Rick's Theory of B2B Marketing for High-Value Sales

Marketing is where trust meets opportunity. That's it, that's the whole thing.

In a world with infinite noise, trust is the only currency that matters.

To establish trust, you need the following:

1 - A deep understanding of who your customer is and what their goals are personally, and as a business.

Of course, this is fundamental to understanding the ROI of a business, but understanding that your champion is a Director who also needs to make VP next year to put their kids through college is super-helpful isn't it?

2 - An understanding of how they evaluate the world and make decisions, including who is their proverbial "lifeline" they call to evaluate claims they can't personally verify.

This idea means that you are trusted by those that your customer trusts. Know yourself and your reputation well enough to understand what a person would say about you if you are not in the room -- even if you are not providing that "reference".

Yes, it's hard.

3 - Consistency of purpose. A customer needs to understand that you are committed to your craft and will be around when they need you, should they decide to place their faith in you.

4 - A deep understanding of the background noise in your customer's life and what distracts them.

If you know what is urgent for your customer but long-term unimportant, you can frame your services against those.

5 - A deep understanding of the top 3 things the CEO and the Board think about daily.

If you aren't on the CEO's radar, your product better be easy to adopt and ROI positive very quickly. If your product is risky and complex, it better be critical to something important to your customer.

This can be all types of things. Even as simple as:

"We're losing too many customers; our customer experience sucks."

6 - Who are your customer's investors, where does their funding come from, and their goals and time horizon?

The same customer with the same problems acquired a year ago in a turnaround is very different from this customer three years later and the primary investor looking to sell the business in a year.

All these last points are the context for your content. You can develop better content if you understand your audience more deeply than anyone.

To take advantage of the opportunity, you need the following:

1 - Understand why a customer might be prompted to reach out urgently.

2 - Understand why a customer needs you now, but the priority is reduced.

These first two are essential for building the top of the funnel.

3 - An understanding of what is missing about a customer's situation and what would have to be true for the customer to be in the right situation in the future for you to help them.

These last points fuel your content, which fuels your trust.

And where trust meets opportunity, you can make a sale.