PSA: Your Buyers Are Humans!

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.540 --> 00:00:02.740 Yeah. 2 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:09.190 Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of BtB Growth. I'm timmy Bauer 3 00:00:09.190 --> 00:00:13.670 content strategist here and I'm super excited to be talking with Sarah breezy. 4 00:00:13.680 --> 00:00:17.550 The E. V. P. Of Marketing at Master Control Sarah, Welcome to the show. 5 00:00:17.560 --> 00:00:21.940 Great to talk to you to me Sarah. I'm so excited because the last time you 6 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:27.890 and I talked we had an awesome conversation about the idea. It's not a 7 00:00:27.890 --> 00:00:32.560 new idea. It's something that is just often forgotten the idea that your 8 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:37.760 buyers are human beings, they're not automatons. And uh you said you said 9 00:00:37.760 --> 00:00:40.580 something really interesting to me. I kind of just want to have you repeat it 10 00:00:40.590 --> 00:00:46.360 along the lines of the buyers are not automatons. Yeah. No our buyer in the B. 11 00:00:46.360 --> 00:00:50.650 Two B. Space often gets treated as the guy who just wants to read white papers. 12 00:00:50.660 --> 00:00:54.350 You know we don't treat them as a human. We don't engage with them emotionally. 13 00:00:54.360 --> 00:00:58.710 So yeah that's I know it's not a new idea but it's certainly no one's fixed 14 00:00:58.710 --> 00:01:02.640 it since everyone would be to be still talking about it. Yeah. And so we had 15 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:06.420 an awesome conversation. Were just jamming on several different ways that 16 00:01:06.430 --> 00:01:12.830 your company has approached engaging with them purposefully and artfully. So 17 00:01:12.830 --> 00:01:14.950 what are some of those ways that you've hit on? 18 00:01:16.040 --> 00:01:19.850 You know, because it's a podcast? You know, I just won't even pretend a 19 00:01:19.850 --> 00:01:25.470 humble brag. I will just brag. We just did a really amazing user conference 20 00:01:25.470 --> 00:01:29.800 and that was virtual. And that user conference was virtual because of Covid 21 00:01:29.800 --> 00:01:33.810 as we all know. And it really changed the game for how we needed to keep our 22 00:01:33.810 --> 00:01:39.510 user base engaged. So I would say the first benefit that I have is I have a 23 00:01:39.510 --> 00:01:43.660 partner who's the executive creative director for the company. And so that 24 00:01:43.660 --> 00:01:49.080 is amazing. And when he and I sat down to think about what do you do to keep 25 00:01:49.090 --> 00:01:53.770 people engaged on a two day event in front of their computers when they have 26 00:01:53.770 --> 00:01:57.230 all these distractions? We started to talk about, well, what are the things 27 00:01:57.230 --> 00:02:02.080 that drive engagement? 2020 cried out for humor, right? I mean, I think we 28 00:02:02.080 --> 00:02:07.910 were all like, please let there be some fun and funny, but I am as anyone would 29 00:02:07.910 --> 00:02:10.860 tell you, I am, my family certainly would tell you, I am like the fun 30 00:02:10.860 --> 00:02:16.200 killer. And so Jeff would come to me, he'd say he'd be like, Sarah, let's 31 00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:20.220 have a celebrity be our host. And I was like, no, we're not doing that. Like, 32 00:02:20.230 --> 00:02:22.790 no, we're not do. And then he'd be like, no, no, no, just like I'm going to come 33 00:02:22.790 --> 00:02:27.480 back. So we actually hired a celebrity host for this event, Jason alexander of 34 00:02:27.480 --> 00:02:33.610 Seinfeld and then he got his writing partner together and absolutely ripped 35 00:02:33.610 --> 00:02:39.100 apart our Ceo and our head of people and like he just took them right to 36 00:02:39.100 --> 00:02:44.480 task. But in a way that also riffed on authentically connecting with quality 37 00:02:44.480 --> 00:02:49.210 managers really, you know, was industry relevant. So it was fun, funny, 38 00:02:49.210 --> 00:02:54.590 engaging, but the artful hidden moment of that two day event was really this 39 00:02:54.590 --> 00:02:59.630 customer film festival that was Jeff's absolute baby. Um and I would love to 40 00:02:59.630 --> 00:03:03.990 tell you more about that. Yeah, awesome. So first of all, how did you guys get 41 00:03:03.990 --> 00:03:11.810 Jason alexander to, to rip apart your host? So Jason alexander, you know, he 42 00:03:11.810 --> 00:03:16.310 hosted and he ripped apart your ceo, he hosted. He and he, the way the kind of, 43 00:03:16.310 --> 00:03:20.080 the thing they came up with that would make it funny is that because we were 44 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:23.420 virtual and he of course all these actors, like you have to feel for them, 45 00:03:23.420 --> 00:03:26.090 really call sitting home in their kitchens, like the rest of us. So he 46 00:03:26.090 --> 00:03:30.210 popped up a green screen in his kitchen and he filmed all these video segments 47 00:03:30.220 --> 00:03:35.810 and um, the theme was, I'm in john beck strands house and so there would be 48 00:03:35.820 --> 00:03:40.260 room by room. He'd walk you through john's house and I think we can point 49 00:03:40.260 --> 00:03:43.230 you to seeing some of those images on social. They're hilarious. Like one of 50 00:03:43.230 --> 00:03:47.220 them is in the trophy room and there are 57 deer heads and like all this 51 00:03:47.220 --> 00:03:53.430 crazy stuff. But he also tied it back to like, okay, you know, you just heard 52 00:03:53.430 --> 00:03:59.290 from master controls head of a I mean let's talk about a I I go to my GP to 53 00:03:59.290 --> 00:04:03.660 talk about AI and he did these great riffs that really connected. Um you 54 00:04:03.660 --> 00:04:07.040 know, just why quality management really hard in our space, like the 55 00:04:07.040 --> 00:04:11.290 language of our people, but also in a way that, you know kind of made you 56 00:04:11.290 --> 00:04:15.480 almost uncomfortable that you were laughing at at the ceo and like could 57 00:04:15.480 --> 00:04:19.190 this really be true? It was amazing. It was fun. It was just fun I guess is 58 00:04:19.190 --> 00:04:23.120 what I would say. We were all dying for some fun. What was the reception like? 59 00:04:23.130 --> 00:04:29.170 People were stunned. First of all that you could work with someone like Jason 60 00:04:29.170 --> 00:04:32.350 alexander and he's not endorsing the product right, He's just coming in and 61 00:04:32.350 --> 00:04:37.050 doing his thing. Like, hey, I'm a smart guy, I can help connect with your space. 62 00:04:37.060 --> 00:04:42.040 I think people were stunned that he would work on anything at this level 63 00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:46.310 and not to insult master control, but look, brands are tricky. But then also 64 00:04:46.320 --> 00:04:51.180 that we had such trust in our executive staff that he could be playful and it 65 00:04:51.180 --> 00:04:55.510 could be funny and then it could tell a story about why quality matters in the 66 00:04:55.510 --> 00:04:59.580 world. But he really used humor to kind of dig dig it us and also, you know, 67 00:04:59.580 --> 00:05:04.000 dig at the audience a little. It was pretty amazing. I love that so much. So 68 00:05:04.010 --> 00:05:07.590 connected to that was the film festival or the film festival was a separate 69 00:05:07.590 --> 00:05:13.780 thing. Inside of that event was a film festival. So, so as the marketing team 70 00:05:13.780 --> 00:05:17.710 talked about ways to drive engagement. It was okay, well yeah, a celebrity 71 00:05:17.710 --> 00:05:21.590 host and an inter inserting little interstitial videos that's going to be 72 00:05:21.590 --> 00:05:25.650 helpful. Making fun of the executives always a winner. Um, making sure it's 73 00:05:25.650 --> 00:05:29.020 quality relevant, you know, always a winner for us. Um, but then they also 74 00:05:29.020 --> 00:05:34.110 came up with this idea that we are customers. And I think this is true for 75 00:05:34.110 --> 00:05:36.920 all companies. When you have a user event, they come to connect with each 76 00:05:36.930 --> 00:05:42.380 other. So how are we going to get their voice into this event? And so this film 77 00:05:42.380 --> 00:05:48.160 festival was this idea that like, okay, you make a film about why quality 78 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:54.940 matters to you and we will edit it. Like if you film it on your iphone we 79 00:05:54.940 --> 00:05:59.310 will edit it. And then we gave out like we did an awards show and Jason 80 00:05:59.310 --> 00:06:02.630 alexander, you know, kind of played back and forth, like now presenting 81 00:06:02.640 --> 00:06:07.740 this comedy or documentary or we have these great categories. But that film 82 00:06:07.740 --> 00:06:13.700 festival idea really came from how do you get user's voice is when you're not 83 00:06:13.710 --> 00:06:19.620 physically together, josh. What do you think is the most irritating thing for 84 00:06:19.620 --> 00:06:23.030 B two B buyers right now? Man Logan, I love talking to you about this. You 85 00:06:23.030 --> 00:06:27.790 know that the number one challenge right now is that many customer facing 86 00:06:27.790 --> 00:06:32.090 teams In the B. two b. space right now are forcing their potential buyers too 87 00:06:32.090 --> 00:06:35.660 by the way that they want to sell, buyers don't want to buy that way. 88 00:06:35.660 --> 00:06:40.330 Right now. They want to by the way they want to buy. We need to enable those 89 00:06:40.330 --> 00:06:44.060 buyers, we call this buyer enablement at sales reach. We need to enable those 90 00:06:44.060 --> 00:06:48.890 buyers to make better decisions quicker in a comfortable environment that's 91 00:06:48.890 --> 00:06:52.460 more personalized for them to move forward with that process. Dude, that's 92 00:06:52.470 --> 00:06:56.100 awesome. I couldn't agree more since I've been using sales reach in my own 93 00:06:56.100 --> 00:07:00.470 sales process. It's allowed me to really enable the buyer to move more 94 00:07:00.470 --> 00:07:03.860 quickly and really two ways one, they don't have to download a bunch of 95 00:07:03.860 --> 00:07:08.240 attachments. I can send them to one page with the proposal case studies 96 00:07:08.250 --> 00:07:12.070 different resources because let's face it, the proposal is just one part of 97 00:07:12.070 --> 00:07:15.970 the sales conversation and probably only one sales enablement piece of 98 00:07:15.970 --> 00:07:19.610 content that you're sending. So it makes it easier on them. And then the 99 00:07:19.610 --> 00:07:23.130 other thing is, you know, we're selling to our champions and then we're making 100 00:07:23.130 --> 00:07:27.090 them have to re give our pitch to the entire buying committee. So one thing I 101 00:07:27.090 --> 00:07:31.580 do is put a custom 2 to 3 minute video on the top of my sales reach page that 102 00:07:31.580 --> 00:07:34.950 says, hey, here's all the resources, tie it back to the conversation. Here's 103 00:07:34.950 --> 00:07:38.440 the proposal. Let me know if you have any questions and it allows me to give 104 00:07:38.440 --> 00:07:41.830 a little bit of kind of a mini pitch to the rest of the buying committee, 105 00:07:41.840 --> 00:07:45.740 introduce myself, which helps me build trust and credibility and helps the 106 00:07:45.740 --> 00:07:50.560 buyer not have to repeat the entire pitch from scratch. So if anybody is 107 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:53.800 looking to do the same thing in their own sales process, I'd highly suggest 108 00:07:53.800 --> 00:07:57.040 they reach out to you and the team over at sales, reach for anybody listening. 109 00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:03.640 Just go to sales reach dot Io to talk to josh and the team. And how many 110 00:08:03.640 --> 00:08:11.970 users were you able to get to make videos? I think we had 800 people. Yeah. 111 00:08:11.980 --> 00:08:16.550 So I think about 800 people total at the event. And we had, I think we 112 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:21.740 ultimately reached out to the are loyal users, kind of our customer advisory 113 00:08:21.740 --> 00:08:27.320 board type people. And I think we had just under 15 submissions. You know, 114 00:08:27.320 --> 00:08:30.140 when you're talking about a two day event, that's actually quite a lot of 115 00:08:30.140 --> 00:08:37.280 video, um, to edit and watch. Yeah. I haven't heard any other companies 116 00:08:37.289 --> 00:08:42.020 talking about having a film festival for their, for their buyers, for a 117 00:08:42.020 --> 00:08:45.950 company or for marketing leader. That's listening. That's like, yeah, we're 118 00:08:45.950 --> 00:08:49.640 going to do a film festival. What are some of the things that you learned in 119 00:08:49.640 --> 00:08:53.030 doing this? That you're like, Yeah, you definitely want to make sure that you 120 00:08:53.040 --> 00:08:57.360 do this and don't do this. Well, I say the first thing you have to do is be 121 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:02.610 brave. I think we all even Jeff, my creative partner was like, oh, whatever 122 00:09:02.610 --> 00:09:06.850 doesn't work, but you have to be brave. And the thing you also have to believe 123 00:09:06.850 --> 00:09:11.290 in is that your audience, they have authentic stories to tell about the 124 00:09:11.290 --> 00:09:16.480 space that they work in, right? Quality management. That is not like who so 125 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:20.620 sexy, but you had to have to be brave and you have to trust the audience. We 126 00:09:20.620 --> 00:09:28.220 had some very practical choices that Jeff made to make it come together. So 127 00:09:28.220 --> 00:09:32.450 the average human, I'm old, I'm like middle aged, so the average middle aged 128 00:09:32.450 --> 00:09:38.540 human does not edit together videos on their iphone easily. I would imagine 129 00:09:38.540 --> 00:09:42.460 most people, I mean this has been my experience. A lot of people just don't 130 00:09:42.460 --> 00:09:45.480 like getting up in front of the camera, so like one of the challenges right off 131 00:09:45.480 --> 00:09:49.960 the bat is just how did you get so many people to want to participate? Oh, I 132 00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:54.930 think there's an inner story in everyone. Like even like this is what 133 00:09:54.930 --> 00:10:00.220 I'm saying, even like quality department people have a story to tell. 134 00:10:00.230 --> 00:10:04.310 And um, the thing, we started out by doing promotional videos. So the Ceo 135 00:10:04.310 --> 00:10:08.330 filmed a promotional video about making a story about quality. Our head of 136 00:10:08.330 --> 00:10:11.730 people in places did one about being equality ninja. I did one that 137 00:10:11.730 --> 00:10:15.870 basically said, well, if the Ceo can do a video, like I can do a video. So we 138 00:10:15.880 --> 00:10:20.750 showcased our exact team doing a little bit, but then we also made it 139 00:10:20.750 --> 00:10:26.250 practically achievable. They did use their iphones to film and then we used 140 00:10:26.250 --> 00:10:30.060 a production company to edit those stories together, right? So they didn't 141 00:10:30.060 --> 00:10:33.860 have to worry about, is this going to look good? Is it gonna sound good? 142 00:10:34.140 --> 00:10:39.150 Those take those things away things away, take away a lot of the friction, 143 00:10:39.640 --> 00:10:43.230 yeah, take away to friction. And then the other thing I would say is in terms 144 00:10:43.230 --> 00:10:47.300 of the things that we did is we really try to remember that like this is there 145 00:10:47.300 --> 00:10:51.190 truth. And some of them made fun of the product and company a little bit, but 146 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:56.230 some of them were like serious hallelujahs, like Can you imagine, you 147 00:10:56.230 --> 00:10:59.610 know, back in the 80s when all this stuff was in paper and now we have this 148 00:10:59.610 --> 00:11:06.080 digital system and it was authentic and fun and they have stories to tell, 149 00:11:06.090 --> 00:11:10.390 especially because they're using these software products every day so we can 150 00:11:10.390 --> 00:11:13.440 really trust that those, that, that they were going to be able to tell, you 151 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:17.350 know, really great stories and they did, what were the results aside from? Yeah, 152 00:11:17.350 --> 00:11:22.320 you had a bunch of people make these awesome videos, what were the results 153 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:26.110 of doing this and where I'm kind of getting with this is this is not 154 00:11:26.110 --> 00:11:29.950 something that's done a lot. So how come other companies aren't doing this? 155 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:33.430 Um I think you don't do this necessarily if you're going to get your 156 00:11:33.430 --> 00:11:36.350 customers all in a room and you're going to see them, you're going out to 157 00:11:36.350 --> 00:11:40.180 dinner and you're laughing, you're riding in cabs, you're playing top golf, 158 00:11:40.190 --> 00:11:42.970 you know, you're getting together and you're having that human connection. So 159 00:11:42.980 --> 00:11:47.360 I would say for in the land of virtual, this was a new kind of way to connect. 160 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:53.620 So I would say this thing you don't do it because it's hard when you're a B 161 00:11:53.620 --> 00:12:00.930 two B c M O to allocate money, frankly, that isn't going to drive leads or 162 00:12:00.930 --> 00:12:04.430 deepen engagement, right? We don't, we don't use this content for demand gen. 163 00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:11.410 Um, but it was deeply engaging in social, um, it was a huge lift for 164 00:12:11.410 --> 00:12:16.430 everyone inside of our company to say, look, these customers, like they think 165 00:12:16.430 --> 00:12:20.270 this is amazing. So particularly for our Research and Development labs 166 00:12:20.270 --> 00:12:23.970 organization, you know, they were like, they use it, they love it. I mean 167 00:12:23.970 --> 00:12:27.390 really when you go to do your annual budget, you're not annually budgeting 168 00:12:27.400 --> 00:12:31.350 for a film festival, right. That's, I mean when I think everything in CMO 169 00:12:31.350 --> 00:12:34.710 land comes down to, how am I going to pay for it? What's the value? Um, I 170 00:12:34.710 --> 00:12:40.910 will say that if we get back to a CMOS job is to find a way to authentically 171 00:12:40.920 --> 00:12:44.750 connect with the humans which are our buyers, then I think we'd see more of 172 00:12:44.750 --> 00:12:48.060 things like this because there was nothing more authentic than them 173 00:12:48.060 --> 00:12:55.550 telling the stories. Yeah, I agree. Now it could have been a gigantic flop and 174 00:12:55.740 --> 00:12:59.690 thank goodness it wasn't, but it definitely could have been. So how did 175 00:12:59.690 --> 00:13:05.800 you as a team handle the fear and the risk Jeff gave me oxygen every day. No, 176 00:13:05.800 --> 00:13:10.720 I'm kidding. We, we came to a moment for this whole event. We had a number 177 00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:14.460 of things, we tried the Jason alexander thing, that all these things where you 178 00:13:14.460 --> 00:13:17.840 know the Head of Creative really said, you have got to just trust the creative, 179 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:20.830 you come to a moment where you just have to trust the creative and I think 180 00:13:20.830 --> 00:13:24.270 that's the mantra of every executive creative director. But how do you mess 181 00:13:24.270 --> 00:13:28.520 up? We could have messed up the spirit and intent in the edit. I think, you 182 00:13:28.520 --> 00:13:32.430 know, if you misuse someone's footage, that's a huge risk. The other thing 183 00:13:32.430 --> 00:13:37.790 I've seen companies do is they want to turn these moments into a product add 184 00:13:37.800 --> 00:13:42.260 like, oh, you know, that that would have been a huge mistake, you know, to 185 00:13:42.260 --> 00:13:46.890 give these to product marketing and have them, you know, try and like show 186 00:13:46.890 --> 00:13:51.140 a screenshot or something, you know, to make it more about us. So I think it 187 00:13:51.140 --> 00:13:59.380 was really about sticking true to the risky, terrifying customer led films, 188 00:13:59.390 --> 00:14:03.990 you know? But we also said if we get three, those are three great stories 189 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:07.610 and we have and to get Eight, it was amazing. In fact, I think they're 190 00:14:07.610 --> 00:14:11.650 available still to go watch. Obviously they'll appeal mostly to people in our 191 00:14:11.650 --> 00:14:17.740 industry. But you can see our customers use things like film noir storytelling. 192 00:14:17.750 --> 00:14:22.250 They use things like back to the past. They used devices we all see in common 193 00:14:22.250 --> 00:14:28.420 film. You got to trust. Yeah, if you did it again, what would you do the 194 00:14:28.420 --> 00:14:34.170 same and what would you try to change? Oh gosh, If we did it again. I think we 195 00:14:34.170 --> 00:14:38.840 would have category definitions. I think we sort of, we started with some 196 00:14:38.840 --> 00:14:44.740 categories and then we kind of move things around. We would definitely get 197 00:14:44.810 --> 00:14:49.010 our our executive team was involved in selecting the award winners. We would 198 00:14:49.010 --> 00:14:52.480 absolutely continue to keep that team engaged in the awards because it's a 199 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:57.110 great way to deliver to the execs authentic voice of the customer in a 200 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:04.150 like not harsh way. We would probably still fund the edit and probably even 201 00:15:04.160 --> 00:15:08.340 beef that up a little bit more. So those are some things we do. I love it. 202 00:15:08.350 --> 00:15:11.920 I love it. Sarah. Thank you so much for anyone who's listening. You can check 203 00:15:11.920 --> 00:15:16.220 out the videos at master control dot com slash quality shorts and I'll put 204 00:15:16.220 --> 00:15:20.210 that link in the description Sarah. How can listeners connect with you? Oh, you 205 00:15:20.210 --> 00:15:25.860 can connect with me on linkedin linkedin slash Sarah breezy. B R E S E. 206 00:15:26.340 --> 00:15:29.430 Sarah. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Hey, that's awesome. 207 00:15:29.430 --> 00:15:30.060 Thanks to me. 208 00:15:33.140 --> 00:15:37.080 Is your buyer at BDB Marketer. If so, you should think about sponsoring this 209 00:15:37.080 --> 00:15:42.020 podcast. BTB growth gets downloaded over 130 1000 times each month. And our 210 00:15:42.020 --> 00:15:45.840 listeners are marketing decision makers. If it sounds interesting, send Logan 211 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:48.650 and email Logan at sweet Fish Media dot com. 212 00:15:51.540 --> 00:15:53.450 Yeah.