Locate Several Decision-Makers Within Each Target Business to Improve B2B Relationships

The B2B marketer must include a rich network of influencers in the prospect database in order to achieve success. As many as twenty people at a company will play a role in a purchasing decision. As most of these financial decisions are made by more than one single person, usually it is preferable to include a group of influencers at a smaller number of companies than to include a few decision-makers at a large number of companies. To put it another way, it's smarter to have a database of ten influencers at each of one thousand companies than to have one influencer at ten thousand companies.

Sending post mail to the gamut of decision-influencers at all influence levels in a company is recommended - from CEO, to VP, on to the Project Manager and directly to the Employee who will actually work hands-on with the product; each play an important role in the decision-making process and should be contacted. Don't forget the finance and tech people who will be affected by the decision to purchase.

A variety of third party resources are at times complimentary to your strategy to impact influencers with your database marketing strategies. Explain products in understandable terms to outside resources which help influence these decisions, including trade associations, industry reviewers, trade magazine press editors and news reporters. Companies such as Dun & Bradstreet and business publishing companies can at times be helpful in attaining information and selecting the correct titles to reach the individuals who influence purchasing decisions.

To take things to an even greater level of detail, these trade magazine publishers can provide a list of subscribers with a particular title (or higher), for a fee of course. This means the database marketer can then annex their own information with the additional names from the publisher's recommendations. In other cases, the publisher could even provide information about all the subscribers who noted on their subscriber industry qualification card that they do in fact influence, recommend, or approve the final purchase decisions in the category which best synchs with the marketer's product or service category. Yet again, this data can help the marketer to improve and annex the total of information about a particular company's decision-makers.

In geographic areas closer to home territory, the marketer can reach out and discover key influencers in a company by conversing with the salespeople. These people understand how the the process of sales and business decision-making are handled at a particular company, and know which customer reps also play parts in the purchasing process. When speaking to members of the sales team, it is best to ask questions like these: Why do your customers buy these products or services, to solve technical problems or business problems?; Is the purchase decision driven by the department manager or a department technician?; What kind of budget authority is necessary to have the purchase approve as spending authority ascends within a company, the management or executive level?; What people at the company will be affected by the purchase decision but don't officially contribute to the purchase decision, including those who will later say they were never asked about it?

All of these people can contribute important influences into a business to business relationship, and your marketing program can be greatly improved by developing these types of marketing strategies.