Steven Casey, Principal Analyst @caseysteve WEBINAR B2B Customers Don’t Want You To Call Them: How Self-Service Research Changes B2B Marketing Steven Casey, Principal Analyst @caseysteve Peter O’Neill, Vice President, Research Director @poneillforr May 26, 2016. Call in at 10:55 a.m. Eastern time

Agenda What is self-service research, and why is it needed? Lessons from customer support Starting your self-service journey Case study What it means Q&A

Your prospects don’t want you to call them By a factor of 3x1, B2B buyers want to self-educate rather than speak with a sales rep. Source: “Death Of A (B2B) Salesman” Forrester report

Because you’ve done too good of a job We’re all consumers now — even B2B buyers. B2B marketers have taught prospects they can live without sales reps. 62% of B2B buyers say they can now develop a set of selection criteria or finalize a list of potential vendors — based solely on digital content. Without speaking with the company Source: Forrester/Internet Retailer Q1 2015 US B2B Buyer Channel Preferences Online Survey

But there’s more work to do The best content is too often missing or buried. Buyers take unanticipated steps in their journeys. The expanding B2B purchase networks include unfamiliar personas. Source: “Brief: B2B Content Fails The Customer Engagement Test” Forrester report

Learn from the self-service experts Adopt a customer support mindset and tools. Help customers help themselves. Self-service research enables investigative buyers to easily find the content they seek and moves them toward a purchase as quickly as possible.

Implications for B2B marketers

Implications for B2B marketers Learn to let go — be less of a helicopter marketer. Augment interactive content and predictive analytics solutions.

Implications for B2B marketers Learn to let go — be less of a helicopter marketer. Augment interactive content and predictive analytics solutions. Call deflection is now part of your job. Eliminate “appointment-setting” calls to prospects still researching.

Self-service improves engagement Retain more prospects. Buyers who find what they need stay — frustrated buyers bounce. Create self-qualified leads. More prospects will declare their qualification through the frequency and depth of their engagement with your content. Feed “intelligent outreach.” Prospects feel like they have been looking for reps by the time they actually connect. Source: “B2B Inside Sales: ‘Inside’ Or ‘Out?’ — That Is The Question” Forrester report

How to get started Solve the search problem first. Click-through (SEO) versus next-click (contextual help) Evaluate intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs). More sophisticated/capable than contextual help but typically more expensive Best suited to content libraries built for complex/varied offerings

Case study: Moo.com Deployed contextual help solution

Case study: Moo.com Deployed contextual help solution

Case study: Moo.com Deployed contextual help solution Reduced inbound presales contacts by 20%

Case study: Moo.com Deployed contextual help solution Reduced inbound presales contacts by 20% Increased both conversion rate and average deal size by approximately 1.5% Enabled opt-in throughout the research journey

What it means Self-service evolves from point solution to platform feature. VAs fill the shoes of all those dead B2B salesmen. Bot-to-bot purchases

Questions and answers

To learn more Current report Planned research inquiry@forrester.com How Self-Service Research Changes B2B Marketing Planned research Does Content Gating Still Work? To Call Or Not To Call: Finding That Goldilocks Moment For Engagement inquiry@forrester.com

Steven Casey +1 617-359-3705 scasey@forrester.com Twitter: @caseysteve Peter O’Neill +49 69 9592 9839 poneill@forrester.com Twitter: @poneillforr

B2B MARKETING 2016 Forum For B2B Marketing And Sales Enablement Leaders October 18–19, 2016 • Trump National Doral Miami New this year: Digital technologies and marketplaces have empowered your B2B customers to move more freely than ever among suppliers and vendors. At the same time, new channels and platforms have redrawn your traditional routes to market, allowing your customers to bypass existing distribution networks. B2B marketing and sales leaders will learn how to navigate this rapidly changing environment. http://forr.com/B2BMARKETING2016