Ten most common B2B marketing mistakes

Many B2B marketing campaigns are not fundamentally flawed. They're good ideas hampered by poor execution. Or great ideas, and a great plan – aimed at completely the wrong people. Here are ten common mistakes and how to avoid them.

1. Not engaging the sales force at the outset: Ultimately, your sales force will determine whether or not your work has been a success. Did your campaign increase sales opportunities? Were they the right kind of opportunities? Talk to your sales team before you start to ensure that you fully understand what's expected of you. A lot can get lost in translation.
2. Not listening hard enough: As a marketer your expertise, and hopefully experience, will be invaluable in creating a campaign. But don't forget that the sales and product experts may be well positioned to add useful and important information. Ask lots of questions before making broad statements. Don't assume anything until you've checked it. A small misunderstanding can result in a campaign going very wonky later.
3. Not finding out what customers think: Notwithstanding point 2 above, perhaps the best people to judge a campaign are those at whom it's aimed. Use every opportunity available to speak to customers and prospects direct.
4. Attempting to 'create' market opportunity: Debate continues as to whether it's possible to artificially 'create' demand. Our view is that demand can be identified, nurtured and grown, but that it cannot be created out of nothing – certainly not without a mammoth budget anyway! Best advice is to map your market size, build long term relationships and be ready to act quickly when fresh opportunity arises.
5. Never reaching the real decision maker: Many campaigns simply target the wrong people. That's quite understandable given that the some of the companies they're aimed at employ hundreds of employees. The key to success is to thoroughly know and understand your own customer data. And to recognise that all direct marketing is about repetition and refinement.
6. Mis-qualifying new prospects: Campaigns designed to generate sales leads inevitably face being judged on volume – even if only informally. As a result, the temptation is often to pass on all leads, regardless of quality. Push the sales team hard to provide you with their own definition of a qualified lead. Passing back non-leads will only lead to dissatisfaction, but opening the door to a key account (even if it doesn't strictly meet BANT* qualification) won't fail to impress even the worst cynic.
   *BANT: B – Budget in place for project, or access to funds; A – Authority to approve and make decisions to move forward; N – Need to take action; T – Timeline is clear.
7. Failing to follow-up on leads or nurture 'slow burners': Sometimes the sales team will commit to doing the follow-up on a campaign themselves. As they get busier, or as other leads turn into bids, they'll then become distracted. Follow-ups will get forgotten. Make sure you have a plan in place to address this eventuality. Also have a strategy for 'slow burners' – prospects who've expressed an interest but are not yet ready to move forward. How will the campaign keep them warm until they're ready to buy?
8. Not understanding your own product or service: New construction materials and processes are being developed every day. For us marketers it's hard enough keeping up to speed with marketing developments, never mind the latest building solutions. The best campaigns are a perfect mix of customer need and product understanding. Take time to read trade journals, visit factories and construction sites, and talk to customers. Never stop asking questions.
9. Making unqualified assumptions about your buyer's knowledge of the market: Imagine a campaign that proves in absolute factual terms why your product or service is better than your competitors'… and then discovering that the campaign audience doesn't understand your market and so doesn't respond. Or conversely, pitching your campaign in such simple terms that it alienates your highly qualified and experienced target. Understanding what the typical buyer does – and doesn't – know about your market is crucial before planning any campaign.
10. Measuring activity rather than outcomes: Marketers strive to measure the impact of their activity. And rightly so. Marketing needs to demonstrate its value to the business. But a lot of metrics used by marketers are fairly meaningless without the added benefit of knowing how much revenue they've generated. While it's easy to measure hits on a website, clicks from an email, number of mailers sent etc (and these should still be measured) unless we know the ultimate impact these activities had on business through the door, we can't measure return on investment.

Adapted from an original article by The Marketing Practice, reproduced by kind permission of the author.

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