customers required hand-holding, while others In B2B, content outweighs both sales presentation were immediately ready to discuss detailed and timeliness as customer-buying factors. integration of the platform into their existing stack. However, 57 percent of sellers say they don’t And the approach paid off: customers specifically pay much attention to content produced by celebrated how well the company had “done its their marketing teams, feeling it is generic and homework,” earned trust, and demonstrated that unresponsive. Yet by combining analytics—using they had the expertise to deliver. With this content novel data drawn from innovative sources—with strategy, the company built a $50 million annual direct customer conversations and surveys, recurring-revenue business in 18 months from an B2B marketing teams can personalize content accelerated deal pipeline. that speaks to individual decision makers and influencers in specific accounts or industries. For The bar for B2B content is high. Ideally, it is visual example, the sales approach for a chief information and exciting, conveys complex ideas in a simple officer (CIO) and a data scientist at the same format, and meets rapidly evolving customer company may be very different while still reinforcing expectations. Products are usually more expensive, common messages (Exhibit 4). and sellers often may have only one vital pitch with their target customer account. Trust, too, is an Leading technology companies have recognized important issue: great content shows credibility and the need for greater customer personalization and deep expertise, convinces the customer that they’re deploy specific strategies to target their end users, getting an end-to-end partner, and anchors on the including data scientists, developers, and designers. end outcomes rather than individual features or capabilities. Web 2022 Emerging cautiously: Australian Consumers in 2022 Exhibit 4 Exhibit 2 of 10 Modern B2B GTM drives growth with digital and personalization end-to-end. wareness nderstanding urchase uccess  ­€ Receives video RetailCo testimonial from a friend about a Signs up for CloudCo’s ets personalized message CloudCo retail client eec event from sales rep post event ets uarterly trends & ‚ead of T€ insights email for current RetailCo Sees CloudCo display s directed to customers ad for retailers CloudCo white se personalized paper for retailers digital tool on ƒata CloudCo site to cientist€ build business Sees CloudCo sales RetailCo Reads industry report Finds CloudCo in case that they pitch and demo† mentioning CloudCo search results pitch to C negotiates contract and signs thereafter ‡efines content based on ­uilds personalized content initial customer conversation Jointly prioritize accounts … strategy for RetailCo verticals with intent & Sends ongoing Mar„eter behavior data €eploys self-serve tool to uantify nurture content to value-at-stake & builds demo current customers eperience with product team Form cross-functional pod ƒelivers pitch along with to pursue RetailCo & jointly Finds relevant messaging & content on customer success manager‚ track engagement end-to-end central M and sends note to C aligning on success metrics eller 5–10% 20–25% 5–10x BB revenue lift from increased higher sales productivity increase in testing content relevance & engagement & efficiency speed & throughput McKinsey & Company Future of B2B sales: The big reframe 11