"It Couldn't Be More Personal" . . . Why There's No Such Thing As B2B Marketing

Hey Chris,

Is there something wrong with that URL? My browser keeps telling me it can't find the page.

Paul

I agree with you Chris, even at the highest levels of deal making I have interacted with- business isn't about business to business, it is about golfer to golfer, sports fanatic to sports fanatic, or person with a Guiness to person with a martini.

At least once in my past, we even had research personnel that looked for birthdays and special occasions for prospects and clients. Keeping someone happy with tickets to the theater is often worth a lot more than offering them a 20% price break 8 to 5.

In my corporate experience, I (and most others) who received consistent rewards were the ones who produced results not only on a spreadsheet, but also made personal connections within the teams we dealt with.

Chris,

Your point is valid to some extent in some situations - perhaps many situations at certain levels.

Perhaps my experiences are different because I've mostly focused on selling of products to manufacturers or wholesalers.

In some of my most successful contracts, I did not even know if the buyer(s) were married, if they smoked cigars, played golf or even who my competitor was for the business.

It was a matter of their company needing a product or component, according to certain specifications, at a competitive price.

That's what they wanted. And, with many companies that I dealt with, the buyers were restricted in accepting gifts of more than $10 in value - even treating them to overly expensive lunches was to be avoided.

B2B marketing is a big world, and there are many levels with many different rules throughout that world.

Of course, as repeat orders are made, buyer and seller get to know each other better. But, as you are working as professionals, you keep it professional. It's best for both in the long term.

Chris- Great piece and so very true. We(this we includes me) sometimes tend to forget we are dealing and working with people. All the biz speak in the world doesn't out perform actually helping an individual or a team.

I actually had someone recently say, "It's not personal it's just business," to me in the middle of a project I was doing for her organization. The comment was about a decision she made not only effecting the project, but the organization and it's people. I finished the job and decided this was not an organization or an individual that I could work with in the future.

Neil is right on. When I worked in the Corporate world, I had pamphlets that explained what I could and could not accept, the price limit of that gift and who I had to report the gift to.

But in the Corporate Stratosphere, many large deals are sealed and maintained by gifts and access. My most memorable one was on my Bar Mittzvah when my Dad took me to NY. We wanted to see Fiddler, but there were no tickets. So my Dad called someone at Duffy Mott (the people that make Mott's Apple Sauce) and explained our situation. This someone called back in 10 minutes saying the tickets are at Will Call and spend our money on a good dinner.

This is not a small thing - especially after the stagehand strike (I have a friend acting in Cyrano) but for my Dad to solve this problem was magic to me and spoke volumes on how the people he worked with thought about him.