12: The Connection Between B2B and Manufacturing

Lori:  All right, our awesome listeners today, we do not have a guest. And we're actually missing our lovely co-host Erin, but have no fear. We've got some juicy content for you. Kris brought this to my attention. She's been sharing this article with her peers and network. It's from McKinsey and Company called the new b2b growth equation. I looked at it and was kind of fascinated and blown away by it. But Kris, why don't you share what the article is about first and foremost?

Kris: Yeah, I'm so glad you liked it and are calling it juicy. Because, you know, McKinsey and Company published this article back in February. And recently, I got an email from them. And it, it had the five top articles so far this year, and this article is one of its one of them. So obviously, people are paying attention to it. And I think for our listeners, and of course, we're gonna put a link to it in the show notes. So if you if you're interested, after hearing this conversation, and you want to read the article yourself, please go to the show notes and get the link. But you know, what they're saying is that b2b decision makers are using more channels than ever before to make their decisions. And they talk about these 10 different channels. And I thought, that's what's so interesting is the traditional way in which we're doing business, which we all know has been shifting, we all have been talking about it. But if you look from 2016 to 2021, things have shifted. And basically what McKinsey did is they have this pulse research team, and they surveyed 3500 decision-makers in 12 different markets. And the results are really what's found in the article. I'll summarize three that they put in the article because I think it will help listeners as we talk about this article, but there are the traditional channels. So when we talk about the traditional channels, they are in person, direct mail, fax, etc.

Lori:  Yeah, I love this. So I know we've chatted before that I used to teach at the local university b2b sales and marketing. And this was always a hot conversation. from a sales perspective, we've all heard this before you, you need a minimum of seven touches. But you don't always have to be the one facilitating and leading in initiating those touches, the touch could be someone landing on your website, or reading a review about you. But the more diversified, the touch meaning it's not you calling them seven times in a row. But it's you know, them having those different experiences with you in email, or video calls or a Google search or whatever it is, the better that chance are, the higher the chances of conversion taking place. So I'm going to channel which is that diversification and having multiple channel approaches or different ways for people to engage you, and you engaging them is ultimately going to increase the overall opportunity that you have. So I think that what I love about this article is that it's reinforcing what has always been, but it's just really leaning in deeper to leveraging technology, you know, eCommerce self, the self serve and the remote stuff with the video conferencing. And I think that's, that's just the way of the world now. It's less and less of that traditional, you know, in-person, fax machine, phone call approach. And everyone is leaning into the diversification and digital transformation, which we've covered several times on this show.

And so much more… 

The new B2B growth equation link: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-new-b2b-growth-equation

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