Simplifying Your B2B Equation

Just because you are a business marketing to other businesses doesn’t mean you have to lose your personality. What typically stands out most to companies looking for a product or service is someone who can make their life easier and a bit more pleasant – simplify their complications like an old friend giving good advice on a bad day.

It’s no secret that the holidays are around the corner, and with them comes a heightened level of sentimentality. While you may not be in the position of offering seasonal discounts or applicable promotions, there are things you can do to take a more comforting approach to your B2B marketing campaign.

We hope you’ve been following our updates on Sleep Connect, Inc. with blog posts like ‘Small Business Marketing Strategies That Will Help You Sleep Better’ and  ‘How to Stand Out from the Crowd’. Sleep Connect, Inc.’s ideas, hopeful business strategies, and plans for growth are great approaches for smaller companies everywhere, looking to dive into the uncertainty of deeper corporate waters.

A business and marketing plan that speaks volumes

How did Steve Jobs go from a guy in a garage to the world-renown guru of modern technology? How did Michael Kittredge, founder of the Yankee Candle Company, go from creating homemade gifts to a brand known by homemakers everywhere? How did Ben and Jerry go from the awkward kids in gym class to ice cream superstars? Innovation…personalization…and dare I say, simplicity. While the digital era of business and marketing may be anything but simple, one must create a product or service that simplifies the life of its customers in some way. Once this is accomplished, you must then market this product or service through an approach that speaks to the core of the industry and the humanity of its professionals. Sleep Connect, Inc. did just that with their collaborative cloud-based software for sleep medicine specialists.

Customer service techniques that will help your business to succeed

After starting a campaign to provide smaller businesses, like Sleep Connect, Inc., with the tools needed to market their ventures, CardsDirect got to know this innovative company on a more personal level. We gained insight into their customer service techniques and company methodologies, knowing that they would ultimately help their business to succeed. Take, for instance, the additional time spent teaching clients how to use their software, offering courses in sleep medicine, and ensuring their customers’ knowledgeability. Did it help them to ensure more business… a stronger sense of loyalty among their customers? Sure. But at its basic form, this was just people helping people.

Advertising your kindness

Everyone loves to lend a helping hand around the holidays – it makes us feel better about our own humanity, but what if we worked just as hard at these altruistic endeavors all year round? What if we offered the same level of generosity that we do to family and friends to our clients, to potential clients, to total strangers for that matter?

Don’t look at a simple act of kindness or a personal offering to customers and prospects as a falsehood devised to get you more money. Is this a possibility? Sure. Should we feel bad about it? Absolutely not. Providing a great product or service to another business of equal, lesser, or greater value than your own translates to profits for them and you, their families and yours – it’s better for everyone involved. Does a small personal gesture like sending  Christmas cards to clients benefit you? Absolutely. Should you be ashamed of this? Of course not.

Honesty and business success

The notion of B2B marketing is a lot simpler than we make it out to be, instead of trying to skirt around what is already on everyone’s mind, just come out and say it, “We’re all in this to make money.” But to do it in a professional, cordial, and honorable manner – that is the true art of running a successful business – falling asleep knowing that what you have done and the connections you made have bettered the lives of everyone involved.