I just finished reading Marc Benioff's book Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry. While it wasn't exactly a story (it was more of a list of short blurbs, categorized by functional area (marketing, sales, finance, leadership etc), it was quite insightful and useful.
One of the key things that Benioff did was recognize that most business to business sales still have a consumer hidden somewhere in the buying process. Most B2B marketing, even for SaaS and other subscription-based business models, is pretty clunky and lacks strong branding, point of view and connection with the buyers and users of the offering.
Benioff took a more personal approach, made possible to a great extent by the SaaS model itself.
Some of his best ideas borrow heavily from the Consumer Marketing Playbook
- Differentiate–and make the differences obvious
- Feed word-of-mouth–it's still about the personal recommendation
- Find the story of the company–is it a Cinderella story of transformation? a Harry Potter quest? Everyone loves a fairytale with an unlikely hero.
- Make a personal connection with customers, especially the early ones. Make sure they know you can hear them and want them to be happy. Let the know how they can help you too.
- If you have a big competitor–embrace them–be the flea on the elephant that makes the elephant dance.
- Give something away. Your free may differ from consumer free–but make it easy for people to get a taste without making a huge commitment–take advantage of the cloud and low variable costs
- Let your website sell for you. Keep it simple and focused
- Let your customers sell for you. Again, keep it simple and focused
- Validate hunches with data and metrics, whether the hunch is from the mailroom or c-suite
- No discounts on product–make sure that the role of free is clearly defined
- Segment segment and segment
- Remember that even old customers need love, especially with subscriptions
- Use SaaS to Land and Expand
- Let self-service and sales teams work hand-in-hand
Most importantly–the emotional connection needs to be made between company and buyer. It's always personal. Even in business.
