B2B marketing is a marathon, not a sprint
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 10:04 am
Massive clicks on Google, but no sales. Three conversations with a prospect, but no business. Most B2B marketers encounter this regularly in the course of their career. Should you choose another channel? LinkedIn instead of Facebook? A trade fair stand? Cold calling? The pitfall here is panic football, where you end up burning a lot of money and can hardly show any turnover. Or do you not let yourself be deterred and continue undisturbed?
If it were up to Jaap Jacobs and Tim van IJsendoorn, the modern B2B marketer is someone with an elephant's skin and a long breath. In their book 'Stoïcijns Groeien zonder Leadgeneratie: de email industry list optometry B2B-groeiformule' (affiliate) they provide a formula for an effective growth strategy for your organization, brand and sales. They draw on their long experience as consultants in B2B marketing and illustrate their approach with numerous examples.
'Not in the market'
Marketers like to focus on marketing actions that quickly lead the customer to the bottom of the funnel. After all, these lead generation and conversion actions are measurable and should lead to quick results. In practice, they quickly hit the ceiling, because their horizon is too limited. 95% of potential customers in B2B do not want to make a purchase at any given moment. They are 'not in the market'.
Pulling harder on lead generation and conversion therefore often leads mainly to irritation among prospects and to chasing leads that turn out not to be leads at all, but do require a lot of attention. By taking a longer horizon as a starting point and making yourself attractive to the target group, you increase the number of customers in the market and ultimately bring in more profitable customers.
If it were up to Jaap Jacobs and Tim van IJsendoorn, the modern B2B marketer is someone with an elephant's skin and a long breath. In their book 'Stoïcijns Groeien zonder Leadgeneratie: de email industry list optometry B2B-groeiformule' (affiliate) they provide a formula for an effective growth strategy for your organization, brand and sales. They draw on their long experience as consultants in B2B marketing and illustrate their approach with numerous examples.
'Not in the market'
Marketers like to focus on marketing actions that quickly lead the customer to the bottom of the funnel. After all, these lead generation and conversion actions are measurable and should lead to quick results. In practice, they quickly hit the ceiling, because their horizon is too limited. 95% of potential customers in B2B do not want to make a purchase at any given moment. They are 'not in the market'.
Pulling harder on lead generation and conversion therefore often leads mainly to irritation among prospects and to chasing leads that turn out not to be leads at all, but do require a lot of attention. By taking a longer horizon as a starting point and making yourself attractive to the target group, you increase the number of customers in the market and ultimately bring in more profitable customers.