Making sure that your prospects are educated about your services can provide opportunities to acquire new customers and help B2B marketing efforts
Does your company fit the profile of a quality
B2B Service provider? When your prospects conduct research to find the right services to fill their needs, are you the answer? Doing a bit of your own research can help you fulfill your prospects' criteria for an ideal provider.
Education based B2B marketing works especially well in the B2B arena, but only if you are providing the right answers to your customers' most pressing questions.
Talking with your existing customers can provide some insight, but what about future customers, the ones who are still in the research stage?
One simple way to know what questions you should be prepared to answer is to read B2B marketing materials designed to help businesses find service providers.
If you offer e-commerce solutions, for example, do an Internet search for tips on choosing e-commerce services, or questions to ask an e-commerce provider.
This will help you learn about the most common concerns of your target market. If it seems that reputation and experience are a deciding factor for many prospects, you can be prepared with testimonials and referrals from your best clients.
Or maybe you anticipate a lot of questions about price. Can you offer easy financing terms to help close the deal?
When you closely align your offering with what your ideal client is looking for, your prospect won't need to search for the next best alternative.
In his book, The Personal MBA, Josh Kaufman highlights this point, saying, Understanding the other party's Next Best Alternative gives you a major sales advantage: you can structure your agreement so it's more attractive than their next best option.
The more you know about the other party's alternatives, the more attractively you can frame your total offer by bundling or un-bundling various options.