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
