A short time ago Jeff and Carman, our founders and hosts of The Kula Ring, joined Chris Moody on The Sunnyside Up Podcast. If you are unaware, it is a wonderful podcast created by our partners at Demandbase. As a market leader in the Account Based Marketing software space, the folks at Demandbase certainly understand how to reach qualified buyers and generate demand within target accounts.
Jeff and Carman were featured on the show to talk about what they know best, marketing for B2B manufacturers. As a firm we put a lot of stock in ABM for our B2B manufacturing clients. Niche B2B markets means that bottomless prospects are not a reality. Therefore, identifying who and how to target those high value prospects is incredibly important. Couple that with the longer sales cycles in manufacturing and you have a perfect storm for an ABM approach, making the entire customer journey a more holistic experience.
While the episode is all auditory gold, some moments and topics really stand out as being universal, both in importance and relevance. Things Like:
- BANT is not effective in the B2B manufacturing space. Which needs to be heard by so many in B2B manufacturing. Working in environments where sales cycles are long and relationships are of paramount importance, the imaginary line where a potential customer goes from a marketing task to a sales task is just that, imaginary. B2B manufacturers need to understand that niche marketing and sales is a team sport.
- The imperative need for both short and long term considerations when embarking on experimentation and implementation. Many marketing departments like to throw some tactics against the wall and see what sticks. Then they double and triple down on that without challenging its scalability. If/when it doesn’t scale or reproduce the way they had hoped, more ideas are thrown against the wall. Carman warns against this short term only, way of thinking.
- Employment of a robust tech stack. As well as what differences exist in the definition of a robust tech stack depending on the maturity of the organization. Jeff goes into some detail about what maturity means when it comes to the implementation of tech that will further develop the marketing team’s efficacy and efficiency.
- The utilization of the Niche Navigator, a tool developed right here at Kula Partners. Jeff and Carman, discuss how Kula uses this to inform B2B manufacturing clients of where they stand and what their next steps are in their move to a focussed ABM methodology. Streamlining both understanding and the ability to create a roadmap for the client.
The episode is a good time, full of information and insights from our founders. It is certainly worth a listen. Thank you to The Sunnyside Up podcast and Chris Moody for featuring Kula Partners so we can talk about the thing we love, helping B2B manufacturers thrive.