Читать книгу The B2B Executive Playbook - Sean Geehan - Страница 13

Since executive customers are leading the industries to which B2B companies are selling, their perspective and input can have an outsized effect on marketing effectiveness. They can be tapped to better understand the market perceptions of a B2B company, its value proposition, and its messaging. They can tell a leadership team how their branding efforts might be off target. Executive customers can offer information regarding what, where, and how to market offerings to maximize a B2B company’s return on investment (ROI).

Sometimes the value of this feedback is instantly apparent. For example, Intesource recently previewed an upcoming marketing campaign for a group of its executive customers. They said it wouldn’t work and told the company why in some detail. “Being a former CMO, it was a tough pill to swallow,” recalls CEO Webster. “So I tested it in a small way. Our executive customers were right. We would have blown more than 20 percent of our total annual marketing budget on the initial campaign, but we adjusted it as they recommended, and the revised campaign yielded huge dividends.”

HCL Technologies received insight from executive customers to develop a global branding program. “Our executive customers provide a mechanism for us to view ourselves through our customers’ eyes,” says CMO Chatterjee. “With this vision, we were able to design much more credible messages that far exceeded our expectations.”