How has the recession affected B2B marketers, and more importantly how should they react and prioritise their activity now that growth has returned? These were two of the key questions posed to the IDM B2B Council at a roundtable discussion held in March.
The event took place at Google’s UK HQ in London, and participants were all members of the IDM’s B2B Council. It was chaired by Joel Harrison, editor of B2B Marketing. The discussion was timed to coincide with the IDM’s upcoming B2B Marketing Conference, which will focus on this issue in more detail and help marketers formalise their strategies for operating in the post-recession world.
Joel Harrison: What do you think have been the big impacts of the recession in the B2B sector? Has it been hit as hard as B2C?
Debbie Robertson, Easynet Connect: You could see the recession impact on the companies at the very bottom end of the market much more quickly than in previous recessions. They can react much more quickly, cutting costs or just going into liquidation.
Laurence Mitchell, RBI: But the big companies have also had to adapt and change their strategies. It has been hard for them to suddenly change. They needed to get closer to customers.
Debbie Williams, IDM: Some companies have had a real shock. They found the insight that they had into their customer base was actually very surface level. The balance of control has shifted from supplier to buyer.
JH: What’s been the response from B2B buyers?
Shane Redding, Think Direct: Emotional drivers became about job security. Am I securing my job or putting myself at risk? It was more difficult for new companies it was more difficult to break down customer’s resistance.
DR: The difference between B2B and B2C has been the acknowledgement of the need to retain relationships.
Richard Robinson, Google: There’s a difference between a commodity buy and a strategic buy. We’ve seen the lengthening of buying cycles. At the commodity end, people became more tactical.
Deane McIntyre, Vodafone: People were fundamentally focusing on survival, looking at costs top-down. The focus is on short term business impact.
LM: More people have got involved in decision making and the finance team has become much more important.
JH: What’s been the impact of the recession on marketing and marketers?
DM: There’s been a fundamental shift towards digitisation and this has caught a lot of people by surprise.
Lisa Hutt, Salesforce: There’s been a big shake out of mediocre marketing.
LM: A lot of marketers have had to learn new things.
SR: Marketers who have been classically trained haven’t been trained to listen. Training is something that will be crucial in this next stage. Companies need to invest.
JH: Do you think marketers were well prepared?
SR: Very few SMEs had safetynets.
RR: And they were at the end of the supply chain. They don’t have credit limits like the large ones.
DM: Lots of companies were on the journey to digital, but it took everyone by surprise.
DW: Not all of the best practice principles were adopted and many companies had outdated processes working on a silo basis.
LH: It’s brought sales and marketing closer together.
RR: Marketers were happy to sit back and do ‘push’ marketing rather than understanding what their customers were looking for. They weren’t pushing themselves to understand the changes.
JH: What lessons should we have learned?
SR: Social media is still seen as a huge risk.
DW: Marketers should pro-actively engage with the finance department rather than waiting for their budget to be taken away.
LM: Marketing has grown up in the downturn. When things are going well, the good practices about measurement don’t get prioritised.
JH: What positive things have come out of the recession?
DM: Marketers have been forced to do more with less.
DW: They’ve become accountable. Proving how the budget is impacting positively on the bottom line.
DM: It has encouraged more integration between sales and marketing.
LM: We need to be better with data and with technology and analysis. Marketing is also about ideas and creative thinking you need to find the right balance.
RR: Marketing is no longer the ‘colouring in’ department. There’s been a seismic shift in how marketers need to look at themselves.
SR: Marketing needs to not only understand sales data, they need to understand all the information in the organisation.
JH: How does B2B marketing differ in the post-recession world?
DM: It’s a case of art meets science marketers have to be both left and right brained to succeed.
LH: It’s pulling people in two opposite extremes. On one level being in there with customers, on the other level you need to be very data savvy.
RR: It’s vital to make it very easy for people to do business with you, regardless of the touch point.
If you would like to find out more information on the IDM’s conference click here.
