Scale Your B2B Customer Obsession With A Go ... -...

Scale Your B2B Customer Obsession With A Go-To-Customer StrategyStrategic Plan: The B2B Marketing Playbook

by Lori WizdoAugust 1, 2016

For B2B MArketing ProFessionALs

fOrreSTer.COM

key takeawaysB2B Marketers Struggle To Make The Pivot To Customer ObsessionB2B marketers must develop a customer-centric engagement strategy to win, serve, and retain customers in the age of the customer. But organizational silos splinter customer experience, customer insight is fragmented and incomplete, and product-centric go-to-market strategies still dominate.

The Go-To-Customer Strategy Paves The Path To Customer ObsessionB2B leaders need a new planning construct to develop customer-obsessed engagement strategies that they can execute across existing organizational boundaries without totally disrupting those boundaries. By providing high-level insight into buyer behavior patterns, the go-to-Customer strategy Matrix enables this pivot — at scale.

Why read this reportB2B marketers know they need to operate across their sales and marketing silos, going beyond portfolio-centric campaigns to connect with buyers via content that engages across the entire life cycle. But they are challenged by complex product and solution portfolios, flummoxed by the diversity of B2B buyers, and hamstrung by organizational silos. in this report, we detail Forrester’s go-to-Customer (gtC) strategy Matrix to help B2B marketers engineer a go-to-customer strategy that aligns marketing, sales, and service on the path to customer obsession at scale.

this is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and revises its research periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.

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© 2016 Forrester research, inc. opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®, technographics®, Forrester Wave, roleView, techradar, and total economic impact are trademarks of Forrester research, inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378

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table of Contents

B2B Marketers Struggle With The Pivot To Customer Obsession

The Go-To-Customer Strategy Matrix Accelerates The Customer Pivot

the B2B go-to-Customer strategy Matrix reveals Four Unique Buying Archetypes

Buying Archetypes Help You Develop Your go-to-Customer strategy

Buying Archetypes Help You Align sales And Marketing engagement strategies

recommendations

Use Buying Archetypes To Create An Integrated Customer Experience

notes & resources

in preparation for this report, Forrester interviewed a mix of B2B marketing executives, marketing automation vendors, and B2B marketing services/implementation agencies.

related research Documents

Death of A (B2B) salesman

Develop Your revenue growth And Acceleration strategy

Make Your B2B Marketing thrive in the Age of the Customer

For B2B MArketing ProFessionALs

Scale Your B2B Customer Obsession With A Go-To-Customer StrategyStrategic Plan: The B2B Marketing Playbook

by Lori Wizdowith Peter o’neill, tim Harmon, Laura ramos, Mary shea, Jacob Milender, Matthew Camuso, and rachel Birrell

August 1, 2016

http://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=RES122288





http://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=BIO2752





For B2B Marketing ProFessionals

Scale Your B2B Customer Obsession With A Go-To-Customer Strategyaugust 1, 2016

© 2016 Forrester research, inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378

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Strategic Plan: The B2B Marketing Playbook

B2B Marketers struggle With the Pivot to Customer obsession

“At my mid-year marketing summit, when i was pontificating on our transformation to customer obsession, i looked out at the sea of nodding heads and spotted my direct reports each mentally stepping up to the challenge of getting customer-obsessed in their product, industry, channel, and geographic silos. And i realized the problem was not vision, but strategy.” (CMo, global technology vendor)

B2B marketing execs are not in denial. they understand that 74% of business buyers conduct more than half of their research online before making an offline purchase and that 59% of those same business buyers prefer not to interact with a sales rep as their primary source of information.1 they know they need a cross-channel, customer-obsessed strategy to engage with buyers who proactively seek the information they need — through digital and social channels, from peers, on Youtube, at events — to advance their decision process. they know they need to transform from an inside-out (company, product service) perspective to an outside-in (customer, outcome, context) perspective. Forrester has long recommended that B2B marketers recalibrate their marketing strategies to the buyer’s journey as defined by the customer life cycle.2 But buyer journey mapping can quickly become unwieldy for many B2B marketers because it:

› Can be complicated for highly considered purchases. Business purchase decisions have legacy characteristics that make journey mapping a rigorous process, such as extended purchase time frames, large influencer networks, and complex decision criteria and channel choices. But as business buyers take on more consumer behaviors, the journey becomes more social, more mobile, and more real-time. Decision-making is also becoming more democratized, with a wider range of engaged stakeholders. As the number of variables increase, so does the complexity of each buyer journey map.

› Is difficult to scale. Unfortunately, time, cost, and complexity limit the scope and depth of the buyer journey analysis that most marketers can achieve. even for companies with small portfolios, journey mapping becomes unwieldy very quickly. For large companies with large portfolios, it’s completely intractable. thus, it’s difficult for B2B companies to implement customer-obsessed strategies at scale. the CMo at one global technology vendor described the reality: “We have five product lines, each of which has two to three different solutions that are sold to one or two different stakeholders for two to five different pains or outcomes. it doesn’t take a ‘mathlete’ to figure out that my team can neither build nor leverage buyer journey mapping effectively in our marketing program.”

the go-to-Customer strategy Matrix Accelerates the Customer Pivot

B2B companies can benefit from a new planning construct to develop customer-obsessed engagement strategies at scale. Forrester’s go-to-Customer (gtC) strategy Matrix helps B2B marketers lead their organizations through the wrenching pivot from an internal to a customer focus. our gtC strategy Matrix leverages two readily accessible contextual factors that you can use to reliably model the buyer journey for a great majority of B2B buying decisions (see Figure 1):




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› Solution complexity — a composite proxy for knowledge transfer. A solution can be complex because it’s new and doesn’t have a large body of codified knowledge or because of its architecture, design, features, or delivery model. B2B buyers thoroughly research their buying decisions, and they will seek knowledge from different channels depending on the complexity of the solutions. For less complex products, buyers prefer digital information. But the very real trend of the “self-educating buyer” doesn’t remove the need for business decision-makers to have clarifying conversations with salespeople when considering innovative, complex, or disruptive solutions. sometimes, it just takes the human factor to connect the dots for the buyer.

› Decision complexity — a composite of risk, stakeholders, and scope of change. Value isn’t created in the lab, the design studio, or the manufacturing plant. Value is created when buyers use, implement, or consume your product or service. solutions that require significant process or cultural change result in longer buying cycles for two reasons: 1) they involve more stakeholders and 2) today’s savvy buyers create the value realization plan before they commit to an investment. A more complex buying process creates longer sales cycles and raises the need for a collaborative customer engagement strategy between sales and marketing.




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fIGUre 1 Forrester’s B2B go-to-Customer strategy Matrix Leverages two readily Accessible Contexts

Solution complexity:

• Market maturity• Design sophistication• Knowledge transfer from

seller to buyer

Decision complexity:

• Risk• Stakeholders• Process change• Cost

Com

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xity

of t

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Complexity of the buyer’s decision process

The B2B Go-To-Customer Strategy Matrix reveals four Unique Buying Archetypes

When mapped on a two-by-two matrix, these two factors — solution complexity and decision complexity — help B2B marketers map their portfolio offerings into four unique zones, each with relatively predictable patterns of buying behaviors and proclivities. We call these patterns buying archetypes, and we have identified four that have very different patterns in each zone (see Figure 2):

› Procurement represents low solution complexity and low buying process complexity. these conditions often accompany a mature market segment. Procurers are comfortable with the decision process; they often have a defined decision-making model for purchase. the return on investment depends more on features and capabilities than on how buyers use or implement the product or solution. these decisions are low-risk, and the buying process can be fairly quick. Buyers in this zone have usually done considerable solution research online. sample decisions




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that fall into this buying archetype include changing shipping providers from Fedex to UPs; buying material, repair, and operations (Mro) supplies; sourcing new laptops to a defined corporate standard; or deploying departmental productivity tools.

› Improvement represents low solution complexity and high buying process complexity. improvers take their time making decisions that involve significant business disruption, transformation, or change — even when the solution, product, or service is quite simple. that’s because these decisions can be high-risk. the decision might trigger a lot of process or cultural change and therefore require building significant consensus before making a commitment. sometimes, the decision simply needs to wait for the next budget cycle, as there is no compelling reason to act immediately. sample decisions that fall into this category include migrating legacy applications to a private cloud; outsourcing a noncore process like payroll or receivables collection; or hiring a new digital marketing agency.

› Transformation represents high solution and high buying process complexity. generally, we find this buying archetype in new or emerging markets, particularly if the solution is disruptive. transformers are often aware of the business problem or opportunity that requires change, but they are unaware of the range of solutions to that problem. these are generally high-risk decisions. some sample decisions that fall into this buying archetype include deploying an entirely new business solution like PLM or supply chain; outsourcing a critical business function; digitizing healthcare information records; or sourcing highly engineered equipment and a physical plant.

› reaction represents high solution complexity and low buying process complexity. Buyers in this zone make relatively quick decisions to purchase rather complex solutions because they are generally responding to an external change, such as a competitive disruption or a change in industry regulation or tax policies, or an internal stimulus like a Ceo’s mandate to cut costs or expand quickly. reactors are aware of the problem they face, but they may not understand all the implications and risks of the choices they are about to make, so it’s difficult for them to grasp the potentially differentiating nuances of a particular solution. some sample decisions that fall into this buyer archetype include buying a compliance reporting system or implementing security software after a recent attack.




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fIGUre 2 Forrester’s B2B go-to-Customer strategy Matrix reveals Four Buying Archetypes


Com

ple

xity

of t

he s

olut

ion

Transformation

Procurement Improvement

Buying MROsupplies

Migrating legacy appsto a private cloud

BPO of noncorefunctions andprocesses

Digital presencetechnology inhealthcare

Security softwarewithout recentincidents

Tech marketingautomation in2005

Compliancesolutions

Security softwareafter attack

Tech marketingautomation in 2015

Reaction

Moving fromon-premises toSaaS apps

High

HighLow

Buying Archetypes Help You Develop Your Go-To-Customer Strategy

“Progressive clients are looking for an organizing principle to integrate their company across departmental silos so they can create a shared view and understanding of their customer. this is even more important now that point technology solutions are strengthening silos, not breaking them down.” (Heidi Dethloff, vice president of client success, Babcock & Jenkins)

in practice, the gtC strategy Matrix works for a number of reasons. it’s a simple framework that you can easily socialize within diverse teams and across even more diverse organizational divides. Like any framework, it instantly aligns a team so that members can analyze the situation in the same way, which greatly accelerates the decision-making process. Most importantly, the buyer journey patterns provide a basis for marketing planning and sales marketing/alignment because the archetype modeling reliably predicts a number of buying process contexts (see Figure 3). And this helps B2B marketers make — or at least discuss — multiple strategic decisions, such as:




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› Sales channel decisions. each buying archetype has a proclivity for a particular channel strategy. Procurers align well with telesales or an eCommerce channel. transformers are best addressed with a consultative field sales force, perhaps that of a consultant or systems integrator. systems integrators, value-added resellers (VArs), and brokers can complement or supplant the field sales force for reactors and improvers. the gtC strategy Matrix can accelerate some tough channel decisions. Moreover, channel partners grapple with these distribution channel questions as well; in an ideal world, B2B companies align with their channel partners in employing a gtC model strategy.

› Influencer marketing and advocate engagement strategies. Buyers seek advice from other people at some point in the buying process and during their lifetime as a customer. But who they turn to, and when and where, vary considerably by archetype. For example, Forrester’s early research into the buyer journeys of these archetypes indicates that reactors seek information from peers in the discovery phase of the customer life cycle, while transformers turn to analysts and industry thought leaders.3

› Thought leadership and content marketing strategies. Among marketing leaders, 86% admit that their content marketing is only somewhat effective at creating business value.4 one reason is most marketers create content without a strategy or adequate governance. Buying archetypes help shed light on different requirements. thought leadership content is the hook that attracts transformers. improvers need planning tools, tips, tricks, and evaluation models. And guess what? it’s ok to give Procurers content about product benefits, technical differentiators, and how-to/integration insight early in the buyer journey.

› Marketing tactics across the lead-to-revenue process. B2B marketers are struggling to integrate a proliferating portfolio of tactics and channels into the marketing mix. extrapolating from the buyer contexts exposed in the gtC strategy Matrix, lead-to-revenue marketers can make informed judgments about which tactics are critical engagement strategies for certain buyers and which completely different tactics are the right hand to play with other buyers.5

› Onboarding and postsale relationship building. After the purchase decision, transformers and reactors must connect with similar peers to share their ideas and amplify their passion to continue to lead change. informers need to connect with a vibrant digital community to share best-practice ideas, tips, and tricks. At the same time, Procurers will probably be happiest with a robust, well-indexed, and searchable knowledge base.




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fIGUre 3 Forrester’s Buying Archetypes reliably Predict Buyer Context

High

HighLow

Adoption: rare

Available knowledge: with experts

Risks and dependencies: unknown

Source of ROI: innovation

Stakeholders: few

Process change: lowBudget: created for procurement

Driver: strategic business need

Adoption: in segments

Available knowledge: copious

Risks and dependencies: known, high

Source of ROI: enable process change

Stakeholders: many

Process change: highBudget: planned for next cycle

Driver: ongoing improvement

Adoption: emerging

Available knowledge: scarce

Risks and dependencies: unknown

Source of ROI: use of product

Stakeholders: many

Process change: highBudget: reallocated

Driver: business imperative

Adoption: widespread

Available knowledge: codified

Risks and dependencies: known, low

Source of ROI: product features

Stakeholders: few

Process change: noneBudget: existing line item

Driver: improve profit and loss (P&L)

Com

ple

xity

of t

he s

olut

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TransformationReaction


Buying Archetypes Help You Align Sales And Marketing engagement Strategies

“Forrester’s buying archetype approach creates a mind shift for both marketing communications and sales engagement. identifying the different types of buyer-supplier engagements that exist for different types of buyers provides a new basis from which to fine-tune both sales tactics and the communications mix in a more manageable way, with just four types versus a bewildering range of profiles that could arise in other persona-based models.” (nigel Pickford, director of market insight and marketing operations, sitA)

it’s possible that the root cause of the much-discussed issues around sales/marketing alignment is a deep rift in cultural values, belief systems, or competitive stakes. But it’s more likely that the rift exists because sales and marketing are two different organizations that exist to plan, execute, and optimize two different processes. Most B2B companies have clearly defined stage gates that determine who




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is responsible for customer engagement. these process disconnects disrupt the buyer’s journey. the secret to sales/marketing alignment is the customer. Buying archetypes can facilitate collaboration on the customer engagement process.6 As we delve into the dynamics of the gtC strategy Matrix, it’s easy to see how a different mix of sales and marketing engagement is appropriate for each archetype (see Figure 4).

› Procurers require a “serve me” dynamic. Procurers are the buying archetype most likely to educate themselves before making a decision. one example is an office supplies manager who is looking for a better supplier for office cleaning services. Marketing must act as “lead netters” and aim to capture late-stage leads from a stream of inbound web traffic; quickly qualify them via the traditional sales lead scoring criteria of budget, authority, need, and timing (BAnt); and escalate those leads to sales. Procurers are most appropriately paired with the order taker B2B seller archetype, who focuses on delivering quick and frictionless transactions. in many cases, though, Procurers are actually best served by a self-serve eCommerce website, rather than a salesperson.7

› Improvers require guidance through a slow and careful decision. improvers have generally decided on their course of action, but they operate in a more complex buyer environment — potentially with multiple internal stakeholders and budgets. Marketing needs to attract likely buyers and mentor those prospects through their long decision-making cycle with good content marketing and a nurturing strategy. generally, leads are promoted based on lead scoring, which emphasizes late-funnel behaviors. the navigator sales archetype is the best fit for improvers, because navigators specialize in mapping buying organizations and helping them find budgets and secure institutional buy-in.

› Transformers require the vendor to “enlighten” them. transformers are generally senior-level executives who aim to drive fundamental or disruptive change. Marketing needs to attract and capture transformers with thought leadership, influencer marketing, and executive programs. the Consultant seller archetype fits best with this archetype. Consultants are the most adept at understanding customer needs, connecting those needs to the company’s products and services, and helping clients bring internal stakeholders and budget together to make purchases. However, the long evaluation cycle makes it difficult for salespeople, who are measured on tight quarterly goals, to sustain consistent engagement. therefore, marketing’s ongoing role is to steward the relationship with a coordinated nurturing program that builds brand credibility and trust.

› reactors require quick delivery of enough proof to act. reactors have budget and a commitment to action. You need to convince them quickly that a product or service will address their need. Marketing’s objective is to generate targeted leads with contextually relevant campaigns and content. Marketers promote these early-stage leads to sales but must first vet them against demographic criteria (e.g., industry or company size) and situational criteria (e.g., those affected by changing regulations). reactors need the explainer seller archetype to provide directly the requisite level of information about products and services prior to purchasing.




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fIGUre 4 Forrester’s Buying Archetypes Help Align Marketing And sales strategies

Buyer needs:“Enlighten me”

Buyer needs:“Show me”

Sellingchannel

Salesattributes

• Inside• Field

• Field• Inside

• Field• Field• Inside

• Engages in coin-operated behavior

• Delivers promptresponses

• Relies ondiscounting todrive urgency

• Maneuversthrough networks

• Maintains industryexpertise

• Understands howto “tin cup” forfunding

• Embracestechnology

• Shares new ideas• Analyzes data to

deliver insights

• Delivers expertdemos

• Provides creativebundling

• Leverages productexpertise


TransformationReaction

Salesarchetype • Order Taker

Sellingchannel

Salesattributes

Salesarchetype

Sellingchannel

Salesattributes

Salesarchetype

Sellingchannel

Salesattributes

Salesarchetype

• Explainer • Consultant

• Navigator

Buyer needs:“Serve me”

Buyer needs:“Guide me”

Complexity of the buyer dynamic

Co

mp

lexi

ty o

f th

e p

rod

uct

or

serv

ice




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recommendations

Use Buying Archetypes to Create An integrated Customer experience

Buying archetypes provide a meta-level buyer journey pattern that B2B marketing professionals can use as a template to scale their buyer analysis and understanding. to get started:

› Use the GTC Strategy Matrix to facilitate and accelerate decision-making. no doubt your portfolio provides value to many stakeholders in many ways. Use Forrester’s gtC strategy Matrix to think about your portfolio in terms of customers and outcomes, not products and capabilities. Map your portfolio to the matrix. Use the archetypes and corresponding engagement strategies to confidently make many of your marketing and sales choices without expending the time and effort that detailed buyer journey mapping requires.

› engage product management, sales, service, and channel partners in the discussion. Aligning with the gtC strategy Matrix leads to successful communication and collaboration. Avoid the tendency to develop your gtC strategy in a marketing vacuum and “throw it over the wall” to the rest of the organization. Don’t mistake publication for communication. if it’s not two-way, it’s not working. Use the gtC strategy Matrix to make marketing, sales, and service alignment part of your company’s DnA.

› Create personas and journey maps for the highest-value segments. Buying archetypes don’t replace personas or buyer journeys. in fact, one advantage of buying archetypes is that they provide an out-of-the-box hypothesis of a buyer journey that you can refine through further research and testing. reach out to your customer experience colleagues to develop a strategy that prioritizes the effort based on brand and business goals.

› Don’t let your passion for buyer centricity stop with archetypes. Create a culture that worships customer knowledge. You will only realize the full potential of your gtC pivot when you’ve calibrated all customer interactions to the customer’s current context and historical interaction with your company. Develop initiatives to gather real customer insight with buyer journey mapping and customer use case interviews. Citrix interviewed more than 50 customers across different personas to understand their end-to-end journey from awareness to advocacy. it then validated the journey with a mix of focus groups, quantitative studies, and internal workshops to incorporate employees’ perspectives. Always go back to the data.




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endnotes1 source: Forrester/internet retailer Q1 2015 Us B2B Buyer Channel Preferences online survey.

2 the following report demonstrates how the customer life cycle can provide the framework for marketing strategy and demonstrates how buyer journey mapping can help B2B marketers define an engagement strategy, before, during, and after the sale. Please see the “rethink Marketing in the Customer’s Context” Forrester report.

3 source: Forrester’s Business technographics® global Priorities And Journey survey, 2015.

4 in the Forrester/BMA/oMi May 2014 global Content Marketing Benchmark online survey of 113 B2B marketing leaders, 86% responded to the question, “During the past 12 months, how effectively have your content marketing efforts delivered business value?” with “somewhat effectively,” “neutral,” “somewhat ineffectively,” or “not effectively at all.” only 14% responded with “very effectively.” see the “Benchmark Your B2B Content Marketing strategy And Maturity” Forrester report.

5 As you set out to transform your L2r processes, you face a myriad of tactical decisions — from channels and staffing to tools. A good strategy will help you make the right choices, and a well-articulated strategic plan will keep you from having to endlessly explain those choices to tangentially engaged stakeholders and unengaged observers. see the “Develop Your revenue growth And Acceleration strategy” Forrester report.

6 the process of matching buyer and seller archetypes involves consideration of product and solution complexity as well as the complexity of the buyer’s decision process. the go-to-Customer strategy Matrix uses archetypes to define appropriate seller and buyer attributes, preferred engagement styles, and go-to-market channels. the characteristics of the sellers themselves and how they interact with buyers varies by archetype. see the “tune Your sales Force to enable Perfect Pitch” Forrester report.

http://forr.com/1einFan

http://www.forrester.com/Analyst-Advisory/-/E-MPL172










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7 Forrester forecasts that 1 million Us B2B salespeople will lose their jobs to self-service eCommerce by 2020. While B2B buyers overwhelmingly prefer to research, and increasingly buy, products and services via a self-service website, B2B sellers still force buyers to interact with their salespeople as part of the purchase process. see the “Death of A (B2B) salesman” Forrester report.



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