The Geehan Group recently hosted a B2B Executive Roundtable in Palo Alto, California, where our Founder and CEO, Sean Geehan, moderated a discussion with special guests Brad Brooks, VP Enterprise Marketing, Juniper, and Greg Jorgensen, past-CMO of Verisign.  In characteristic Geehan Group fashion, an intimate group of about 20 executives enjoyed a convenient, casual and socially-appealing venue—Zibbibo Restaurant—while participating thought provoking panel discussion, executive networking and, of course, a California infused wine tasting experience.  

The Theme:  Sean’s pending book release “The B2B Executive Playbook” helped carve the theme of the meeting around advancing business relationships from transactional vendors to strategic partners/trusted advisors—while reaching decision makers.  Sean moderated a lively discussion in which the audience asked stimulating questions and openly discussed panel responses.  The top concepts that resonated with me included:

“C level executives don’t have a ‘like’ button for you.”
Brad Brooks, VP of Enterprise Marketing at Juniper responded to the question of social media hype when it comes to the C level.  As is the case with most B2B companies, and following Pareto’s 80/20 rule, Juniper earns a large percentage of revenue from a small percentage of customers.  Most importantly, though, is that the C level executives in these top accounts are conservative:  So they don’t use a “like” button to click and review for input, instead they call their “friends”—peers in this case—to seek advice and input when making decisions.  Understanding this level of customer advocacy, Juniper knows they must build a strong relationship with decision makers.  To do so, as Brad noted, first requires establishing a foundation of trust.  For Juniper, this means they are always open to discussing and resolving customer issues, faithfully earning that trust over time.
 
”Centralize to gain benefit:  Decentralize to execute.”  
One of the most important aspects for a CMO to address is determining when to centralize and when to decentralize, as Greg Jorgensen, past CMO of Verisign, pointed out.  Because B2B relationships and sales typically occur at a regional level, the execution of marketing and sales programs needs to be delivered on a local level.   Greg noted, “The corporate function is best left to delivering in areas where process, consistency and cost savings can be maximized to the benefit of both the corporate centralized function and the regional decentralized function.”  And then let the region manage the delivery aspect of the program with the customer.

“Beware the ‘Sins of Wealth.’” 
Brad also stated, “Successful organizations can enjoy the ‘Sins of Wealth’ where financial success allows for missteps in B2B marketing execution.”  Spending for PR can quickly grow as a bloated organization misinterprets marketing awareness campaigns as the only metric for success—while neglecting the nurturing and rewarding of decision maker relationships.  “Balance is important … and determining who to influence is the responsibility of the savvy B2B marketer.”   A day will come when the relationship with the decision maker is paramount to retaining and growing your business.

“What a great event! The targeted attendees (marketing leaders), level of dialogue, intimate setting and open interaction was an experience to repeat!  And I loved the wine tasting networking where I could identify the common connection points to others I met.” – Maeve Naughton, Fortinet

There were many more comments from our panelists and contributions from our attendees worth taking back to reflect on and implement, but not enough space to capture here today.  Thank you to our panelists and attendees for joining me, Sean and Karen Posey in this engaging executive experience!

"Big Deals" get everybody excited.  The city of Boston just had 1.5 million fans come watch the Boston Bruins team parade through the heart of the city after the Bruins won professional hockey's coveted prize, the Stanley Cup. The streets were littered with the Bruin jerseys and yellow confetti. The Stanley Cup is a "big deal." And everyone who had any connection to the Bruins was ecstatic.
 
Dave Hersch, CEO at then small start-up Jive software recalls one of their first big wins. "When we first started out, we went up against IBM for a big deal wit ha large manufacturer. They flew in ten people. We had three of us running the company from an apartment.  The odds were stacked against us but we did our homework and built a solid relationship with the decision maker. The customer liked our lightweight,flexible approach to solving their problems, and we won.  We celebrated with iterations in the apartment." Even big B2B players get excited over big deals.  When Boeing recently landed its $1.7 billion order for six of its 777 jets with Qatar Airways, you can bet more than just the sales rep was excited over the win.

How important are relationships to B2B sales success? Relationships are critical to Big Deal Success!
 
None of the above B2B deals were the result of a "vendor" type relationship between the seller and the key decision makers in these accounts.  And in each of these cases, the procuring organization noted that they were "partnering" with their vendor to purchase the products or services.  So how can an organization move the needle and become more of a partner to their customers and prospects and close more "big deals".  Here are four things an organization can do to move the company from vendor to partner.

1.  Understand what it takes to move up the ladder.  Bret Barczak, CMO GE HealthcarePerformance Solutions, was charged with launching a new solution and its related campaign.  But his customer base didn't yet view GE as a strategic partner with the credibility to provide the new solution.  To overcome this, Bret identified 15 accounts at which he could tap in to key leaders to gain insight about the problems they were trying to solve - problems which also had a connection to GE's services and solutions.  Through this process, he learned how to reach these powerful decision makers and others like them.  The combination of the "what" to say and "to whom and how" to say it, helped correctly position both the marketing message and the sales campaign.  Armed with the right package, GE was able to reach the audience they needed to build relationships and sell big deals. Barczak's team avoided spending useless time at the wrong levels where big deal decisions aren't made.

2.  Take the product (and even the sales rep) out of the conversation.  Building partner relationship means the business conversations are about just that - the business.  A CIO from a high tech client of mine was upfront and honest with a vendor when he took an appointment with him.  He told him he didn't want to talk about the products they offered, but rather how they could solve the problems they faced.  The sales rep wasn't exactly sure how to handle the situation, and when he started to introduce his company and their solution set, the CIO abruptly ended the meeting.  Often times, sales reps and account managers struggle with engaging conversations with business leaders because they haven't sat in the chair of the person they are selling too, or they don't have the appropriate level of business acumen to have a conversation that addresses the problems the business faces. An easy way to gain business level understanding is to use an executive from within your organization and have them meet with the customer or prospect.  A non-sales executive often doesn't fully understand all the features and functions of the products, so they aren't tempted to discuss them.  More importantly, they can relate well to their peer because they bring relevant personal business leadership experience.  The conversations, therefore, naturally begin with the business and the challenges the prospect faces. Over time, these discussions often foster a personal relationship which helps solidify the business association.

3.  Recognize that relationships are an "all-time" thing.  Vince Lombardi once said, "Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all-time thing."  Building relationships that lead to long-term sales success is the same way - it's not a sometime thing, it's an all-time thing. Winning big deals comes from all the steps to win each small element of the relationship.  Techniques that build relationships include:

• continued touch points at unexpected times - like showing up at their big industry conference to show your interest and support
• using your own time to research a problem they are trying to solve
• meeting with them in person at "non-transaction" times
• taking time to hand-write a note
• ultimately, treating your customer or prospect as you would your best friend

4.  Celebrate relationship successes together.  Recognizing and celebrating both big and small accomplishments keeps morale high and teams motivated.  Take time to celebrate, and don't forget to invite your client or prospect to join you.
 

Lastly, you may need to "sell" to your own CEO.  Nothing gets a CEO (or BU head) more excited than landing the big deals that create market momentum.  To build relationships and support big account pursuits, multiple resources may be necessary.  Sometimes it requires the CEO to step in and show support for the partnering with a prospect.  When the CEO is on board, it's much easier to align the functional heads to your prospects' team, their needs, and their methods to evaluate your service or solution.  When you have the ability to create relationships throughout an organization with the customer's team, the ability to win big deals and retain big accounts goes much deeper.

Implementing these concepts within a B2B organization will lead to building the relationships that matter, and landing the big deals that gets everybody excited.