question that must be answered:

Are any of the reasons for using themes based on what's known about our target markets and what they care about?

I'm not saying to toss out the themes. What I'm challenging you to do is to weave them together into a story that builds a comprehensive business case to help your prospects solve their high-priority problems. It's not whether or not you use them, but in how you do so.

Instead of thinking, "I need another content asset based on Theme 1" - you should be thinking, "Based on the content our prospects expressed interest in, what will they want to know next?" Think "pieces of the big jumbo puzzle" not "4 different puzzles."

A story told over time focused on your prospects highest priorities will drive more pipeline velocity than the stop and start of themes based on what your company wants to say, when.

The Secret to a Longer Life for Marketing Content

I work with a lot of companies that are limited in their ability to produce enough marketing content. I don't mean just any content, but content that resonates and serves as currency to buy prospect attention and actions. The truth is that the life span for marketing content is usually cut short prematurely.

The secret is rather simple, actually. It's repetition.

But, before you can grasp the power of the secret, you need to understand what repetition is not:

• Using the same piece of content over and over.
• Saying the same things everyone else in your market is saying.
• Using the same self-serving calls to action (schedule a demo today!)

For repetition to offer up a secret life to marketing content, it must be based on the ideas it shares, not on a content asset, itself. Contagious content (that which buyers love so much they can't wait to share it with others) is based on the quality of the ideas and the context in which they're developed.

The secret to repetition is to spin those ideas from a number of angles to create multiple content assets based on the strength of an idea. I often refer to this as the Rule of 5.

Here's a basic example:

Let's say the main idea is "The expectations of the new buyer." The original idea is to write an article about how the buyer has changed, backed up with industry statistics and examples that are relevant for the target market you've selected.

To put repetition into play, determine other ways to spin this main idea. Examples might include:

• 10 reasons you need to change what you're telling buyers
• Why your customer's trust level has declined
• How to have a conversation with today's buyer
• What sales needs to close the new buyer

Now you have 5 topics based on one main idea that you can develop into marketing content using the same research you'll do to develop the content asset around the main idea. All with a different take or spin. Now, consider if you spin these 5 ideas based on vertical applications...

Prospects who are interested in any of this content will likely be interested in all of it. Now your calls to action can be "see also" links connecting these ideas in a way that motivates the prospect interested in that topic to engage with more of your ideas, influencing how they think about the topic.

Benefits for you include:

• higher relevance with prospects
• extended attention from prospect
• a connected content storyline
• less time and resources to develop the content
• increased credibility and trust because you're tackling the issue from a variety of perspectives

Why wouldn't any marketer want to create a longer life for the content they develop?

One reason is we get bored. We know too much. We think that since we've written about it once, our prospects know the information and understand why they should do something (hopefully with us).

This isn't necessarily true. It takes repetition for ideas to take hold. Up to 7 times or more for new ideas. The trick is that for repetition to be successful, it must be focused on the ideas - not the content asset. A longer life for marketing content is based on giving your ideas a bigger platform.

How to Get Buy-in for Marketing Automation

Today, Eloqua released a new guide designed to help marketers gain C-level buy-in for marketing automation. It's brilliant. Not just for helping marketers frame the conversation with the executives at their company, but as an example of how to create a personalized, multi-persona campaign that helps a buying committee gain consensus.

This probably isn't what Joe, Brian and the rest of the folks over at Eloqua will be overjoyed that I chose to write about, but if you're looking for a template for how to create relevant, personalized marketing campaigns, go download this guide!

Here's the setup:

The story is based on the concept of Revenue Performance Management (RPM) - good story. The great thing about the story of RPM is that marketing automation is just one component of the bigger RPM picture (people and process being the other two). But it's also a story that has hooks for the different people (personas) marketers need to get on board to gain budget to purchase the technology.

The guide makes a very clear and compelling case that marketers must focus on what matters to each persona, not the feeds and speeds of the technology. And it shows you what this might look like in a colorful, 9-page guide. I said brilliant, right?

Take a look at what I'm talking about:

The CEO cares about top line growth, profitability, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and the competition. They worry about overall company performance - some of them variables that are confounding because it's hard to lock down the numbers - or what they mean. Emphasize accountability.

The CFO cares about revenue growth, Op-Ex and Cap-Ex, return on investment and risk management. They worry about accuracy in forecasts and taking proactive action, not reacting after the fact. Emphasize the ability to measure things that are important to them, such as pipeline impact and momentum and improved budget spend. Show them how they'll be able to gain visibility to make more informed decisions.

The IT folks generally think marketers have no idea what it takes to do what they ask. They have a ton on their plates besides what your need to execute your latest campaign. Be prepared to show them you understand what you're requesting from them and additional benefits marketing automation will bring to help them reach other objectives they're tasked to address - such as tying together disparate reporting systems and improving data integrity.

You can see how all this comes together in the guide - this is just  a brief swipe. If you need to build a business case for marketing automation, all the better.

But, irrespective of that, if you're challenged to figure out how to improve the relevance of your content and need to address multiple personas on the buying committee for your solution - this is a great example of how to go about constructing a marketing program to do just that.

From a content perspective, think about how each topic of interest to each persona can be addressed as separate content assets, or even combined into a white paper or used to drive a script for a video. If you think about it creatively, you can build a storyboard for each executive - and seed the conversations they'll have with each other when you're not in the room.

And that's just what we all hope to accomplish with our content marketing initiatives - right?

Learn more and Download the Guide Here

Marketing Content on a Mission

Last month, I led a Contagious Content pre-conference workshop at Marketing Profs B2B Forum. The marketers who attended were a great group - serious and focused on tackling best practices for content marketing to make a difference in their organizations.

At the beginning of the session, I asked them to each share what their biggest challenge was with content. Nearly 1/3 of them stated a challenge related to messaging. Some of their responses include:

• Complexity of organization with multiple vertical messages
• Relevance to prospect
• Lack of simple and compelling message
• Translation and distillation of message
• Message is for a secondary, less important market

The marketers were targeting a variety of prospects - pretty much across the map - from engineers to educators to mid-level manufacturing managers and C-level executives. This challenge with messaging appears to be pervasive.

I'd recommend that B2B marketers stop and take a look at the mission assigned to their content as a way to identify how to shape it into something more valuable.

A content marketing mission is the responsibility your content has to achieve the goal you set for it. This mission in B2B is not generally accomplished by a Big Bang, but rather with a series of incremental, progressive steps that help a target segment get from A (status quo) to Z (purchase).

As you prepare for launch, these criteria should help you determine the likelihood that your content will complete its mission:

• The core message is designed for a tightly defined target segment.
• The message applies directly to priority issues identified during persona development.
• The content delivers on the promise of the title and description used to catch attention.
• The hook (reason for engaging) is at the beginning, immediately obvious.
• Your products and the "leader" status of your company are not more prominent than the issue the content discusses.
• The message intent is to answer a question the prospect might have if they were trying to solve a problem you've validated is a top priority.
• The content has a call to action that makes sense to those who engage with it.
• You can read the content out loud without running out of breath during sentences, losing interest or laughing hysterically - this is a key point.
• Others - not involved in the message development - can do the step above.
• The story you're telling with the content helps the audience visualize how they can do/get something important to them.
• The content offers opportunities for sharing it with others - and a reason to do so.
• There are follow-on pieces that build the story you've started.

There are other criteria, but these should get you started. Now, let's circle back to the core messaging. The way to tell if your content has a simple and compelling message is if you can read it and summarize it in one sentence that's a statement of value for your audience.

Step into your audience's shoes, read your content and then see if you can fill out this sentence:

From this content, I learned/realized/understand ______________ which will help me get closer to achieving __________.

It should be that simple.

Notice it's nearly impossible to shove your products into those blanks. That's intentional. The product isn't the value - it's what your prospect can do now that they have it that counts.

This said, marketers often think that "value" must be some big deal - like the answer to the universe. This is not the point. You won't get enough mindshare or attention to answer "universal" questions with a content asset. Instead, think bite-sized insights. Think little flickers of AHA that build to that big deal. Each one that connects with your prospect provides value. Think snowball effect rather than avalanche.

It takes time for people to assimilate ideas related to change. It takes repetition and it takes consistency of storyline exposure that creates momentum.

We all want the sale. The way for B2B marketers to help prospects get there is to design the mission and then assemble the parts that - together - help prospects complete it.

Needless to say - if your content is on a mission that your prospects are not engaged in completing - your efforts will fail.

The mission for content must be designed to match the mission of the prospect. That's the secret.

One persona or target segment.

One problem-to-solution journey.

One mission at a time.

Create Content with Context

People have no patience for things that don’t impact their right-now reality. If a flood is happening across the world, they may spare a compassionate moment, but are soon refocused on their daily priorities. If that flood is 2 miles away—and closing—they're riveted, intent on learning more about how their reality may change.

A bit dramatic, perhaps, but very true.

The biggest challenge for marketers today is determining how to create relevant, fresh content that catches and keeps potential buyers’ attention as well as that impending flood. The first part is getting noticed (favorably), the second is creating anticipation for what’s next—in consistently repeatable ways.

Often, it’s a matter of focus.

We've all repeatedly heard the phrase it’s all about the customer. The fact that it’s true doesn’t automatically shine a light on what that means for compelling content execution. That’s what Amplifiers help you do. But before you can do that, you need to know your target markets' situation in relation to the problem your offerings solve.

People assign relevance based on how the topic discussed relates to issues they’re dealing with right now. Knowing that “back story” helps your content immediately prove relevance by connecting with something important prospects are currently thinking about. That's the challenge of relevance.

What you need is a structure that will help you design context to attract and amplify buyers' attention.

Amplifiers serve as guides that help you tap into the natural ways buyers think. They make sure you have the best shot at addressing high-value issues with greater relevance. Since it takes multiple touch points to move a prospect forward in their buying process, Amplifiers provide a variety of ways to catch their attention and keep buyers focused on how you can help them solve their most pressing problems.

There are 7 Amplifiers that can serve as structures for developing value-driven content. They work best when marketing’s goal is to establish more than the fleeting attention that results from one-off messages. Moving prospects from attention to anticipation is the beginning of engagement. Amplifiers also help you build momentum that promotes the progression of your prospects through the buying cycle.

These 7 Amplifiers provide templates to create content that connects with buyers via their natural thought processes and relevance antennae.

1. Answer a Question - what is it your buyers need to know?
2. Relieve a Doubt - why would they think the solution won't work?
3. Confirm a Suspicion - what can you do to build their confidence?
4. Simplify Complexity - make an issue easy to understand.
5. Provide a Path - show them how to get to the end result they want.
6. Correct a Misconception - misinformation is everywhere - correct it and explain why.
7. Mitigate a Risk - show them why your solution is credible and build their trust.

If your content tries to use all 7 amplifiers at once, you'll lose their attention by introducing friction and confusion. Choose one amplifier to inforrm the context of a content asset. Content should be designed to do one thing. When you choose one amplifier to focus how you'll execute on the premise of your content asset, you have a better shot at extending engagement.

People have a high desire to know that their assumptions, beliefs and knowledge are correct. Industry advances happen quickly. Keeping up-to-date is vital to producing consistent, successful outcomes. By developing your content and communications to confirm, correct or expand understanding and knowledge buyers need, you’ll be seen as a valuable advisor helping to develop solution to problems they must address—or opportunities they need to explore.

Related articles

• One Content Asset Can't Do Everything (marketinginteractions.typepad.com)

DemandCon Video: Storytelling Turns Prospects Into Buyers

The guys from VisibleGains did a great job facilitating the video of my presentation at DemandCon. If you're interested in using storytelling to improve sustainable engagement wtih your content marketing programs, I hope you'll find some ideas that will be helpful.

 

Thanks to Joe Eldridge, Cliff Pollan and their team for shooting the video and to Steve Gershik and Shawn Elledge for putting on a great event! And special thanks to the audience for being fantastic!

Stories are the Key to Buyer Engagement

One of the biggest challenges for B2B companies is what they do to keep prospects interested and engaged across a long-term, complex buying process. And, with buyers pushing sales conversations to the later stages, the bigger question becomes how to keep them moving to help them get there faster.

I submit to you that storytelling is the answer. Stories are an expression of movement. Stories, by their very nature, progress from beginning to middle to end.

Things happen in stories. The main character has a goal, overcomes conflict and gets to the happily ever after. In business terms, the client has a problem to overcome so they can achieve a strategic objective. Not so different.

Build Your Marketing Story:

 
Stories link ideas – This is a key factor for your content strategy. The norm in the past has been one-off, one-way messaging that gets generated when an idea strikes or a particular event is happening within your company. Companies spend a lot of time “telling” prospective buyers what they should be thinking.

The difference with stories is that they position your communications to evolve. They build from one idea or premise to another. They pull buyers forward in the process by giving them contextual reference points and discussing one topic at a time to transition them through the pipeline without anxiety or information overload. Another benefit to stories is that they establish your company's credibility, showcase impact and allow buyers to envision their future, once the pain has been eliminated.

To create a story strategy for momentum, map the complete knowledge transfer requirement and tackle a piece of it. Then give buyers a prod, or preview, into the next piece they can either request, or that you’ll be sending as a follow-up. Learning is a process. You can’t just dump all the information on them at once and expect them to say – Yes! This is exactly what I need. Where do I sign?

Especially not for a B2B complex sale.

Remember the ebb and flow of decision making. Buyers may move two steps forward and one step back, then forward again, as questions and obstacles occur. Look for places where they can get off track and plan ahead to address them before they happen.

Here's an example of how a "story" might exist for a buyer

An IT systems manager needs to roll out patches and updates across his network more quickly but doesn’t have the technology and visibility to know which computing device needs what without a manual check.

He learns a variety of software tools are available to solve that problem. He also learns that these tools can update his inventory catalog. He’s found your company via a search that returned a blog post at the top of the results page. Upon further investigation, your products look viable for his situation and he found a customer story that directly relates to his situation. Suddenly he’s heading toward happily ever after.

Then, the step back – Your prospect slams the brakes on as he starts to question how easy this change is really going to be and whether your repoorting tools are really as customizable as you say. What if his expectations aren't met?

This doesn’t have to be a set back because you prepared for this and are ready with a paper[ a story] that discusses all the steps of the implementation and the division of responsibility. You share testimonial proof[a story] that the solution can be implemented in less than three weeks. The buyer sees he can well manage his side of the requirements and gains confirmation that the reporting will do what he needs.

All the “I’s” are dotted and “T’s” are crossed. He’s back to visualizing happy days and how he’ll shine when the project comes off without a hitch.

Wait. The CIO is concerned that the new tool will won’t adapt to their corporate compliance policies and that the total cost of ownership is too high.

Not to worry, you assure your buyer, and whisk him a link to an article or video[a story] that highlights the time savings achieved with your software and the customization capability that will map to their compliance policies. And the buyer becomes a customer.

You may not be selling IT software, but it’s likely that this ebb and flow—from positive to hesitant—exists within your buyers’ process. Salespeople and customers can help you narrow down the critical points where these step backs are likely to happen. By mapping the buying journey and preparing stories to handle each step, you’re not only prepared, but elevating trust with each relevant, timely response to your buyers’ needs.