This infographic from Salesforce’s SlideShare page was compiled by Software Advice who help people find the right software for their organization. The information here helps B2B marketers and salespeople like yourself prepare the timing of your messages by understanding what times of day, week and year business buyers are most attentive.
Knowing when your potential customers are most ready to be influenced impacts when you place phone calls, schedule emails, display ads, update social statuses or design any aspect of your marketing automation efforts.
Understanding B2B Buyer Behavior
In the preface to “Social Marketing to the Business Customer,” authors Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman observe that when it comes to buying and selling B2B products, “there are no impulse purchases.” Every decision that a business makes regarding what kind of IT to invest in is vetted carefully. Products, especially ones that involve complex implementations, that do not deliver on their promised value and do not make the buyer’s business operate more efficiently can make or break reputations.
So how do you get businesses to buy your product? It starts with understanding your B2B buyer behavior. Prior to the advent of the Internet and web-based ecommerce, IT buyers were influenced by magazines, newspaper ads and word of mouth recommendations. So in order to market and sell your software to businesses you relied on print media, trade shows and phone calls to drum up sales.
Now, B2B marketing and sales departments depend heavily on their website to generate direct sales or refer potential buyers to channel partners. By extension, that means putting a lot of effort into search engine marketing (SEM), emails and social media.
Timing is everything in marketing. The quest to reach your next paying customer hinges on getting the right message to the right audience at the right time.
