B2B Marketing
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Jerry Bernhart's presentation: "Myth Busters: Transitioning from B2C to B2B is not possible!" Presented at the Internet Retail Conference (IRCE), June 2019
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B2B Marketing
- 1. Myth Busters: Transitioning from B2C to B2B is not possible! IRCE 2019 Jerry Bernheart, Principle, Bernhart Associates Meeta Kratz VP Marketing & Ecommerce, Workplace Safety Division, Brady Corporation
- 2. Word on the Street…. 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Yes No Maybe Can B2C’ers successfully transition to B2B? Question…. Survey Says….
- 3. ForresterSays: B2B Ecommerce will exceed $1TRILLION this year! * The B2B eCommerce Playbook, January 2019 HINT: That is 12 Zeros!!!!
- 4. It is all Ecommerce right? Lead Generation High SKU count Longer/complex sales cycle Customer Specific Pricing Direct & distributed sales Trigger driven media consumption Speed to fulfillment Brand Building Lower SKU count Instant Gratification Product based pricing Direct decision making Highly sensitive media consumption Speed to fulfillment
- 5. B2B Commerce Technologists & Marketers… Demand Generation focus Automation mind set Omni-channel integration Technologists MarTech Stack focus Agile thinking In 2018, 29% of marketing budget goes toTechnology representing a 7%YoY increase* “ “ Organizations are dealing with capabilities, resources and talent in increasingly complex ways* “ “ … same OBJECTIVES with different LENS *Gartner, CMO Spend Survey 18-19, Nov. 2018 Technology Marketing
- 6. B2B Ecommerce TrendsTo Keep In Mind 360 degree view of the customer Insourcing of Digital Marketing Complex MarTech stack Analytics!Analytics!Analytics! Digital and mobile first ProgressiveWeb Applications AI andVoice Search Marketplaces
- 7. Skills Required on B2B Marketing Teams to Keep Up & Leap Frog Customer centricity Problem Solvers Data Driven Technology Savvy Learner Agile Marketing
- 8. Can B2C digital marketers make the transition to B2B? YESThey Can* * Candidate Biases: 1. I’m not sure I’m equipped with the proper skills to make the transition. * Company Biases: 1. Once a B2Cer always a B2Cer
- 9. HowTo Overcome Employer Biases … Job description Interview structure
- 10. Potential ExceptionsTo The Rule… Companies that serve industries with high levels of compliance & regulation Companies that market and sell highly customized products The WHAMMY….. Custom product that is highly regulated! Regulation Customization
- 11. Compensation Considerations Base Compensation All things equal, B2B salaries higher than B2C: 5 to 10% differential Variable Compensation Bonuses vary based on company and industry
- 12. Key Factors for Success… For Candidates…. Motivation to learn Ability to ramp up quickly Adaptation Adding value to the job For Companies…. Hire for fit, teach skills Customer centric candidates always add value Passion for the trade ensures continuous learning
- 13. TheWord on theStreet… The learning curve is definitely NOT insurmountable Once a marketer, always a marketer I actually found it harder to go from B2B to B2C - Advocates “ “ You can hire for talent, but you must train for skills Developing effective B2B strategy requires prior experience Lack of experience in the “considered purchase” characteristics of B2B is problematic - Doubters “ “ Our buyers are also consumers. What they see on B2C sites they’ve come to expect with B2B It’s a case by case basis - 50/50 “ “
- 14. TheVerdict B2B is just a flavor…… Business concepts are similar….. Not all customers have the same value Customer behavior changes over time All competitors will react Resources are limited and must be prioritized
- 15. Thank you… Jerry Bernhart Principle, Bernhart Associates 29 years recruiting in Marketing MarketingTechnology eCommerce/Digital CRM Multichannel Direct Response www bernhart.com jerry@bernhart.com 507-451-4270 Meeta Kratz VP Marketing & Ecommerce, Workplace Safety Division, Brady Corp. 20 year Marketing & Digital Leader Brand Customer Segmentation Ecommerce Omni Channel Marketing Direct Response • Business Advisor • www.linkedin.com/meetakratz
Editor's Notes
- JERRY Thank you everyone for joining us this morning. We’re delighted to be hosting this first of its kind session on career transition from B2C to B2B. My name is Jerry Bernhart, I own Bernhart Associates Executive Search, and I am joined today by my esteemed colleague, Meeta Kratz, who is Vice President of Marketing and Ecommerce of the Workplace Safety Division of the Brady Corporation, which is a global multi-billion dollar B2B business. Her previous experience includes leadership roles with such B2B companies as Grainger, Zebra Technologies and Labelmaster. Together, our combined experience gives us a unique perspective on hiring trends in B2B. During the 35 years I have been recruiting and placing B2B’ers, I’ve worked with thousands of candidates who have made the change from B2C, many of them multiple times during the course of their careers, and I’ve talked with hundreds of employers who often struggle with the idea of hiring someone who is predominately B2C into their mission critical B2B roles. What is bringing this more to the forefront is the hyper-competitive labor market we’re in right now. The tremendous demand for marketing talent is causing candidate pools to shrink, and in some areas, employers are really strapped to find experienced B2B’ers. So, I sometimes find myself talking with B2B hiring manages about candidates with strong B2C backgrounds, who have less than the ideal B2B experience that these employers are looking for. This begs the question: Can B2C’ers successfully make this transition, and can employers benefit by hiring them?
- JERRY So, I set out to do some informal research on this topic. I posted this question to my LinkedIn network: Can B2C’ers successfully transition to B2B? Pretty straightforward. Boy was I surprised at the response- more than 125 comments in all. Enough to make it go viral within my network. So why all the interest? Because many have heard it said that once a B2C’er always a B2C’er, and many were anxious to share their experiences. Of the 128 responses, only three said it was flat out not possible. A few others cautioned that there are complexities that can seriously trip up someone who’s accustomed to B2C (which we will discuss later in the presentation), but the vast majority said it’s no maginot line, and in fact, many had gone both ways more than once during their careers, and I’m going to share some of those comments later in the session. Meeta, as the expert practitioner, will talk to us about the business perspective and trends to keep in mind both for employers and candidates.
- MEETA https://www.forrester.com/report/US+B2B+eCommerce+Will+Hit+18+Trillion+By+2023/-/E-RES136173 Exceeding predictions by almost 20%
- MEETA B2B: Longer complex sales cycles Don’t offer instant gratification like in B2C Tech stack tools are the same uses are different based on the longer more complex buyers journey Value based selling/ Relationship Based Customer specific pricing Often requires multi tenant digital environment Logged in pricing Market baskets EDI Punch out – Purchasing without leaving the system Tax rates Regulation Multi Chanel Sales Environment Sales Customer Services Market places Offline marketing – Catalog?? Catalog is not dead. USPS conducted a study in 2017 showing that 77% of Millennials pay attention to direct mail advertising… 64% would rather look at relevant direct mail than an email communication Distribution stack From basic resellers to integrated services providers this channel is more complex than most B2C go to market models Have to keep the end user in mind Must create value for both the distributor and the end user (Enabling the distributor to sell) Their job is to provide end users choice, B2B marketers are required to make it easy for their distributors to show value to their end users using YOUR product At the end of the day the customer journey is different for B2B vs B2C consumers
- MEETA In 2012 Forbes predicted that CMOs will spend more on IT than CIOs- Gartner proved that the prediction came true in 2017 https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/insights/articles/cmos-spend-more-on-technology-than-talent
- MEETA Team point of view….. Insourcing (always on): SEO, Content, email, Social Outsourcing: Paid, App dev, display, web design and build, campaign content/ assets Technology point of view ….. MarTech: 1/3 of technology leaders are using 10-12 different pieces of technology– GARTNER???
- MEETA Customer centricity is one of the things that is bringing the B2B and B2C marketing worlds closer together. B2B did not traditionally have the data or the techstack to address things like personalization.. That has changed due to data collection methods and big data collection and insight development. (MEETA THROWS TO JERRY)
- JERRY So this leads us to the big question we’re here to address: Can B2C digital marketers make the transition to B2B? The evidence definitely points to yes, but with an asterisk. In fact there are TWO asterisks, and the first one has to do with a particular bias that gets in the way of B2C CANDIDATES moving into these roles. Specifically, the, “I’m just not really sure I’m equipped with the proper skills and know-how to make this transition,” bias. Some rule out attractive opportunities and don’t even apply because they feel it’s insurmountable. As we saw earlier, those with the right transferable skills and abilities, and perhaps most importantly, the DESIRE, can certainly succeed in B2B environments. It is actually a real rarity that I get a call from a candidate with a B2B’er, who is beginning a job search because they left a B2C position and now they’re struggling. They’re up to the challenge, they understand there is a learning curve, and in fact many B2C candidates pursue B2B roles because they specifically want to learn that side of the fence. On the company side: Employers eliminate qualified candidates with needed skills because of the belief that “once a B2C’er, always a B2C’er.” . Let’s talk about ways to OVERCOME this employer bias.
- JERRY Overcoming employer biases can be done in two ways: Through the job description and through the interview. As far as the job description goes, you need to get rid of the kitchen sink, and listing mandatory years of B2B experience. Talk about what success looks like. What does the candidate need to do to achieve that success? I don’t even like the label of job description. They should really be more like performance profiles. That takes a much different orientation. Writing the best job description is both an art and a science, but that’s really where it all begins. Then there’s the interview structure. Most interviews are fluid. They go with the flow. Questions designed to get particular information about a specific candidate are only appropriate in the context of a core set of questions asked of all candidates. Asking different questions of each candidate leads to a skewed assessment of who would best perform the job, and unfortunately, that’s how the process is most often conducted, particulalry when you start getting 3 or 4 or 5 people involved in interviewing the candidate. This can also shape a company culture both negatively and positively. People tend to like people like themselves, they tend to hire people in their own image. This is where the B2B bias creeps in. Pretty soon you have a very homogeneous marketing team. We hear about the “consumerization” of B2B, and B2C’ers are probably playing a role in that transition. They can help introduce or reinforce this consumerization in the B2B environment. These candidates know what a personalized omnichannel experience should look like! As you can tell, I am a big fan of standardized interviews when multiple stakeholders are involved. Now all of this being said, not all B2B verticals are created equal. I’ll let Meeta weigh in on that.
- MEETA (MEETA THROWS TO JERRY)
- JERRY Now, everyone asks about compensation of course, and I decided to do some research on that topic as well. I went back and dug out several years worth of B2B search assignments, and compared old salary with new salary for the candidates I placed. We’re not talking about a particularly large sample here, but it’s big enough to show a trend. Not surprisingly, B2B salaries tend to be higher than their B2C counterparts for several reasons: B2B is more complex for all of the reasons we know. Supply vs. demand (About 70% of the US economy is driven by consumer spending while approx 15-20% is B2B. The remainder is local, state and federal government) Geographic Factors DEFINITELY COME INTO PLAY. (Companies in remote locations, of course, face sometimes very stiff challenges finding and attracting B2B talent. Some clients of mine are adopting remote working arrangements, and some have even moved their operations to larger markets) As far as performance bonuses go, they are truly all over the map. 1. Bonus programs are relatively newer in B2B digital commerce vs B2C, 2. … and as a result, there’s sometimes less clarity on how success is measured. There are plenty of ways to measure it, but this is new concept for B2B’ers who are transforming their businesses, and creating new roles and sometimes entirely new teams.
- JERRY So, what are some of the key factors for being successful on the B2B side, other than pure functional and technical know-how? 1- Motivation to learn- we’ve kind of touched on that already. 2- Ramping up is something I hear a lot from employers. “Well, we think this particular candidate, because of their predominant B2C background, will require a much longer ramp up time . It is going to take us longer to recoup the investment in their hire”. Personally, I think that has more to do with product knowledge than their marketing skills. Typically, these companies already have the product expertise. What they need is a seasoned professional who know how to MARKET those products through digital channels. 3- Adaptation. Nothing extra needs to be said here. 4- Adding value to the job. One great way to find out how you can add more value is to ask the hiring manager: “In your words, what are the 3 to 5 key things this person needs to accomplish to be successful in this job?” Quite often you will hear something that is not emphasized on the JD, but clearly, is important to the hiring manager. Another way to ask it: “What would I need to do in order to exceed goals?” On the Employer side: 1- Hire for fit. I do a lot of confidential replacement searches, and I hear it all: The incumbent is underperforming, he or she is not motivated, they just don’t fit in with how we do things here. But then that person goes on to their next opportunity, and they hit it out of the park. Happens all the time. Between the time they left their old job and started their new one, do they suddenly become a lot smarter? Do they suddenly becomes experts in more tools and technology? I think we know the answer:. They find a culture that will bring out the best in the them. That can manifest itself in many ways- your boss, the values of the business, how employees are treated, the ability to improve your skills, risk-taking, etc. 2- Customer-centric candidates always add value. Of course 3- Passion for the trade. Obviously, your heart has to be in it.
- JERRY At the beginning of the presentation I talked about my posting and how it generated a ton of responses, so I thought I’d share a few of those with you.
- JERRY So in conclusion, B2B is a flavor of marketing, but the business concepts are similar to B2C. Namely: -Not all customers have the same value: The 80/20 rule: 20% of B2B customers, just like in B2C, account for 80% of sales. -Customer behavior changes over time: The fundamental nature of consumer behavior tends not to change drastically from year to year, but customer mindsets have a considerable impact when it comes to making purchasing decisions, and we all know how purchasing decisions can change very suddenly in both B2B and B2C. -All competitors will react -Resources are limited and must be prioritized