Why Decision Makers Are Scared Of You (And What To Do About It) with Michael Haynes

When it comes to B2B marketing, your biggest competitor is status quo. Michael Haynes joins Stewart Hillhouse to explain that a marketers greatest super power right now is the ability to listen.

Who's The Guest?

👤 Name: Michael Haynes

💪 What They Do: Michael is a marketing strategist, author, and B2B customer acquisition strategist.

🌐 Michael on the web: LinkedIn | Book: Listen, Innovate, Grow | Website

🧠 Best Advice: More often than not, the competition is not another business or product. The real competition is the Status Quo

Episode Takeaways

A short summary of the most actionable takeaways and best advice of the episode.

The 4 Things That B2B Buyers Are Looking For Right Now

1. Insights - Advice and guidance to what they should be doing to generate revenue in short and medium term, but also put them in good position for long term
2. Actionable Solutions - You must be able to answer "How is the work going to benefit me in terms of revenue generation?"
3. Collaboration - Talk with peers about what they're doing and getting guidance on direction
4. Not To Be Sold To - Don't put your target customer under pressure. They want to do things on their own terms

Be An Advisor To Your Target Customer

In your content, show your prospect the alternatives that are available. Trends that you're paying attention to. Act like an advisor, rather than a sales-person.

What's more, share stories of implementation and support that others in their industry are experiencing (either from you or not). Provide them real value, especially about what's going to happen once things get rolling. Earn their trust (but please don't break it).

To Understand Your Customer, You Need To Be Listening on Three Levels:

1. Market Level: Know the market you're going after like the back of your hand. 🔑 Key things to identify: drivers and priorities in the industry
2. Company Level: Do your research to know what's going on inside the company. 🔑 Key things to identify: what are their challenges and what they're trying to accomplish
3. Personal Level: Map out the hierarchy of the company to ensure you're talking to the right person. 🔑 Key things to identify: who they are, what are their priorities, how to get at them

Talk To Your Customers To Understand Where They Are Right Now

You need to be talking to some of your current customers and prospects to understand where they're at now. You need to be clear on what are their priorities? What is it that they need? That has to be done now, full stop, because you need to understand where things are at right now.

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