Product-centric marketing has its limits!

Would you prefer to work with someone classed as ‘low-competence’ but with ‘high-likability’, or the other way around? If you'd pick the nice person, you're like most of us (as per a 2005 study found that most of the time we opt for likability over skill, talent and experience).

This book addresses the importance of likability, along with many other important human factors that are often neglected in #B2B.

Contrary to what seems to be the accepted view, We don’t suddenly switch off what makes us human when we arrive for work explains Paul Cash Author of 'Humanizing B2B' and James Trezona 🐓.

Here are my key takeaways from a really good read...

💡 "There’s a limit to what product-centric marketing models can deliver for B2B business."

💡 "A greater proportion of B2B customers are emotionally attached to a brand they’ve bought than they are to B2C brands... it’s not so surprising because B2B purchases involve more personal risk."

💡 In all mature, competitive markets the only element that separates one company from another is brand.

💡 "The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor," Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.

💡 We drift towards what we know.

💡 If you’re the marketing director of an alternative finance company, your website could say this...

"We’re the UK’s leading alternative finance company. Our history in fintech goes back eight years, when we developed the first automated…"

... or it could say this ...

"Last year we helped Frank and 400,000 other small businesses owners who lie awake at night, crippled by the thought of their business going bust…"

💡 "If you want to engage with people, you have to find a way to shift the conversation from the technical to the emotional."

🤱 The problem with using ROI in a blanket way, regardless of context, is that it isn't always relevant. As Gary Vaynerchuk is reported to have said, "What's the ROI of your mother?"

💡 Consider all decision makers in the sale. While 64% of senior executives have the final say on B2B purchases, 81% of the people who inform their decision internally aren’t senior. In fact, 77% of them are millennials.

Finally, my favourite story from the book involves Rob and Josh who bought one hundred trinkets from thrift shops.

They then had different professional writers invent a story about each one. The stories were intriguing, inventive and fun (such as a paperweight having a previous life weighing down the lid of an office M&M jar).

They then listed the items on eBay together with their stories, to see if the objects were enhanced.

The results were staggering. From an original outlay of $129, their sales totaled nearly $3,600 - a profit of over 2,700%.

It shows the power of stories and the emotional value they add, to the extent that "they can transform insignificant objects into significant ones."

BUY THE BOOK HERE: https://humanizingb2b.com