The so-called “consumerization” of B2B marketing has given rise to countless excited blogs posts and articles proclaiming a new era in which B2B marketers have at long last come to embrace the new B2C revelation that customers are real human people and they like to be treated as such.
This tale has been re-told for quite some time (mostly by B2C types) and you’re guaranteed to hear a lot more of it in 2016.
But that’s the problem with stories. Just because they’re told doesn’t mean they’re true.
And in this case, the story is just plain wrong and that’s a problem.
Here’s what actually happened.
In recent years, B2C figured out how to have a conversation (rather than just grabbing attention by any means), and they’re excited because it works and people like it. And they think everyone should try their new and improved ideas.
Meanwhile, B2B has been busy perfecting the art of the conversation for about 100 years, and today they’re expanding the sales conversation more effectively and at a larger scale than ever before by taking it into the digital space.
So to talk about “consumerization of B2B” is to suggest that they just realized the importance of listening to customers, personalizing communications, being genuinely helpful, and building relationships.
But that kind of engagement is the life’s blood of B2B and aways has been. The only thing new here is that it’s increasingly happening online.
Why it matters
Though B2Bs are the masters of the conversation, many have been slow to adapt to the reality that the conversation itself has moved.
Today, the conversations that drive sales are happening predominantly online but many B2B companies have resisted joining in because it looks like foreign and risky territory.
Or when they do join in, they often get it wrong because they’re looking in the wrong places for guidance when they should be looking to themselves and their own long-held expertise.
You got this
As I pointed out in a previous post, What B2B Can Learn From B2C, your digital presence should reflect what you’d expect from your best salesperson.
And with readily available digital tools to analyze and profile your audience and personalize engagement at scale, it’s not that difficult to make the shift.
The new digital landscape isn’t a strange new world with odd customs. Well, it is, but not when it comes to sales and marketing, most of which is still firmly within the comfort zone of any B2B that knows how to treat customers like people.