The Importance of being … Relevant
Oscar Wilde penned a farcical comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest”, where the focus is to maintain a fictitious persona to escape the burdens of social obligations.
In today’s business world of trying to establish meaningful business relationships, Wilde’s characters behaviour is the antithesis of what we need to do. We need to focus on being as forthright, in touch and in tune with our buyers as possible, so that they recognize our value, our relevance and our potential contributions to their businesses.
According to research by the ITSMA, “75% of executives will read unsolicited marketing materials that contain ideas that might be relevant to their business.” Think about that for a second. In an age when email response rates are at an all-time low, and only continue to drop, a high percentage of high-level execs admittedly are willing to read your messages.
So how do we become relevant?
Focus on the 3 most important factors in your message to them:
-
Knowledge and understanding of their industry
-
Knowledge and understanding of their unique business issues
-
Fresh ideas to advance their business
Relevance only comes from insight: a real understanding of the buyer’s challenges, opportunities and pain points. What value do you show to your buyer when you send them a generic, irrelevant message?
Invest your time to have insight about buyers. Send them meaningful, helpful, relevant messages.
Where do you look to find insight?
The Market
-
Industry Dynamics
-
Key Trends
-
Competitors
-
Growth drivers & inhibitors
Relationships & Connections
-
Key contact profiles
-
Relationships to each other and to your company
-
Attitudes, preferences & biases
The Company
-
Financial helath
-
growth areas versus cash cows
-
Renewal risk
-
SWOT
-
Initiatives & Organizational priorities
-
Triggers like funding, acquisitions and personnel changes
The Buying Centeres
-
Org chart
-
Key buying centeres
-
whatiespace & Buying center analysis
Where are you going to look?
A few sources:
-
The company website
-
LinkedIn
-
Annual reports
-
SEC filings
-
Analyst reports
-
Press releases
-
Blog posts
-
Investor relations
-
Industry media
-
Financial press
-
Influencers and bloggers
-
Speeches and conferences
-
Product and technical literature
Search engines will become your most valuable tool.
Do you need help creating timing, relevant and helpful communications to your prospective buyers? We will help. info@mycxo.ca
