How to Guarantee Success in the B2B Market

"B2B Sales and Marketing" isn't rocket science, but it is a science. That is, despite the fact that many people have been successful without advanced degrees, there are axioms, theories, data and formulas that govern the behavior of competitors, customers and markets. And knowing precisely how they work can lead directly to success.

Of course, learning all that science is a challenge for most business owners, even in the Age of Google. But the good news is that you can make up for being born towards the shallower end of the gene pool, like us, with just a little bit of effort.

Market research theory says that success in any market is made possible by having perfect information on major factors like customer needs, competitors' economics, channel mechanics, and willingness-to-pay, along with a bunch of ancillary factors like regulatory enforcement, human motivation, and so on. If you're willing to invest the time and money finding out how each of these work in your market, you can virtually guarantee your success.

Unfortunately, in the absense of perfect information, most people go to market with the product (i.e. with the market intelligence) they have - not the product (or market intelligence) they need. In other words, the approach that most business owners take to sales and marketing is "trial and error" instead or "figure out the right answer and then deploy."

At LeadGen.com, however, we offer you the happy medium - a formula for success that won't break the bank (or waste a lot of time) with unnecessary market research, while still avoiding the dangers of pure "trial and error."

At LeadGen.com, we tend to come into the challenge with a bit more experience solving B2B sales and marketing challenges than most business owners, simply by virtue of having worked with hundreds of companies and thousands of different sales situations already. And we also have in-house expertise in every aspect of B2B sales and marketing, from recruiting to technology, and from promotion to pricing.

We approach every campaign as both a mandate to help you acquire new customers and as an opportunity to learn more about the market on your behalf. And so we design learning about what works, and what doesn't, into every strategy we create. And so while may take two or three tries to get it right, nine-times-out-of-ten we eventually get it right.

Think about it this way. David Wager, one of our chief strategists, says: "You're never going to increase your market share if you can substitute your competitor's name for yours in your promotions, and still have it make sense." Obviously, that means that your company is unique (which, assumedly, is your intent). But it also means that, to some degree, your marketing program has to be unique too. And so, by definition, there's an element of risk, and new learning that has to take place, if you're going to be successful.

If that's the case, do you want a partner with a "hammer," and for whom "every problem looks like a nail"? Or do you want a partner who brings a whole warehouse full of tools to the project?