A couple of weeks ago on a sunny evening I had the great pleasure of attending the launch of the latest LinkedIn Industry Insight Reports, the result of our collaboration with LinkedIn, and based on primary research into enterprise buyers which we conducted on their behalf.
What really jumped out at me in both the research and the discussion on the evening were the asymmetries at play in the buying process and how understanding them better can provide an edge in the quest for growth.
Rory Sutherland brought to life how the enterprise buying process is incredibly complex, and full of asymmetrical dynamics that influence decision making. These affect individuals, where buyers might personally get none of the upside of a buying decision, and all of the downside of things going wrong, which can create inertia and preference for the safe bet (No one ever got fired for buying IBM!). They also affect groups, for example where the CEO in the buying team wants the team to place some big bets knowing at least some of them of them will pay off, but the individuals in the CEO’s team don’t want to take risks that might negatively affect them personally if their bet doesn’t pay off.
One of the other major asymmetries in buying is the 95/5 rule, where most of a brand’s potential buyers are “out of market”. As a result, activity to help build brand reputation, salience and “mental availability” is a highly effective strategy to drive long term results as it creates “future buyers”. Focusing on demand or lead generation risks simply paying for the capture of existing demand-perhaps a necessary but not sufficient condition for growth.
Account Based Marketing (ABM) in recent years has sometimes been called into question especially when it is incorrectly defined as simply an exercise in hyper efficient and narrow targeting of just those accounts that are showing intent. In reality ABM can be highly effective at creating future buyers when it is focused on building valuable relationships in high potential (not just high propensity) client accounts.
This research brings to life the different industry dynamics in buying in SaaS, FSI and Professional Services. But here are my four takeaways of the main consistent themes across the industries:
📈 Build brand reputation before buyers are in market to drive growth
💡 Differentiation and creativity are key to cutting through the clutter and driving memorability and preference
🎯 Addressing customers’ needs takes careful orchestration of a custom journey to increase relevance
🔍 Interrogation of the buying process to really understand the asymmetries helps sales and marketing alignment
You can read the first full report into professional services here: https://lnkd.in/eM2w6yG4
Insights into buying in FSI and SaaS will be released soon!