Mine's BiggerThan Yours

I don't mean all marketing. I'm talking about the hand-waving promises that are so unrealistic as to be laughable. Perfect teeth in 4 days, hair re-growth in a few applications or a perfect body in only 2 weeks thanks to some revolutionary rubber band. Stretch it 3 times a day and look like a fashion model in no time. Wow.

Do buyers really fall for that stuff?

I guess they do, or we wouldn't have those ads all over the place, now would we? Still, I don't think it works for the majority of cases in the B2C world. Certainly not for B2B type audiences.

Yet we see similar claims from B2B vendors. Promises to reduce cost, eliminate debt, increase revenues - make you profitable or bring 100,000 users to your door TOMORROW. All with not a lot of proof to go along, just fantastic claims. I call it chest thumping. I also call it the Dinosaur Way of Marketing.

Those approached don't work anymore folks.

Our audiences are too smart.

They can find out every 'truth' they want to know about us. Give them a search engine and they are off and running on a fact finding frenzy. They roll their eyes when we start to claim leadership and do the chest thumping sell. They politely wait for us to finish - sometimes - and then take a dive deep into our real-world experience at the first opportunity.

Think about the way you use the web for your own buying decisions.

Do you read the vendor website - or do you go to the reviews, the ePinions, Consumer Reports? Odds are you look for others like you that have reviewed your products. You don't go drink marketing Kool-Aid for your new refrigerator from the guys who built it, now do you?

Why should our B2B audience be any different?

They aren't. They want to know why they should trust us, why they should partner with us. Customers and prospects want to see our expertise in action. They want to know that we understand their business, that we've helped others like them to do cool things for their business. They want the evidence, not the claims.

B2B customers don't want positioning claims and Me, Me, Me Marketing.

They want the truth, and the evidence to support it.

Just like each of us when we begin a purchase a decision for a new car, television, appliance or home. We don't want to hear the hype, we want just the facts. So why should we expect our own customers to want hype from us?

When creating a marketing story, it's time we start thinking like a customer. Better yet, it's time we let our customers and their successes speak for our abilities. Instead of thumping our own chests, we can let others speak our praises, demonstrate our value, prove our success.

It's called ‘telling the truth' and ‘being humble'.

Wow, what a concept.