IN THIS ISSUE
This week's Driven, like the 3 prior issues, is heavy on strategy.
It also includes practical thoughts on how to apply it.
The purpose is to help advance your thinking about what you'll do in 2021.
- How to win market share from competitors
- How to advance your B2B marketing by recognizing that your buyers are not rational
- How to adapt to the way people consume content after Covid-19
- How to avoid hiring the wrong sales people
- How and when to talk about your competition in sales meetings
- How companies plan to spend their IT budgets in 2021
- How to strengthen your product strategy by focusing on essentials
- How much difference does it really make if you wear a mask against Covid-19 infection?
Let's go.
Dave Vranicar at Driven
REVENUE
5 ways to win market share from your competitors
"As you think about your growth strategy for 2021, what are you doing to reduce churn and drive greater renewals?"
This short video offers 5 strategies you should have in your plan to increase revenue growth in 2021 – starting with churn reduction.
"How Market Leaders Steal Share from Competitors." Matt Sharrers. Sales Benchmark Index (SBI). September 21, 2020. YouTube video. [2:08]
youtube.com
MARKETING | OPERATIONS
To get more from your B2B marketing, understand that business buyers are not rational
"If businessmen are so rational, why do they all play golf?"
This book disputes a common misperception that business decisions are more rational than consumer decisions.
In recent decades, psychologists and behavioral economists have come to understand the huge role of bias in the way individuals make decisions.
Bias is equally important in making collective business decisions, but its role is much less understood.
As a result, marketers have not used collective bias to their advantage in differentiating their brands.
Here are some of my favorite gems:
- When distortions in thinking affect business decision making, marketers have an opportunity to find new ways to compete.
- Marketing is one of the first places any B2B company should look to find enduring growth and competitive advantage – especially in a crisis.
- When you believe only in logic, you can’t perform magic.
The Objectivity Trap. Rory Sutherland. B2B Institute, LinkedIn. 2020. [Downloadable PDF. 56 pages. No charge.]
The author is chairman of Ogilvy, the storied marketing agency.
If you don't feel up to reading the full document – which is worthwhile for both CEOs and marketing geeks – see pages 48 and 49 for a concise summary of 5 key points.
linkedin.com
MARKETING | COMMUNICATIONS | CONTENT
How to accommodate the way people consume content since Covid-19
"Content consumption increased during Covid-19, while session times decreased."
In other words, more people binged on shorter forms of content. But they spent increasing amounts of time with reports and webinars.
Note that other experienced B2B demand-gen marketers disagree. Dissenters include Chris Walker, host of the Demand Gen Live podcast.
Walker thinks ebooks and white papers are almost dead. He bases this view on his agency's experience with the roughly 2 dozen accounts they serve. Most of those are B2B SaaS companies.
Nevertheless, it's worth reading this comprehensive report from PathFactory, a marketing technology company that draws data from content-usage patterns of its customers.
Will the interest in webinars stay so strong, now that we've all been deluged with invitations, and we're weary of Zoom?
How much capacity for webinars do our audiences have?
That remains to be seen.
I'll bet webinars will lose their current strength. And the evidence seems likely to appear the next report that studies more recent post-covid content consumption.
Content Engagement Report: How Covid-19 Changed B2B Content Consumption in 2020. July 2020. PathFactory. [Downlaoadable PDF. 21 pages. No charge.]
pathfactory.com
SALES & SELLING | STAFFING & HIRING
Top 10 (flimsy) reasons for not testing candidates for sales jobs
"Average sales turnover is now 34% and in some industries and companies it is much higher."
The high turnover of sales reps makes it even more important to avoid mistakes in hiring.
How can you avoid them?
One of the best and easiest ways is to test candidates for sales roles.
That's the assertion of Dave Kurlan, founder of the Objective Management Group (OMG). They're among the top companies that test candidates for sales jobs.
The average cost of sales turnover is 1.5 times compensation, Kurlan says, citing a 2017 report from The Center for Sales Strategy.
Companies that use OMG's sales candidate assessments have average turnover rates of just 8%. That's 425% better than average, Kurlan says.
Depending on the number of sellers you hire and the size of the candidate pool, assessments could cost as little as $8 each,
omghub.com
PRESALES | SALES ENGINEERING
How and when to talk about competitors in conversations with prospects
"The best time to talk about your competition is during your discovery."
This is just one of many tips from 3 veterans of presales consulting in B2B SaaS, speaking in a webinar from the PreSales Collective.
They cover these topics:
- How to talk about your competition [11:15 to 16:10]
- How to set landmines for your competitors [16:00 to 23:30]
- How to run successful proofs of concept (PoCs) [23:30 to 28:30]
"The Competitive Play: Why, When, and How." Peter Cohan. Nidhi Shah. Marjorie Abdelkrime. October 1, 2020. The Presales Collective. YouTube video. [55:00]
The PreSales Collective is a global community of presales professionals sponsored by Great Demo! They publish the Presales Podcast, which posts new episodes weekly.
They also run a group on Slack, currently with more than 1,600 participants. New members are welcome.
youtube.com
BUYERS | RESEARCH
Where companies plan to spend on IT in 2021
"Plans to adopt emerging tech have dropped significantly in 2021, as IT buyers deprioritize cutting-edge features in favor of more pressing needs."
The 2021 State of IT: The Annual Report on IT Budgets and Tech Trends. Spiceworks ZiffDavis. 2020. [Online, interactive report].
swzd.com
PRODUCT STRATEGY
How to improve your products by stripping them down to their essentials
"An essentialist product manager will choose to go big on only a few crucial features or projects."
How can product managers simplify their professional lives and their products?
That's the question former product manager Jim Simick tries to answer, drawing on insights he gained from reading Essentialism, an influential book by Greg McKeown, a Silicon Valley strategist.
Less, But Better: The Essentialist Product Manager. Jim Simick. 2020. [Downloadable PDF. 47 pages. No charge.]
productplan.com
COVID-19
How much does it really matter if you wear a mask against COVID-19?
"For people living in states that are driving the latest spike in coronavirus cases, the takeaway is clear: Wear a mask when you go out in public."
Real-time pandemic data from Carnegie Mellon's CovidCast shows why you should wear a mask.
washingtonpost.com
ABOUT DRIVEN
Driven is a fortnightly digest for busy revenue leaders in business-to-business SaaS. It's most useful if your company sells higher-ticket products that require moderate to heavy involvement of professional sales people.
Driven is here to help you achieve your goals, overcome your challenges, solve problems, and become a better version of yourself.
You'll find an online archive of back issues 12 through 43 at this link.
A word about links, commissions, and endorsements
When I provide links to articles from vendors, does it imply an endorsement?
Only of their content. Not of their products or services.
If I recommend a service or a book, it’s because I think it’s likely to help you. Period.
I get nothing from providing links to any commercial service, including the books for which I provide a link to Amazon.
That may change. I’ll tell you when it does.
Dave Vranicar at Driven