“The minute that you get comfortable in, ‘Well, that’s the way that we’ve always done it,’ is the minute you start to fail.”
B2B marketing is changing fast. In part because it’s so commonplace in the B2C world, the expectation for everything to be available on-demand and at your fingertips is reaching into other verticals — including for B2B businesses. If you aren’t there for your customers when they want, where they want, and how they want — they will find a company that is. Rebecca Stone, the SVP, Customer Solutions Marketing & CMO at Cisco Meraki, is an expert in how the B2B world is shifting, what it takes to keep great talent, and how to effectively work with and educate a leadership team, and she shares the secrets on this episode.
Key Insights
Be More on Demand
B2C customers are used to being able to go to social media, text, get on a chat, or find other ways to quickly get help from businesses. As these behaviors are becoming more common every day, even B2B companies should be upping their game to help with customer acquisition and retention.
“If you think about a B2C company, now you can text them, you can email them, you can call them, you can go on the website and chat with people. And so there is that expectation and that behavior has started to transition to the B2B world. They want to be able to reach you, however, wherever, whenever they can.”
Be Comfortable Taking a Step Rather Than Completing the Journey
It’s easy to be frustrated when you ask for something but your executives only give you a portion of what you wanted. Be happy with that step, and that win (it is a win!). Do everything you can with what you are given, and prove that you are worth the full resources on the next one.
People Need to Be Educated About Marketing
Your leadership team needs to be educated on what real success looks like. Most people think it’s all about the number of leads you have, but really the quality is far more important. Let those in your orbit know how you find the right leads, and what the customer journey really looks like.
About the Guest:
Rebecca Stone is the SVP, Customer Solutions Marketing & CMO at Cisco Meraki. She is a marketing professional with more than 15 years of experience in business-to-business (B2B) technology marketing for software and hardware products. Rebecca has an in-depth understanding of, and love for, all aspects of the marketing suite.
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