The power of a strong B2B buyer persona is undeniable. In the past, creating them brought a competitive advantage for companies that used them. Today, it’s more than just a benefit; it’s a necessity. However, if your personas are so generic that you can’t effectively reach your target audiences, you might want to think about basing those personas on a firmer foundation of truth.
“If you build it, they will come” is a great saying, but it’s not the wisest strategy for B2B tech. The only way you’ll have a successful product/service launch is if the market finds value in the concept and trusts your solution more than rival options. B2B Concept Testing lets you know whether or not this is the case.
Here are five indications you should invest in B2B Concept Testing before you finalize your launch strategy.
How can sellers use cold email to engage rather than irritate?
Somewhere between intent and interpretation, a lot can get lost in translation.
Facts and statistics make for a boring presentation. If you want to earn thunderous applause with your next conference talk, make sure your speech actually says something. Spellbind with a story.
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In this episode, Cascade Insights CEO Sean Campbell interviews renowned speaker Troy Hazard on giving a conference talk. Hazard is a seasoned keynote speaker, entrepreneur, author, TV presenter, and business consultant with more than 25 years of experience.
Hazard points out that an emotional arc means more to the audience than a random list of data points. “People relate to stories. That’s why we like the movies. We like to see the hero win and the villain get crushed, and all that sort of stuff. It’s the same on stage,” he said. “They’re going to immerse themselves in the journey, and there’s a far better learning opportunity when you do it that way.” Give your audience a reason to care about your data by putting it in context and explaining why it matters.
Campbell pointed out that some individuals are natural storytellers, others are not. What if a non-storyteller finds themselves giving a presentation? Can they learn to build a compelling narrative?
Short answer: yes. Anyone can turn experience into a story. What happened? What did you learn from it? How did you change afterward? How did that affect outcomes? Hazard encouraged potential speakers to answer the question: “What was the action you took after you experienced the events in this story?” That’s what audiences want to know and learn from.
Another key tip: don’t spend 5 of your 60 minutes walking through your bio. Instead, take the opportunity to grab your audience’s attention as quickly as possible. “I learned a lesson from a fellow speaker years ago that the best way to start that presentation is to walk out and start it. I’ll walk out onto the stage and say, ‘Let me take you back to 1996. I’m getting off a plane from Tokyo, and I get a call from the office, and the first thing is that they tell me is we just lost $375,000.'” In other words, get right to the point and start the story off right away.
To give a speech worth listening to, you gotta tell a good story. Turn your presentation into a hero’s journey of lessons learned from experience.
Want to spruce up your presentation skills? Listen to the full episode for more speaking tips and see our collection of business communication best practices.
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Never waste an opportunity to learn from a lost deal.
How should marketers balance the need to be visible with the need to be relevant and useful?
This year our podcast went through a major change. The B2B Market Research Podcast became B2B Revealed. Our focus broadened to a myriad of issues that impact our clients in the B2B technology sector. The result? More interviews, more thought leaders, more insight, and an even better B2B Podcast.
It was a good year for B2B content. As we reflect on 2017, we bring you a countdown of our most read articles of the year.
The B2B tech world has a lot at stake with net neutrality.
Many businesses “live” on the internet today in ways they never did before. They market through the internet, they sell through the internet, and many of their internal business processes (payroll, HR, AR/AP) rely on the internet.
Should net neutrality be repealed, businesses may be forced to pay more for the same services they access today. Businesses might also find there is less choice among SaaS apps or cloud services to purchase. Further, in order to cope with new costs, businesses may have to radically alter their pricing structures and budgets.
On this episode of B2B Revealed, two B2B CEOs discuss what the potential repeal of net neutrality would mean for business. Contextly CEO Ryan Singel brings his perspective as a media and strategy fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society to the issue. Cascade Insights CEO Sean Campbell interviews him on the implications of a net neutrality rollback for ISPs, tech companies, and startups.
Will A Net Neutrality Repeal Impact Your Business? Listen To Learn:
Notable Quotes From Ryan Singel:
“The immediate effect is going to be on businesses and is going to hit them in the bottom line in ways that they aren’t going to understand.” – Singel on how a net neutrality repeal would impact businesses.
“This is a really bad plan for innovation.” -Singel explaining that a net neutrality repeal could remove the conditions that have allowed innovative startups to flourish in the past.
“Startups, especially in the B2B world, rely on a lot of other startups to run their business.”
“It looks like Mafia tactics.” – Singel discussing broadband companies’ current dealings with companies that rely on their internet services.
“Why repeal without replace? It doesn’t make any sense.”
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