“So play the long game with your marketing team and invest in making your existing customers massively successful.” – Rishi Dave in today’s Tip 1430
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Rishi Dave. Rishi is a member of Bain’s Commercial Excellence practice with expertise in B2B and digital marketing. Rishi partners with CMOs and management teams to drive marketing transformations and build modern marketing capabilities. He has held global CMO roles at public technology and cloud companies including Dunn & Bradstreet, Vonage, and MongoDB. Here he is:
Rishi Dave: Do not underestimate the power of The Day One List. So what is The Day One list? Is the list of vendors, buyers already have in mind before they begin their buying process. We did a large-scale research study and we found that 86% of buyers have this Day One List. And most powerfully, no matter how thorough the buying process is, 92% of buyers end up buying off that Day One List. And our research showed that this is virtually universal. We found this to be true across industries, across buyer walls, across transaction sizes, and no matter how thorough the buying process was.
Let me talk you through an example.
We talked to a VP of Fintech at a media entertainment company. They went through a six-month sales cycle, built a cross-functional team of experts and end users, ran a very data-driven vendor research process that was highly objective, and they still ended up picking someone off that Day One List.
So how do you get on that Day One List? We talked to buyers. There’s a few key ways.
Number one, the buyer had worked with that vendor at a previous company and wanted to potentially work with that vendor again.
Number two, that buyer received strong recommendations from colleagues.
And number three, that buyer had been made aware of that vendor before they began their buying process and got and understood what that vendor did.
So you may think; Hey, look, you’re a major brand. Everyone knows who you are, so there’s no need to worry about the Day One List. However, the key question is, do the right people know who you are. And do they know what you do today and where you’re going versus where you’ve been, which is often not relevant for them.
So what can you practically do?
Number one, play the long game with your marketing team. Understand which accounts matter to you now and in the future, what their perception is, and invest in strong digital marketing and a very powerful website to help that company understand who you are, what you do today, and where you’re going. As a seller, understand what accounts matter to you now and in the future, and invest in those long-term relationships before the buyer begins their buying process. And that includes a lot of education in addition to relationship building.
Number two, make your current clients massively successful so that they recommend you to their colleagues and as they move to a different company, they consider you again on their Day One List.
So don’t underestimate the power of that Day One List. 86% of buyers have one, and it’s typically three vendors. 79% of buyers will do more research even if they have a Day One List. Of those, 81% will add at least one vendor. However, end of the day, 92% of buyers will buy off that Day One List.
So play the long game with your marketing team and invest in making your existing customers massively successful.
Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Rishi and to check out their HBR article on What B2Bs Need to Know About Their Buyers, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1430. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!