B2B Companies Are Missing the Boat with Customers: McKinsey Study

The folks at McKinsey and Company sent me an email today on their latest article entitled How B2B Customers Talk Past Their Customers.  Yes, "past" their customers as in missing the boat. I recommend everyone give the article at least five minutes of your time. Then pay particular attention to this chart next time you read or listen to your own messaging particularly on your Website. 

Bottom line: What YOU think is important in terms of your brand story may have minimal effect on your customers perception of your brand strength.

You may be dressing up but saying all the wrong things when engaging with your customers in print, on video, or in person. Here are three challenging questions the McKinsey team ask. 

Are you telling the same story as your competitors? 
Does your sales force say it is facing headwinds?
Do you deliver your brand in a consistent way?

When working in the high tech industry the challenge was to take tech speak and turn it into something a C-level executive other than the CIO could not only understand but relate to.  In each campaign, we customized offer and message to specific C-level roles.

In marketing we had a whole team of people with specialist expertise across most industries called segment managers who
worked with us and the product manager on each campaign to make sure we talked the customer's language and addressed their major concerns. No matter the size of company we work with today we bring on our team the equivalent of a segment manager to represent the customer's interest and needs. 

And a few words about sustainability.  If you talk about sustainability do it in the context of your values, expertise, and ethical supply chain practices rather than in general, do-good terms because sustainability is a part of your root system, not window dressing.

Begin to demonstrate how you nest the elements of people, planet and prosperity into the fabric of what you do and the decisions you make as a company. It will reflect your commitment to sustainability.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Red Digital Marketing (RDM) Portland, Oregon, October 24, 2013