This week, in my half-baked, often late weekly Tuesday missive, in B2B marketing, should we always be hanging with sales, peddling the pain?
In B2B marketing, we tend to focus on pain; we work with our sales colleagues who are keen to open up a wound, swoop in, and take the pain away.
Pain is, of course, a great motivator, an emotion that drives us from the deepest part of our primitive brain, the kind of basic instinct that makes us feel or do things without knowing or thinking. I’ve done sales training, and identifying pain, which is strong enough for someone to act to ease that pain, is imperative.
We in marketing then market the pain, oh the horror! Then, as we lure these tortured souls down the funnel, our sales qualification models ask; have you identified pain? If not, then this ain’t the Glengarry lead you were searching for (to really mess with film references).
I’m not against this basic psychology. I’ve written about probably the most significant pain of all, the fear of f’in’ up. Pain creates the space in which we work; if what we do, our product or service, doesn’t remedy some organizational ailment, then who will actually f’in’ care enough to take the risk and give us some cash? It has to solve a need, and when this need is hot; it’s pain.
However, I would like to present a more positive conversation.
The promised land.
If, like me, you are a fan of Andy Raskin’s Greatest Sales Deck medium post, you’ll be familiar with the promised land – “a teaser vision of the happily-ever-after that your product/service will help the prospect achieve” and to lift more from his post:
Your Promised Land should be both desirable (obviously) and difficult for the prospect to achieve without outside help. Otherwise, why does your company exist?
Andy Raskin
Well said.
It’s the carrot to pain’s stick.
It is the antidote to FOFU (fear of f’in’ up).
But it has to be strong, as the resistance to the change adopting your product or services will cause is strong, embedded in those basic survival emotions.
What is the promised land that your product or service offers, and honestly, what makes that worth pushing through the fear and pain of procurement?
And when you paint the picture of the promised land, it’s not just the promised land for the organisation, but how does your buyer or sponsor see themselves in this vision? What is in it for them?
So, while pain is important, don’t forget the promised land.
No robots were involved in the writing of this copy, however the image used in this blog post was created using A.I. through NightCafe Creator
Fancy more of this?
Subscribe to my Rockstar CMO Newsletter
I’m a 3xCMO, now a marketing strategy advisor and podcast host at Rockstar CMO. Although, I’m not a rock star, but a marketing leader, strategist, content marketer, columnist, speaker, industry watcher, and creator of ART (Awareness, Revenue, and Trust) for the companies I work with. But most of all, I am an enthusiastic tea drinker.
You can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, or now Threads! – or listen to my weekly podcast at Rockstarcmo.com
The half-baked thoughts shared on this blog may not reflect those of my employer or clients, and if the topic of this article is interesting or you just want to say hello please get in touch.