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Balancing Brand & Demand in B2B · Sales Pipeline Radio

• 0:15
  Alrighty.
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  Welcome everybody to another episode of Sales Pipeline Radio.
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  So excited to have you here.
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  I'm your host, Matt Heinz.
• 0:17
  Thank you to everyone who is joining us.
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  Thank you so much for liking, subscribing, downloading episodes.
• 0:18
  Every one of the Sales Pipeline Radio episodes, past and future, always
• 0:20
  available at salespipelineradio.com.
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  Very excited to have with us, Jesse Humphrey.
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  She is the Vice President of Marketing at Diversified.
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  And Jesse, thanks so much for joining us today.
• 0:23
  Of course.
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  Happy to be here, Matt.
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  There's a wide variety of things we could talk about, but I think in our
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  limited time, I want to talk about the balance between brand and demand.
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  I think a lot of conversations we've had on this show over the years,
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  it's called Sales Pipeline Radio.
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  So you'd imagine it's about demand.
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  Increasingly, I see more and more companies as we head into 2025
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  indicate a greater investment in brand to support and grow their business.
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  So I guess the central question I think is, What's the right
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  balance between brand and demand?
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  How do they best coexist?
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  And to start with, how do you define and differentiate those
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  in the work that you've done?
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  It's a great question.
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  And I really think you're right.
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  Especially in B2B and technology, we see a lot of marketers really
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  focusing in on that demand gen activity versus the brand stuff.
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  For me, I'm a little bias more towards brand.
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  And I always feel like if you don't have the brand as your foundation, your demand
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  engine is not going to work as well.
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  The data out there also shows so much.
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  The 6sense report, the B2B Buyer Report that just came out, right?
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  Talking about buyers, they're already 69 percent of the way through their journey
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  before they even engage with sellers.
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  So all of that journey upfront, what is that?
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  What's driving that?
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  That's the brand.
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  And so for me, I think if you're defining brand demand I like to
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  think about it a little bit too
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  like your brand is like the car.
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  Your demand is the engine.
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  It's the functionality that makes the movement happen.
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  And the intent signals as a customer in the driver's seat.
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  Maybe they're hitting the gas pedal.
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  That's the intent signal.
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  And then your demand engine is the thing that's responding to that,
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  to get the movement, the next thing, the conversion to happen.
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  And so that's how I like to think about it, but with the data showing, I think
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  that buyers, as they're evaluating, they already, know the top vendors,
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  people that they're looking for and having that up front and the brand
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  piece being more of a focus is only going to help to accelerate the action
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  once they're in the driver's seat.
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  Yeah, I completely agree with you.
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  We've seen for years data that indicates-- and it's uncanny to me
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  that the data is usually in 68 to 74 percent right in the same place of
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  the amount of the buying journey that is over before sellers are involved.
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  And the newer data that I've seen from this fall actually makes it
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  worse to say that those same buyers, they do not want to talk to you.
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  Until that moment, they don't want to hear from you.
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  They don't want to have a conversation with you.
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  What that really means is they don't want to talk about product.
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  They don't want to have a sales conversation, but they will still listen
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  if you have something interesting to say.
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  They'll still listen if you are doing something that is more value added,
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  that is more educational, that is more about helping them be and think smarter.
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  To me, that feels like the activation of the brand opportunity for a
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  lot of companies moving forward.
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  Absolutely.
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  And I think the other data that I've seen, that's really interesting
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  to me too, is that between 40 and 60 percent of sales deals are also
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  lost due to customer indecision.
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  And so there's also something there that's really interesting to me
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  is that from a marketing, a brand perspective that we really have to
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  start instilling that trust up front.
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  And it's not just about brand awareness.
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  It's about building that trust as a credible company that's going to help
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  them get from point A to point B.
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  And so some of those demand generation efforts that we're putting in to
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  supplement the brand efforts need to align to deliver on that brand promise.
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  That's right.
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  I think one of the reasons why the demand side has been so attractive as
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  a focus area is because we feel like we can measure it more effectively.
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  And I could argue that all day long too, because the more complex your motion, the
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  less likely you're going to say, Oh, the white paper download or the, paid search
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  click generated the seven figure deal.
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  But at least we've convinced ourselves that we could actually
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  measure the effectiveness of demand.
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  How do you do that on brand, right?
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  What have we learned from CPG companies and what have we learned from larger
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  B2B companies that do invest heavily in brand and have throughout all of these
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  changes in the market, like how should executives be thinking about that?
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  That is the age old question.
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  And the thing that I think that people and marketers ask more
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  than anything but there are ways.
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  And I think when marketing starts looking overall at the metrics, that they're
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  not just looking at those campaign level KPIs, that we're actually looking at
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  overall the business, the pipeline that we're generating, the deal sizes that are
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  coming in, all of the things more from a higher level, business level perspective.
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  I think it's important to track those things upfront, but for us tracking
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  branded search traffic is one way.
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  Comparing that against conversion rates to identify awareness driven...
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  how is that impacting our demand generation?
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  And making sure that those things are trending in the right direction.
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  Inbound, obviously, if you've got people coming into your website,
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  they're converting more on your website, you're able to see if
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  those brand efforts are working.
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  And for me, the first thing I did when I came to Diversified, I looked at
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  our contact us form, our inbound form.
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  And how did you hear about us?
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  And if you give them an open opportunity to tell you how they found you, they
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  will pretty explicitly tell you.
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  And I think being able to find some of that data and those details will
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  actually be able to help you say, Hey, here's some stuff that we've done from
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  a brand perspective that is actually helping us to convert inbound deals.
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  Yeah, we're talking today on Sales Pipeline Radio with Jesse Humphrey.
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  She's the VP of Marketing for Diversified.
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  And, it seems to me that there's an awful lot we can learn from the consumer
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  space on this from the way back machine.
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  I know you spent some time with Red Bull.
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  And here's an organization-- very different market, but has invested
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  heavily, not just in brand, but really making itself a media company,
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  like legit creating channels and content that isn't just about getting
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  people into the funnel or getting a pixel or cookie on your computer.
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  They are a media company as much as they're a beverage company.
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  Is there a lesson there for B2B marketers and B2B brands how to create and
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  really manifest this brand opportunity?
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  Wow.
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  Yeah, absolutely.
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  And it's very much in line really with even what
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  Diversified does for our clients.
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  The business that we're in really in pro AV, audio visual,
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  is we have two business units.
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  We have a workplace business unit and kind of a media business unit.
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  But what we're really seeing today across the industry is
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  the convergence between the two.
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  We've been saying this for years, but we're really starting to see it even more
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  now, is all companies are media companies.
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  So that content that you're producing and being able to enable that kind of thought
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  leadership to be able to be distributed, whether internal or external is absolutely
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  key I think in helping to create that demand, create that brand experience.
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  Like I said, it is both internal and external.
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  It's the brand experience as as an associate or an employee or a
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  partner, just as much as it is for your clients that you're talking to.
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  Yeah.
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  And I think that, if we take this from a different lens, where if we're
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  focused on demand, then what we do, we're trying to go generate leads.
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  We're trying to go generate demand.
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  And if you ask the sales team, they're like, we need more leads.
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  We need more leads.
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  I don't actually think sales teams, that's not really what they want.
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  What they really want is a market that craves what they're selling.
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  Yeah.
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  And and what are the ways that can manifest, like understanding the
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  problem, quantifying the problem, having awareness that you are
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  associated with solving that problem.
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  So when they call Oh, I've heard of you guys, right?
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  Or when you email them or when they see you at an event, Oh,
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  I've heard of these guys, right?
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  And there's an association with something.
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  Because let's face it, like a lot of the sales and marketing we do is driving by
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  someone's house at 35 miles an hour and trying to throw something in the mailbox.
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  You're gonna miss a lot.
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  Yeah.
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  So if I say, how do I build awareness of us, but also a correlation between us
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  and a problem that needs solving so that the prospects are more likely to answer
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  the phone when the sales team calls?
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  So they're more likely to lighten their gate as they walk by
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  your booth at the trade show.
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  These are measurable manifestations of what a brand can do in B2B.
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  Yeah.
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  And I think also, from my perspective too, when you talk about the investment between
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  brand and demand and how marketing leaders are really separating that out today, it's
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  generally been really heavy, more like 70 percent more demand, 30 percent brand,
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  and sometimes even, more than that, right?
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  I split it more down the middle.
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  We really need to have both.
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  Brand needs to be more of a focus area.
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  And, when you talk about like at the trade shows, our company
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  has been pretty event heavy.
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  But it's how are we activating at each one of those things?
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  How are we also creating more content at those events and almost
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  repurposing some of the things?
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  And then distributing them across multiple channels to make sure that
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  you're there when those buyers are ready to actually have that conversation.
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  That's right.
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  Thank you so much for being part of this today.
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  I have a feeling we're going to be talking a lot more about brand demand and how
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  they all fit together in a go to market mix over the course of 2025 as well.
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  Thank you everyone so much for listening, watching, downloading
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  this episode of Sales Pipeline Radio.
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  We'll be back next week with more content until then thanks so much for being here.
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  We'll see you next week.
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  Appreciate it.
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  Thanks, Matt.