I recorded this 'shorts' podcast episode in response to a question I was asked after Barney Worfolk-Smith was on The Six Sells Podcast recently. The question I was asked was "How do you marry the longer-term consultative approach, with the expectations of leadership, who want immediate opportunities in the pipeline, and don't have the patience?"
It's a great question, and the answer to this question starts with understanding where each of your buyers are in the B2B Buyers' Journey as quickly as possible.
According to the literature out of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, in B2B industries, 95% of people are not in-market for what you are selling in any given week, but they might be next month, next quarter, or next year.
People who don't currently have a brief and a budget are unlikely to respond to direct sales messaging - this 95% group need value-led, marketing communications which can absolutely still come from the salesperson.
For clarification, when I am talking about sales and marketing communications in this context I mean:
‣ Marketing comms - softer, value driven, give value don't ask for anything in return. Through valuable visibility, you build the first 3 stages of the B2B Buyers Journey by strengthening awareness, familiarity and trust.
‣ Sales comms - More direct, closing for something. This communication is relevant when your buyer is at the interest or consideration stage.
In this 7 minute episode I give an example of how to balance marketing comms to the 95%, and use that to uncover the 5% who are in-market and ready for a sales conversation.
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Who is Six Sells?
Six Sells is a UK-based executive visibility and thought leadership agency that works globally with CEOs and senior leaders in media, advertising, adtech and technology.
Founded in 2018, we turn each executive's expertise into distinctive, authoritative content in their own voice, built to reach two audiences at once: the humans that matter to them, and the AI models those humans now ask for answers.
Our work combines executive ghostwriting, video, podcasts, photography and awards to build familiarity, trust and authority across LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, Substack, the trade press and the wider web.
We also help executives and their companies improve their visibility in AI search and large language models (LLMs) through generative engine optimisation (GEO), increasing the likelihood that platforms including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity and Claude can discover, understand, cite and recommend their expertise.
Email hello@sixsells.co.uk for more information.
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