Open Forum: Small Business Sales Strategies For The Internet Era
The main message from marketing expert Jon Miller is that the Internet has empowered customers to take control of the sales-marketing process and business-to-business marketers and sales people must adjust their strategies accordingly.
“The Internet and search providers such as Google have revolutionized the way we access and interact with information. Nowhere is this more evident than in our purchasing decisions, whether as consumers considering major appliances for our homes, or as businesspeople considering goods and services for our firms. Our desire for information, the time required to deliberate, and the potential for post-purchase dissatisfaction all seem to have grown exponentially.
Marketing expert Jon Miller agrees that the availability of online content has altered the B2B buying landscape. The growth of social media and the belt tightening of the recession have accelerated those changes. During a recent discussion, Jon, a co-founder of Marketo, a B2B marketing automation firm, shared his thoughts on the nature of those changes — and on effective marketing and sales techniques in light of them.”