The Thought Bank Buyer Cycle Revolution 2010

The Thought Bank
Thought Leadership that Pays Dividends www.TheThoughtBank.com

Understanding
The Buyer Cycle Revolution

Thought Leadership Content Marketing

Buyer Cycle
Selling

Lead Generation
Social Media Channels
& Management

A Strategic Roadmap

The Thought Bank
Thought Leadership That Pays Dividends www.TheThoughtBank.com

Buyers are revolting against
traditional sales methods…
_

…and it’s going to take more than
just social media to engage & sell
to them…

The Thought Bank

It’s going to take a new way of selling…

…a new way of engaging with buyers…

The Thought Bank

It’s going to take the creation of an
integrated B2B or B2C Buyer Cycle
Selling Strategy

The Thought Bank

Traditional Sales Cycle selling VS. New Buyer Cycle Selling..

Old Model New Model
Buyer engages sales early in the buying cycle (by necessity) Buyer engages seller late in the buying cycle

Seller has control of information Buyer has more control of information earlier on in
buying cycle

Focus on convincing & persuading Focus on delivering objective information in a
Permission- oriented manner that addresses buyer
Focus on seller requirements for offers of needs and issues
feature & benefits
Seller engages earlier on with buyer thru use of thought
leadership content relevant to market and buyer issues
Repetitive touch points - contacting buyer randomly only to
find out if buyer is ready to purchase
Personalized Buyer cycle touch point engagement

Main delivery channels: DM, email, ads -broadcast; print; Main delivery channels; online/social media platforms –
online, events events, and all other traditional channels

The Thought Bank

..while overall business expectations remain the same

The need to A focus on overall
determine Marketing organizational revenue
& Sales ROI - an growth/profitability,
understanding of how particularly in a
marketing programs recessionary climate
contribute to the
financial bottom line

The Thought Bank

..so how do you begin to leverage this new buyer cycle selling
strategy for maximum bottom line results?


Buyer Cycle
Selling
Lead Generation
& Management

The Thought Bank

Why is it essential to develop a Thought Leadership position?

Prospective They exchange They do all
Buyers spend information with
that long
a lot of time their peers on
before they
online, researching Social forums & platforms
even consider talking
– and it’s not just such as Twitter, LinkedIn,
to a Sales Reps
your website… Facebook, and
a multitude of
Blogs

Part of the Buyer’s Cycle

The Thought Bank

Thought Leadership gets buyers’ attention EARLY in the
• buyer cycle process…

The Thought Bank

What are the critical elements of Thought Leadership?

• Thought leadership centers on earning trust and credibility

• This is earned through the delivery of unique, relevant and captivating
content; information, insights and ideas

• It positions you over time as an industry authority, resource and trusted
advisor
“Simple, great thought leadership means never having to ‘pitch’ or
’sell’ for business. You become a trusted advisor, counselor
and partner, not just a vendor.”

Gautam Ghosh - Accenture

The Thought Bank

Thought leadership evolves as markets evolve –
It isn’t just about delivering white papers
Market maturity
Partnerships with other thought leaders

sponsorships
HIGH Business games - concepts

Unique content development

Events Community content development

3rd party research
LOW White papers

Content curation

1
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4
Time
Thought Leadership Content & Development Strategy over Time

The Thought Bank

Thought Leadership Marketing Tops B2B Marketers’ lists…

"Traditional approaches to B2B marketing are losing their impact.

Today, B2B marketers are turning towards thought leadership as a way to
differentiate their products and services in an increasingly competitive
market.“
- Survey, Economist Intelligence Unit, 2008

The Thought Bank

…as among their top objectives over the next 3-5 years
56% of survey sample ranked 'positioning their company as a thought
leader' as their top priority, second only to 'building new business.'

The Thought Bank

Follow with…


Buyer Cycle
Selling

Lead Generation
& Management

The Thought Bank

How can you use content marketing?

• Content marketing helps companies to educate their prospective buyers
while at the same time engaging with them during the evaluation process

• By combining thought leadership with content marketing you can
deliver the right information at the right time to buyers during the different
stages of their buying process which allows you to engage with them early
on and help move them forward in the purchase cycle

• You want to inspire people and have them talk about your brand. Brand
advocacy and driving peer recommendation is more critical now.

The Thought Bank

eMarketer predicts that the number of US user-generated
content creators will grow…
Up from 83 million in 2008, More important, rising from 116 million in 2008,
eMarketer estimates the number of UGC creators in 2013 the number of US Internet users consuming
will grow to 115 million in 2013 some form of UGC will reach 155 million

The Thought Bank

…survey results show - more branded content has been
created than ever before…

Marketers consider branded content more effective than other leading forms
of advertising and marketing
• More effective than TV advertising (70%)
• More effective than direct mail (61%)
• More effective than PR (57%)

Total spending on branded content: over $1.8 million per company
• Print publications (51%)
• Internet media (27%
• Video/audio (22%)

–Study, Custom Publishing Council (CPC), 2009

The Thought Bank

Content: Create online business games that engage B2B
buyers and generate qualified leads…
Buying Stages Where Use of Online Games is Considered Relevant

Evaluation-Implementation Scenarios = 60%
Building A Business Case = 58%
General Education = 55%
Shortlist Creation = 43%
Final Decisions = 36%
Source Survey: IDG Connect 2010

The Thought Bank

Content should be optimized for SEO purposes – as inbound
links will help elevate your ranking in the search engines…

Source: TopRank Marketing

The Thought Bank

Deliver via…


Buyer Cycle
Selling

Lead Generation
& Management

The Thought Bank

Deliver & market your content via ALL available channels, but
increasingly focus on Social Media outreach – WHY?

• There is a growing trend away from traditional advertising and media
channels to user generated content

• Prospects use social media channels more and more to do their research,
and long before they are ready to engage with your sales force

• Prospects and clients increasingly exchange information about you and
your competitors’ services via these channels

• Social media channels allow you to interact and engage directly with your
audience – and it won’t be long before this engagement will be an
expectation from your customers and prospects

• Inbound marketing leads will come primarily from these sources

The Thought Bank

Branded content marketing programs using social media
channels are on the rise

The Thought Bank

Word-of-mouth marketing can be done most effectively using
social media channels…

The Thought Bank
www.TheThoughtBank.com
Thought Leadership That Pays Dividends

• Thought Leadership Content Distribution Model
Social
Corporate networks
News
Letter(s) Micro
blogging
Website
or blogs
portal
Corporate
Blog(s) video
Doc
sharing

Photo
sharing
Conversion
points
podcasts

communities

widgets

Book
Source: The Thought Bank, LLC marking

The Thought Bank

Increase ROI with…


Buyer Cycle
Selling

Lead Generation
& Management

The Thought Bank

Buyer Cycle Selling: Thought leadership content marketing
allows for buyer-cycle touch points…

The Thought Bank

… prospects enter the buying cycle long before they’re even
on a vendor’s ‘radar screen’

Buyer Cycle Touch Points
Online Visits Follows Visits
market corporate Downloads Registers for
Twitter feed website
research blog white paper webinar/demo

Thought leadership opportunity
Contact
data entered

Vendor response

The Thought Bank

Focus on the Buyer Cycle vs. the Sales Cycle – WHY?
It will give you a better understanding of:

• How Customers & Prospects want to buy
• Which information they need at various
points in the buying cycle
• You will be pro-active, and won’t be waiting
to engage them only at the point of purchase
– this will help move them forward faster in
the buying cycle

The Thought Bank

• So instead of focusing exclusively on how to meet sales
quota..

Ready to sign
the
contract yet?
Well…

Uh oh, need to get
out of here fast…

The Thought Bank

…think of reaching sales objectives by meeting buyer needs
•
first…
I believe
this is the information
you have been looking This is great!
for…

Wow, finally
a company that gets me
what I need, and isn’t
bugging me with a ton of
calls and emails before
I’m ready
to buy…

The Thought Bank

• …entering the close phase with an educated buyer AND seller

…here are the proposal …yes, this exactly fits our needs!
options based on your You’ve really helped me
feedback … with my research…

…these guys have shown
they know this market…

The Thought Bank

How and to what degree will this impact the bottom line?
• Lead Management: Integrating Lead Generation & Nurturing
Programs into the Buyer Sales Cycle is a Critical Component
– It allows for the identification, qualification, routing and nurturing
of prospective leads with the appropriate follow up activity

– Automated Lead tracking allows for visibility into / and
engagement with prospects during the various stages of the
buying cycle process

– It will make clear what prospect interests are, which will enable
you to deliver the right content at the right time in the buying
cycle

– Your company can then hand off qualified leads to the sales
department at the right time, increasing the efficiency of sales

The Thought Bank

5 Key Points for Effectively Integrating Sales & Marketing

Sales

Agreement Incentives for Unified Marketing needs
Agreement
on What = Sales to Contact to include
what = Database Sales in the
Effective to provide
Qualified marketing To avoid creation of
Collateral
Lead with reporting duplication Buyer
on Lead Offers
follow up

Marketing

The Thought Bank
www.TheThoughtBank.com
Thought Leadership That Pays Dividends

Leverage Buyer Cycle Selling for maximum ROI…


Buyer Cycle
Selling
Lead Generation
& Management

The Thought Bank

Our Mission

Helping companies become market leaders and
corporate social citizens via thought leadership
programs that leverage new trends

We do this through the creation and distribution of thought
leadership content that ties directly into lead management systems
to grow sales and determine ROI

The Thought Bank

Who we are

Natalie L. Wood Stephen Debruyn
President SVP, Marketing Services

PRACTICE AREAS: PRACTICE AREAS:

Thought leadership development Strategy & marketing consulting

Business trends: research & events Social media integration

Content marketing Content distribution

Sales strategies & lead Social media monitoring
management

The Thought Bank

Our solutions

• Thought Leadership Strategy, Development & Execution

• Content Creation and Marketing

• Content Distribution using Social Media Channels

• Integrated Lead Management – Lead Generation/Nurturing

• Thought Leadership Events

The Thought Bank

For more information on how your company can leverage Buyer Cycle Selling
and develop a thought leadership marketing position
that delivers bottom-line results,
please contact us at:

The Thought Bank, LLC
Phone: 415.425.7124
Web: www.thethoughtbank.com

Contact:
Natalie L. Wood – President, email: natalie@thethoughtbank.com
Stephen Debruyn – SVP, Marketing Services, email: stephen@thethoughtbank.com

Thank You!

The Thought Bank Buyer Cycle Revolution 2010

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