[Research Round-Up] The Latest Edition of "The CMO Survey" and a New Survey by EMARKETER

 (This month's Research Round-Up features the Spring 2025 edition of "The CMO Survey" and a new survey of senior B2B marketers by EMARKETER, in association with StackAdapt.)

Spring 2025 Edition of "The CMO Survey"

Source:  "The CMO Survey"

• A survey of 281 marketing leaders at U.S. for-profit companies
  
• 99% of the respondents were VP-level or above
• 58.4% of the respondents were with B2B companies
• The survey was in the field January 21 - February 12, 2025

"The CMO Survey" has been conducted semi-annually since 2008. It's directed by Dr. Christine Moorman and sponsored by Deloitte, Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, and the American Marketing Association.

For several years, each edition of the survey has asked participants about overall economic conditions, current marketing spending patterns, and future spending expectations. Here are some of the findings on those topics from the Spring 2025 survey.

Economic Outlook

The Spring 2025 survey found that marketing leaders were less optimistic about the economy than a year earlier. The survey asked participants to rate their optimism regarding the overall U.S. economy on a 100-point scale, with "0" being the least optimistic, and "100" being the most optimistic. The mean rating given by respondents was 62.2, down from 67.0 in the Spring 2024 survey.

The survey also asked if participants were more or less optimistic about the U.S. economy compared to the previous quarter, and only 31.2% of the respondents reported being more optimistic. That was down significantly from 43.7% in the Spring 2024 survey.

Meanwhile, 48.2% of the respondents in the Spring 2025 survey said they were less optimistic about the U.S. economy compared to the previous quarter. That was up from only 25.3% in the Spring 2024 survey.

Marketing Spending

In the Spring 2025 survey, respondents reported that marketing spending represented 9.4% of total company revenue, which was up from 7.7% in the Spring 2024 survey. Respondents also said that overall marketing spending increased 3.3% over the 12 months preceding the survey, and they expected spending to increase 8.9% over the 12 months following the survey.

The relative change in spending on digital marketing vs. traditional advertising remains significant. In the Spring 2025 survey, respondents reported that spending on digital marketing grew 7.3% over the prior 12 months. In contrast, respondents said they expect spending on traditional advertising to decrease by 0.3% over the 12 months following the survey.

Marketing's Role in the Organization Has Grown . . .

The Spring 2025 survey asked participants how marketing's role in their organization had changed over the previous five years. The survey asked participants to rate the amount and direction of change using a numerical scale ranging from -7 (significantly narrowed) to +7 (significantly broadened). The mean value given by respondents was 3.2, which indicates that marketing's role has expanded substantially.

But So Has the Pressure to Prove the Value of Marketing

Sixty-one percent (61%) of the respondents in the Spring 2025 survey said they felt pressure from their CEO to prove the value of marketing. That was up from 51% in the Fall 2023 edition of the survey. Sixty-three percent (63%) of the Spring 2025 respondents reported feeling the same kind of pressure from their CFO, and that was up from 52% in the Fall 2023 edition of the survey.

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As always, "The CMO Survey" contains a wealth of valuable insights, and I encourage you to review the full report.

"B2B Marketing Makes Room for Brand in Budgets and Strategies" by EMARKETER in
partnership with StackAdapt 

Source:  EMARKETER

• Based on a survey of 110 B2B enterprise executive marketing professionals in North America
• 6.4% of respondents were CEOs, presidents, or founders, 14.5% were C-level executives, and 79.1% were executive vice presidents, senior vice presidents, or vice presidents
• The survey was conducted during March 2025

The primary objective of this research was to better understand how B2B marketers are allocating budgets between performance and brand marketing, where they plan to invest next, and what barriers exist to additional brand investment.

Here are some of the major findings from the survey.

Brand and Performance Marketing

Over half of the survey respondents (58.2%) said they devote at least half of their marketing budget to lead generation, with paid search and paid social being the top two lead generation channels.

However, 40% of the respondents said they expect to increase their brand-building budgets in the 12 months following the survey. In addition, 45.5% said that if budget weren't a constraint, they would allocate more than half their marketing spend to brand initiatives.

The Measurement Challenge

Sixty-three percent (63%) of the respondents agreed that brand is a critical long-term play, but they struggle to quantify its impact. When survey participants were asked what challenges were preventing them from increasing investment in brand marketing, "proving ROI" was the top barrier identified. 

In addition, over a third of the survey respondents (35.5%) said they expect to face greater pressure to demonstrate ROI in real time over the 12 months following the survey.

How to Make Sustainability Marketing Effective Marketing

(This is the third of three posts discussing the use of environmental claims in marketing. The first two posts in the series can be found here and here. This post describes how marketers can make environmental claims more compelling for potential buyers and thus more effective at driving revenue growth.)

Many marketers at companies offering sustainable products or services have been featuring environmental messages prominently in their marketing campaigns, and this shouldn't be surprising. After all, numerous surveys have found that most people are concerned about the environment and support actions aimed at improving environmental sustainability.

But many surveys have also revealed a substantial and persistent disconnect between the views people express about sustainability in surveys and their actual buying behaviors. This say-do gap can be attributed to several factors, including:

• The impact of the social desirability bias on survey findings

• The failure of some surveys to capture how important sustainability is to survey respondents compared to other factors that influence their purchase decisions 

• The higher cost of many sustainable products

• How convenient it is to purchase sustainable products (compared to "non-sustainable" alternatives)

While all these factors have contributed to the say-do gap in specific instances, marketers also bear some of the responsibility for the gap because we haven't consistently communicated the benefits of sustainability in ways that produce changes in buying behaviors.

Recent Research Provides Important Insights

Making sustainability an effective marketing tool has been a tough challenge because there hasn't been much research on what kinds of sustainability claims are most appealing to potential customers. However, two recent studies have provided several important data points on this issue.

The Public Inc. Survey

The first study is a 2024 survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Public Inc. (the "Public Inc. Survey"). This survey was conducted July 11-24, 2024 with a nationally representative sample of 1,510 US adults and 1,508 Canadian adults.

The NYU-Edelman Study

The second study is a 2023 research initiative conducted by the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business and Edelman (the "NYU-Edelman Study").

For this research, NYU and Edelman partnered with nine consumer brands from various industries. The researchers conducted a survey with a sample of the US general population and asked respondents for each brand to rate the appeal of 30-35 marketing claims, which included a mix of conventional product claims and environmental claims.

The researchers used two robust survey techniques to obtain an appeal score for each claim and to identify the combination of claims that produced the maximum overall appeal.

The Formula for Effective Sustainability Marketing

Collectively, the Public Inc. Survey and the NYU-Edelman Study provide robust evidence about the attributes that make sustainability claims appealing to potential customers. They also identify two steps that you must take if you want to be successful at using sustainability claims in your marketing efforts.

Focus on the Right Goal

First, you must always remember that your primary objective is to drive increased sales of a sustainable product or products, not to evangelize the cause of sustainability.

This distinction is critical because it largely determines which sustainability claims you will use and how you will frame those claims.

The focus on increasing sales is not solely a matter of economic self-interest. The surest way to advance sustainability is to increase sales of sustainable products. As the authors of the NYU-Edelman Study report wrote:  ". . . consumer demand will be a key driver for companies to scale investments at the pace necessary to combat climate change and other urgent issues."

Recognize the Diversity of Your Target Audience

The target market for your sustainable products - and therefore the target audience for your marketing campaigns - will consist of potential buyers with substantially different levels of interest in, and commitment to, sustainability. So, your sustainability claims must take this diversity into account.

The Public Inc. Survey identified five consumer segments based on the percentage of their purchases that are conscious, i.e., purchases of "products or services made with consideration for social, ethical, or environmental factors."

The researchers found that only 9% of the surveyed consumers made conscious purchases at least 75% of the time. Forty-five percent (45%) of the surveyed consumers made conscious purchases less than 50% of the time.

Three Ways to Make Sustainability More Appealing

Based on the findings of the Public Inc. Survey and the NYU-Edelman Study, there are three steps you can take to make sustainability claims more compelling for potential buyers.

Step 1 - Link sustainability claims to "conventional" product performance claims

• The NYU-Edelman Study evaluated the appeal of sustainability claims and conventional product performance claims (which the study report calls "category claims").

• In this study, product performance claims were found to be "paramount and non-negotiable" and were more compelling than stand-alone sustainability claims.

• However, the researchers also found that claims that combined sustainability and product performance elements extended brand reach and were the most compelling claims tested.

Step 2 - Make sustainability personal

• Both the Public Inc. Survey and the NYU-Edelman Study found that sustainability claims were more appealing when they expressed how sustainability provides tangible benefits to the buyer or to the people or things the buyer cares most about.

• Specifically, the NYU-Edelman Study found that the surveyed consumers cared most about themselves and their families (health, well-being, etc.), saving money, local farms and farmers, their children and future generations, and sustainable sourcing.

• Conversely, both studies found that science-oriented claims like "carbon neutral," "net zero," and "bio-degradable" did not perform well with consumers. The NYU-Edelman Study did find that the performance of science-oriented claims is improved when they are tied to a personal "reason to care."

Step 3 - Emphasize the aspects of sustainability that deliver present-day benefits

• The Public Inc. Survey found that consumers are more likely to respond to sustainability claims that focus on immediate or short-term benefits.

• As the report's authors put it:  "They [consumers] want to know how their purchase makes their life better or easier now, not in some distant future."

A Final Point

Marketers who include environmental claims in their marketing communications must ensure that they have adequate scientific evidence to support those claims. And the same is true for environmental claims used on product packaging.

Without such supporting evidence, you run the risk that your company can be accused of greenwashing, which refers to making false or misleading claims about the environmental impacts of a product or company to make it look more environmentally beneficial than it actually is.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission is the federal agency primarily responsible for regulating environmental marketing claims, and all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have laws prohibiting false or deceptive advertising that can be used to combat greenwashing.

Equally important, the number of private class-action lawsuits involving allegations of greenwashing is increasing, and some have resulted in the award of substantial financial judgments against companies found to have engaged in greenwashing.

The important lesson for marketers is:  Only make an environmental claim if you have the evidence to back it up.

The top image is a version of the universal recycling symbol and is in the public domain. Accessed via Wikimedia Commons.

Sustainability Marketing - A Mixed Record of Effectiveness

(This is the second of three posts dealing with the use of environmental claims in marketing communications. In my first post, I described the current political backlash against some ESG-related policies, but I also noted that public support for protecting the environment remains widespread, according to recent research. This post discusses why environmental claims in marketing haven't worked as well as some research findings suggest they should.)

The current political backlash against ESG-inspired policies and programs is prompting many marketing leaders to question the wisdom of including environmental claims in their marketing campaigns.

Beyond the political risk, marketers must also determine whether the use of environmental messaging will improve marketing performance and drive revenue growth. On this issue, the available evidence paints a mixed picture.

Sustainability Marketing Is Working . . .

The Sustainable Market Share Index(TM)[1] (the "CSB Index") produced by the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business provides compelling evidence that marketing products as sustainable results in substantial market share growth.

The CSB Index is based on sales data from Circana for 36 categories of consumer packaged goods (CPG) products (excluding alcohol and tobacco). Collectively, these 36 product categories accounted for approximately 40% of the total US CPG market in sales from 2013 - 2024.

The 2024 edition of the CSB Index found that:

• Products marketed as sustainable held a 23.8% market share of the total US CPG market, up 2.6 percentage points from 2023, and the market share of sustainable products has increased 9.2 percentage points since 2013.

• Products marketed as sustainable achieved a 5-year compound annual growth rate of 12.4% vs. a CAGR of 6.8% for the overall US CPG market.

• Products marketed as sustainable were responsible for 41% of the growth of the total US CPG market for the period of 2013 - 2024.

While the CSB Index only tracks data for selected CPG categories, it nevertheless suggests that using environmental/sustainability claims in marketing can drive significant market share growth.

But a Substantial "Say-Do" Gap Exists

David Ogilvy, the legendary advertising executive and founder of Ogilvy & Mather, once said:  "The trouble with market research is that people don't think how they feel, they don't say what they think, and they don't do what they say."

Many of the surveys addressing public support for environmental sustainability demonstrate that Ogilvy's famous quip is at least partly true because they reveal a substantial say-do gap. A say-do gap refers to the disconnect that often exists between the views and intentions that people express in surveys and polls and their actual behaviors.

As I noted earlier, recent surveys have consistently shown that public support for actions aimed at protecting the environment and improving sustainability is widespread, and similar findings have been appearing in surveys for most of the past two decades.

However, numerous surveys have also revealed a substantial say-do gap between people's stated views and attitudes about sustainability and their actual buying behaviors. For example:

• In a 2024 survey of more than 3,000 US and Canadian adults conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Public Inc., 76% of the respondents described themselves as "conscious consumers," but only 38% of the respondents' actual purchases were made with consideration for social, ethical, or environmental factors.

• In a 2025 survey of more than 5,000 consumers in Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, the UK, and the US by Blue Yonder, 78% of the respondents said sustainability considerations are somewhat or very important when shopping, but only 29% had switched their brand loyalty to companies they perceived as exhibiting more sustainable practices.

The say-do gap is not a recent development. It's been appearing in survey findings for at least the past 15 years. For example, in a 2010 survey by Cone Communications (described in this Forbes article), 80% of the respondents said they were likely to switch brands to one that supports a cause, although only 41% said they and purchased a product in the previous year because it was associated with a social or environmental cause.

Causes of the Say-Do Gap

The sustainability say-do gap can be attributed to several factors.

Social Desirability Bias

First, some surveys may have overstated public support for sustainability, at least to some extent, because of the social desirability bias. 

This bias refers to the tendency of survey respondents to answer survey questions in the manner they believe will be viewed favorably by others rather than the way they actually think or feel.

So, when a survey asks participants whether sustainability is important to them when making purchase decisions, some respondents are likely to perceive that "yes" is the "right" answer.

Failing to Capture Relative Importance

Many surveys also fail to capture the importance of sustainability in relation to other factors that influence purchase decisions. For example, a survey respondent may truthfully say sustainability considerations are important when making a purchase decision, when the reality is that sustainability is less important to the respondent than factors such as product quality, cost, and convenience.

This phenomenon is evident in the findings of a survey of 1,000 US consumers conducted by McKinsey & Company in March of this year.

The McKinsey survey asked participants to rate the importance they ascribe to seven factors when making purchase decisions. As the following table shows, 72% of the respondents said perception of quality is extremely or very important, and 70% said the same for price. However, only 33% of the respondents rated environmental impact as extremely or very important.

Effectiveness of Environmental Messaging

The size of the sustainability say-do gap is also affected by how effectively marketers communicate the environmental benefits of their product or service. The persistence of a large sustainability say-do gap indicates that marketers need to make their environmental claims and messaging more persuasive.

In my next post, I'll describe the four attributes that make sustainability claims more compelling for potential buyers.

[1] - Sustainable Market Share Index is a trademark of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business

Top image courtesy of Sheri via Flickr (CC).

Making Sustainability Marketing Work - Part 1

(The political backlash against ESG and other aspects of so-called "woke capitalism" is creating a conundrum for some marketers. On one hand, the backlash is real, and marketers would rather not attract the attention of anti-ESG partisans. On the other hand, recent research continues to show that a majority of people are concerned about the environment and generally support actions aimed at improving sustainability. In this post, I'll discuss the current state of support and opposition to ESG, and in my next post, I'll describe how marketers can make sustainability messaging more effective.)

The ESG Backlash is Real . . .

The political backlash against ESG, the practice of using environmental, social and governance factors to assess a company's performance and impact on society, is undeniable.

• Earlier this year, President Trump issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to shut down diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and end DEI performance requirements for federal contractors and grant recipients.

• At least 21 US states have enacted anti-ESG laws in some form.

• Several high-profile US companies - including Meta, Walmart, Target, McDonald's, Ford, Citi, Harley Davidson, and Tractor Supply - have scaled back or otherwise modified their ESG policies.

While various versions of "corporate social responsibility" have existed for decades, the modern ESG construct entered the business mainstream following the publication of an influential 2004 UN report titled "Who Cares Wins."

In the following decade, numerous research studies were published showing that sizable majorities of consumers and business buyers were placing great importance on the environmental and social track record of companies when making purchase decisions.

As a result, some marketing leaders became enamored with "purpose marketing" and began incorporating environmental and social claims and themes into their marketing campaigns.

It's not surprising that the current political environment is causing many marketing leaders to question the wisdom of using ESG-related messaging in their campaigns.

While a healthy dose of caution is warranted, most companies should not abandon ESG-related messaging altogether. That's because not all ESG-related marketing messages are equally polarizing.

But It's Not Universal

ESG is an umbrella concept that covers a wide range of issues and initiatives, and public attitudes toward those issues and initiatives vary greatly. So far, the most intense public opposition to ESG has tended to focus on social initiatives such as DEI.

In contrast, several recent research surveys have shown that most people are concerned about environmental issues and want to buy products and services that are environmentally sustainable. One of the more recent and most robust surveys I've reviewed is the "2025 Conscious Consumer Report" by Public Inc. (the "Public Inc. Survey").

The Public Inc. Survey

The Public Inc. Survey was an online survey of more than 3,000 adults (ages 18+) in the United States and Canada conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Public Inc. The survey was conducted July 11-24, 2004 among a nationally representative sample of 1.510 US adults and 1,508 Canadian adults. Survey data was weighted by age, gender and region using the latest available census data for each country.

The report states that the precision of the survey was measured using a credibility interval and that the survey is accurate (overall) to within +/- 2.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The results of the Public Inc. Survey reveal broad interest in environmental issues and widespread support for sustainability.

• 76% of US respondents agreed that climate change poses a serious threat

• 70% of US respondents said that companies should be doing more in terms of sustainability and ethical best practices

• 79% of US respondents believe that being purposeful in how they spend their money is one of the best ways to motivate companies to change

• 68% of all respondents agreed that sustainable products improve the health and well-being of their children and family

• 65% of all respondents agreed that sustainable products improve their own lives

• 58% of all respondents said they would pay more for products and services that are ethical and sustainable

Perhaps most important, fully three-quarters of the respondents identified themselves as environmentally conscious consumers.

At first glance, these survey findings suggest that using sustainability claims in marketing should be an easy decision. Unfortunately, however, these findings don't tell the whole story.

First, it's important to recognize that these findings may overstate the breadth (or at least the intensity) of public support for sustainability. And second, other findings in the Public Inc. Survey suggest that the sustainability claims marketers have been using have not been all that effective at driving increased sales of sustainable products and services.

I'll address these issues in my next post, and I'll describe four attributes that will make sustainability claims more effective at driving revenue growth.

Image courtesy of medicalofficecareers.com via Flickr (CC).

[Research Round-Up] NetLine's Latest Data On B2B Content Consumption

 (This month's Research Round-Up discusses the 2025 B2B content consumption report from NetLine Corporation. NetLine publishes this report annually, and it consistently provides a wealth of real-world insights about how business professionals actually consume marketing content.)

Source:  NetLine Corporation

Virtually all B2B companies now use content marketing in several forms, so understanding how business professionals consume content has become critical to marketing success. The 2025 State of B2B Content Consumption & Demand Report by NetLine Corporation provides valuable insights on this vital issue.

NetLine operates a content syndication platform, and this report is based on data from 7.9 million content registrations on the platform in 2024. The NetLine research is particularly valuable for two reasons.

First, it captures the real-world consumption behaviors of business professionals. The data used for the report was not derived from surveys or interviews, but from actual engagements with B2B content.

And second, the report is based on first-party data. The business professionals who use the NetLine platform voluntarily share information about themselves and the organizations they work for in exchange for access to the content resources available on the platform.

For these reasons, the report contains a wealth of detailed information about content consumption behaviors, and I encourage you to review the full 36-page report.

Content Consumption Continues Rising

As measured by registrations on the NetLine platform, overall B2B content consumption in 2024 increased 27% compared to 2023 levels. NetLine's data shows that total demand for B2B content has grown 84% since the 2019 edition of the research. 

Content consumption by C-level executives is also still on the rise, growing 27% year-over-year. In 2024, C-level executives accounted for 13% of the total demand on the NetLine platform.

Demand for content about artificial intelligence grew dramatically in 2024. The explosive growth began in 2023 when demand for AI-related content increased 6.6x compared to 2022. In 2024, demand for such content increased 2.9x compared to 2023.

Most Popular Content Formats

The ten most requested content formats in 2024 were:

• eBooks
• Guides
• Cheat Sheets
• White Papers
• Articles
• Research Reports
• Tips and Tricks Guides
• Book Summaries
• Webinars
• Newsletters

In 2024, content registrations for eBooks increased 71% year-over-year, and the report observes that eBooks represented more than half of all content formats requested on the NetLine platform.

The report also notes that eBooks are a very efficient content format. Every eBook asset uploaded to the NetLine platform in 2024 generated 983 registrations. In contrast, white papers generated only 60 registrations per asset.

The Consumption Gap Widens

One of the more useful insights provided by the report relates to the consumption gap, which NetLine defines as the time between the moment a content resource is requested and the moment it's opened for consumption. This data point is important because it provides a guide for timing follow-up contacts with potential buyers. After all, it makes little sense to contact a potential buyer about a content resource before he or she has reviewed the content.

In 2024, the average consumption gap was 39 hours, up from 31 hours in 2023. The consumption gap has varied over the years. Before 2024, the largest gap recorded by NetLine was 33.3 hours in 2021, and the smallest was 27.1 hours in 2018. The lesson here is that you should wait at least two days before you try to follow up with people who have requested your content via NetLine.

Content Consumption and Buyer Purchase Intent

For the past few years, NetLine's research has suggested that the content format a potential buyer chooses to consume is a good indicator of purchase timing. In the latest analysis, NetLine identified five content formats that are more likely to be associated with a buying decision within the next 12 months - playbooks, infographics, case studies, trend reports, and buyer's guides. 

One format that is notably absent from this list is eBooks. Despite being the most frequently requested type of content last year, eBooks were not strongly associated with shorter-term purchase intention. This shouldn't be surprising because most eBooks are designed to appeal primarily to potential buyers who are in the earlier stages of their buying journey.

*****

Again, the NetLine report contains several other valuable findings, and I recommend you take the time to review the full report.

Why Motivation, Not Emotion, Is the Real Key to Marketing Effectiveness

Many marketing pundits are advising B2B marketers to connect with potential buyers on an emotional level. And at first glance, this advice appears to be sound.

In their often-cited paper, "The Long and Short of It," advertising effectiveness gurus Les Binet and Peter Field wrote:  "Emotional campaigns . . . produce considerably more powerful long-term business effects than rational persuasion campaigns."

But emotional messaging alone is not a guarantee of marketing success. While most successful marketing messages will evoke an emotional or psychological response in potential buyers, not all messages that induce an emotional response will produce desired business outcomes. Here's why.

Emotional Marketing that Missed the Mark

Budweiser's 2015 Lost Dog Super Bowl Ad 

Budweiser's Clydesdales have become one of the most iconic images in U.S. advertising. The Clydesdales debuted in a TV ad during the 1986 Super Bowl, and they've appeared in numerous Super Bowl ads since. Dogs (and puppies) have also been prominently featured in many of these classic ads.

Such was the case with the "Lost Dog" ad that aired during the 2015 Super Bowl. This ad featured the Clydesdales and an adorable yellow Labrador puppy. Here's the ad.

Source:  TrueColors via YouTube

The Lost Dog ad took top honors in USA Today's Ad Meter poll for the 2015 Super Bowl and made Budweiser a back-to-back winner. The 2015 ad was a "sequel" to Budweiser's 2014 Clydesdale/puppy Super Bowl ad, which won the USA Today poll for that year.

Given the popularity of the Lost Dog ad, you would think Budweiser considered it an overwhelming success. Well, not quite.

In a 2015 article in Advertising Age (subscription required), Jorn Socquet, then the USA Chief Marketing Officer at Anheuser-Busch InBev, offered this assessment of Budweiser's 2015 Super Bowl ads:  "Budweiser aired two very different spots in last February's Super Bowl, and we learned that content focused on the quality of our beer was most effective in generating sales."

Socquet went on to say that while everyone loved the puppies, "they have zero impact on beer sales. Those ads I wouldn't air again because they don't sell beer."

Coca-Cola's 1979 "Hey Kid, Catch" Ad

Coca-Cola's "Hey Kid, Catch" TV ad debuted in the fall of 1979 and was re-aired during the 1980 Super Bowl. It depicted an encounter between the Pittsburgh Steelers' Hall of Fame defensive end, "Mean" Joe Greene, and a young fan. Here's the ad.

Source:  stiggerpao via YouTube

This ad ranks high on the emotional content scale, and it was highly regarded in professional advertising/marketing circles. The ad won a Clio Award for being one of the best television commercials of 1979, and it has been listed as one of the top ads of all time by multiple sources. The ad gained international notoriety when it was re-filmed in several other countries using local sports figures. 

As with the Budweiser ad, you would think Coca-Cola viewed this ad as successful, but again, this assumption wouldn't be accurate.

Sergio Zyman was the Chief Marketing Officer of The Coca-Cola Company when the Hey Kid, Catch ad was aired. In his 1999 book, The End of Marketing As We Know It, Zyman explained his decision to pull the ad off the air.

"America loves it! People talk about it for weeks. The critics rave about it. . . The ad is so hot that Coca-Cola marketers all over the world want to translate it . . . The company should run it forever, right? Wrong. Coke doesn't run this ad forever. In fact, Coke pulls the ad altogether and launches a new campaign  . . . Why would Coke do that? . . . The answer is simple. I know because I am the person who did it. My job as a marketer for The Coca-Cola Company was to get people out of their houses and into restaurants and stores to buy more Coca-Cola products - and the ad just wasn't doing that."

Why Didn't They Work?

What went wrong with these highly popular and critically acclaimed ads? Both were designed to touch viewers' emotions, and they clearly succeeded. So, why didn't they drive increased sales for Budweiser and Coke?

Why Motivation Is Critical

The short answer is that they were high on emotion but low on motivation.

The Budweiser and Coke ads illustrate a principle that is often underappreciated by marketers:  Emotion can be a powerful tool in marketing, but emotional messaging without a motivational message won't produce the desired business results.

Basic concepts from the decision sciences explain why motivation is so critical to marketing success.

The Science of Motivation

Recent advances in the decision sciences have established that motivation is the primary driver of all human behavior.

The American Psychological Association defines motivation as "a person's willingness to exert physical or mental effort in pursuit of a goal or outcome." In a business context, a goal can be to solve a problem, satisfy a need, or get a particular "job" done.

As humans, we are motivated to pursue a goal because we expect to receive a reward if the goal is achieved. Neuroscience research has shown that the human brain has a "reward system" that's activated when our brain processes sensory inputs that signal a reward we value.

Research has also shown that our brain automatically scans our environment for information that aligns with our goals. So, in essence, our brain causes us to pay attention to information that's closely related to our goals.

Goals can be categorized in several ways, but two categories are particularly important for marketers. First, goals can be functional or psychological.

• Functional goals relate directly to the core task or job a potential buyer wants or needs to get done. If my computer printer dies, my functional goal will be to determine what kind of printer I need and acquire a replacement. Functional goals can usually be described in terms of the features or attributes of an existing product or service category.

• Psychological goals are more general and arise out of basic psychological needs that humans are always motivated to satisfy. Such basic needs include security (safety, trust, etc.), autonomy (success, superiority, power, etc.), and excitement (adventure, fun, etc.)

Goals are also either explicit or implicit.

• Explicit goals are those we set and pursue at a conscious level.

• Implicit goals operate at a subconscious level. We are motivated to pursue implicit goals even when we aren't consciously thinking about them.

Implications for Marketing

These principles of human motivation and decision-making have major implications for B2B marketers. The most important lesson is that the ability of any marketing message to resonate with a potential buyer is determined not by how emotional the message is, but rather by how closely the message aligns with the buyer's goals.

Therefore, your most critical job as a marketer is to craft marketing messages that will build mental associations between your company/brand/product/service and the goals of your potential buyers.

Using emotion in marketing messages is powerful because it makes your messages more memorable. That's particularly important in brand marketing because at any given point in time, most of your potential buyers, usually more than 90%, aren't actively engaged in a buying process.

You're communicating with these "out-of-market" buyers in the present, and you're hoping they will remember your message at some point in the future when they're ready to begin a serious buying process.

The bottom line is that effective marketing will convey the right motivational message in an emotionally engaging way.

An Example of Motivation Well Used

W.W. Grainger, Inc., the Fortune 500 provider of industrial MRO supplies, is currently running TV ads that illustrate how marketing messages can effectively tap into the goals that drive human motivation in an emotionally engaging way.

Several Grainger ads use the same overall theme, and some of the ads are available on YouTube. I've included links to a few of the ads at the end of this post, and I suggest you take a few minutes to view these videos. Here's one of the ads.

Source:  Grainger via YouTube

To be clear, I have no relationship with Grainger, nor do I have any "inside information" about the strategy that led to the development of the ads. My comments are based on an analysis of the ads themselves.

The most important feature of all the ads is that front-line maintenance personnel are made the "heroes" of the narrative. The visuals show men and women in blue-collar working clothes, usually wearing hard hats, not executives or managers in business suits.

In the above video, the hero is portrayed as someone who always sees the big picture, not just a maintenance job, and who is capable of handling "whatever comes his way and has Grainger on his side."

This narrative appeals directly to the human psychological goals of being viewed as competent and having one's value to his or her organization fully appreciated. The ad also directly links Grainger to the achievement of those goals.

The tagline used in all of the ads - "For the ones who get it done" - captures the central theme of the ads in a memorable, concise, and effective way.

The key point illustrated by the Budweiser, Coke, and Grainger ads is:  Emotion will make marketing messages memorable, but motivation is what makes them commercially effective.

Links to Other Grainger Ads Available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZAWOiE27aY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEzlATpn7Dw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6htzaHZyfI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9npk9WRHHGY

[Book Review] An A to Z Guide to the Craft of "Marketing with Words"

Source:  Kogan Page

Writing has been an integral part of my work throughout my professional career. I can't begin to calculate how many words or pages I've written over the past four-plus decades.

But even now, I regularly have questions about grammar, or style, or some other aspect of writing that I'm not sure how to answer. Over the years, I've assembled a small library of reference books to help me answer these questions.

I still have the Harbrace College Handbook I used in my undergraduate English course, and I frequently turn to Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. And, a couple of years ago, I added Ann Handley's great book Everybody Writes to my collection of go-to reference books.

I now plan to add Alan Barker's new book, The Complete Copywriter:  The Definitive Guide to Marketing with Words (Kogan Page, 2025), to my library of writing resources. The Complete Copywriter is an in-depth guide to writing marketing content, and it should be required reading for anyone new to the craft.

Alan Barker is Managing Director of Kairos Training Limited, a UK-based consulting firm focused on developing creativity and communication skills. He also runs the copywriting masterclass offered by The Chartered Institute of Marketing, one of the UK's premier marketing professional associations.

What's In the Book

The Complete Copywriter covers a wide range of subjects relating to writing marketing content. The book is structured in six parts.

• In Part 1 (Chapters 1-2), Barker discusses the attributes, skills, and habits needed to be a good writer, and he explains how copy (written content) works.

• Part 2 (Chapters 3-6) describes the three steps essential to planning any form of copy - understanding and profiling the reader, articulating the argument or proposition the copy will express, and determining what voice the copy will use.

• In Part 3 (Chapters 7-9), Barker explains how to structure copy for browsing readers and searching readers, and he devotes a chapter to the use of narratives (stories) in written content.

• Part 4 (Chapters 10-1) introduces the reader to the fundamental principles and rules of syntax and grammar.

• In Part 5 (Chapters 12-17), Barker describes how to develop a content strategy, and he explains how to create effective copy for several content formats, including websites, email, newsletters, press releases, and longer-form content such as white papers, blog posts, and thought leadership pieces. 

• In Part 6 (Chapters 18-19), Barker identifies the skills you need to be a successful copywriter, and he concludes the book with a detailed list of additional resources about copywriting and writing in general.

My Take

The Complete Copywriter will be a valuable resource for both beginning and experienced marketing writers.

For beginners, the book provides a thorough introduction to the craft of "marketing with words." Alan Barker writes clearly, and he makes the material in the book accessible to readers who don't have prior copywriting training or experience. He also includes numerous exercises throughout the book that should be particularly valuable for beginning copywriters.

The Complete Copywriter is also well-suited for beginning copywriters because it takes a broad approach to the subject. In the book's Introduction, Barker observed that most books about copywriting focus almost exclusively on advertising or sales copy, while marketing writers are now expected to produce several other types of content. This book focuses first on how to be a good writer and then discusses several specific content formats.

For experienced marketing writers, The Complete Copywriter will be an excellent reference book. Barker's treatment of content strategy and specific content formats is fairly basic, but I've found the chapters on syntax, grammar, and content structure to be useful.

So, whether you're a beginning or experienced marketing writer, The Complete Copywriter will be a useful resource.

When the Most Important Goal in B2B Marketing Is to be Remembered

Over the past several months, I've come to believe that we need a new operating model of B2B marketing, one that more accurately reflects how businesspeople actually make buying decisions. My conclusion is based on four proven truths about B2B buying.

• At any given time, only a small percentage of a company's potential customers are actively engaged in a buying process for products or services like the company provides.

• A buying trigger is almost always required to prompt potential buyers to initiate a buying process, and marketing activities alone usually won't be sufficient to trigger a buying process.

• When a buying trigger occurs, most business decision-makers will create a mental list of potential vendors they believe are worth considering. This initial consideration set is formed before any research is done, and it's based on the mental impressions a buyer has formed from past interactions and experiences.

• Most business buyers make most of their purchases from companies in their initial consideration set. (Bain & Co. and Google, 2022)

These ground truths reveal some of the major disconnects between current B2B marketing practices and the real-world behaviors of business buyers. Today, for example, many B2B marketing programs are designed to persuade potential buyers to begin a buying process, even though the evidence shows such programs are largely ineffective.

Companies are also spending substantial resources on programs designed to engage decision-makers who have already begun a buying process. In contrast, B2B marketers are investing far less in programs designed to get their company into buyers' consideration sets, even though that's often decisive for winning business.

The Real Goal of Marketing to "Potential Future Buyers"

If marketing can't usually persuade out-of-market buyers to begin a buying process, what should marketers try to accomplish with these individuals, and what kind of marketing works best for this purpose?

Numerous studies have shown that a strong brand will significantly influence the future decisions of out-of-market buyers, but marketers need more specific guidance to create effective programs for this audience.

To achieve success with out-of-market buyers, the starting point is to recognize that the people we call out-of-market buyers aren't actually "buyers" in any meaningful sense of that term. They may become buyers in the future, but they aren't buyers today. Therefore, they shouldn't be expected to behave like people who are actively engaged in a buying process.

In these circumstances, your ultimate objective when marketing to potential future buyers is to have your company included in their initial consideration set when they become active buyers.

To increase your odds of achieving that objective, you need to use marketing messages and tactics that will increase the mental availability of your company.

The concept of mental availability is closely associated with Byron Sharp and his colleagues at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science. In his book, How Brands Grow, Sharp defined mental availability as ". . . the propensity for a brand to be noticed or thought of in buying situations."

Mental availability is, therefore, different from simple brand awareness. It refers to the likelihood that a business decision-maker will think of your company when he or she experiences a buying trigger and decides to begin an active buying process.

Message Attributes that Boost Mental Availability

Your marketing messages must exhibit three attributes to create mental availability.

• They must clearly link your company to the needs or challenges your potential buyers are most likely to experience.

• They must be memorable. You're communicating with out-of-market buyers at a given point in time, and you're hoping they'll remember your messages at a future point in time when they perceive a need and are ready to begin a buying process.

• They must be easy to consume, and most should be brief.* Remember that out-of-market buyers aren't actively looking for the information your messages are providing. So, they won't be inclined to spend much time or effort consuming content about a topic that (at the moment) isn't a high priority.

I discussed these attributes in more detail in this recent post.

The Takeaway

Initial consideration sets will include the companies that potential buyers mentally associate with specific needs. It's these associations that create mental availability. Therefore, your job when marketing to out-of-market buyers is to build and refresh the memory structures that link your company to the needs or challenges your potential buyers are most likely to encounter.

*****

*There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, and that applies to the rule that marketing messages for out-of-market buyers should be brief and easy to consume. High-quality thought leadership content can also be very effective with out-of-market buyers. In the 2024 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report by Edelman and LinkedIn, over 75% of the surveyed B2B decision-makers and C-suite executives said that a piece of thought leadership content has led them to research a product or service they weren't previously considering, and 54% said that an organization's thought leadership content has prompted them to research the organization's offers or capabilities.

Image courtesy of Mike Lawrence (www.creditdebitpro.com) via Flickr (CC).

[Research Round-Up] A Detailed Look at Real-World B2B Buying

(This month's Research Round-Up discusses the 2024 B2B Buyer Experience Study by 6sense. The 6sense study provides detailed insights regarding how business buyers make purchase decisions in real-world scenarios. This makes the study report a must-read for anyone involved in B2B revenue generation.)

2024 B2B Buyer Experience Report by 6sense 

Source:  6sense

• Based on a survey of 2,509 B2B buyers located in North America (37.46%). EMEA (29.77%), and APAC (32.76%).
• To qualify for the survey, participants must have bought at least $10,000 USD in annualized value within the 24 months preceding the survey. The average value of actual purchases made by the survey respondents exceeded $200,000 USD.
• More than 95% of the respondents were manager-level or above.
• Survey respondents were drawn from five industry verticals, with the largest cohort working at tech and software companies.
• 6sense released the study report on October 9, 2024; the report doesn't state when the survey was in the field.

The 2024 B2B Buyer Experience Study by 6sense is one of the most detailed examinations of B2B buying behavior that I've seen recently.

The study is based on a survey that produced more than 2,500 qualified respondents, and the researchers used various statistical techniques to analyze the survey data.

The study findings, combined with the insights from the statistical analysis, paint a picture of B2B buying that differs markedly from the conventional view. Therefore, this research should prompt B2B marketing and sales leaders to reexamine their strategies from the ground up.

The Basics

The 6sense researchers asked participants about several issues that earlier studies have also addressed. For example, the study found that for these survey respondents:

• The length of the average buying cycle was 11.5 months.

• The average number of individuals in the buying group was 10.9 people.

• The average number of prospective vendors considered by the buying group was 4.6.

• On average, the survey respondents were about 70% through their buying process before they engaged directly with representatives of prospective vendors.

These findings are similar to the results of numerous earlier research studies.

Extra Insights

What makes the 6sense study particularly valuable is that it also provides insights about issues that haven't been frequently addressed in previous studies. For example:

• 92.6% of the surveyed buyers had prior experience with at least one of the prospective vendors they considered. 84% had experience with the vendor that was ultimately selected, while 8.6% had prior experience with only a "losing" vendor.

• Buyers initiated contact with prospective vendors 81% of the time.

• In 85% of the buying scenarios represented in the survey, the buying group had their purchase requirements nearly or completely set before initiating contact with prospective vendors.

When Buyers Pick a Favorite

One of the most interesting topics discussed in the 6sense study report relates to when B2B buyers identify a preferred vendor.

At several places, the report's authors assert that most B2B buyers have identified a preferred vendor before they contact any prospective vendors. For example, on page 23 of the report, the authors write:

"Buyers devote nearly 70% of their buying journey to identifying a short-list of potential providers. They review content, have internal meetings and consult with outside resources to establish their requirements and agree on a shortlist and a favored vendor. Only then do they reach out to vendors to confirm that choice, starting with the preferred vendor. They end up buying from the initially preferred vendor 81% of the time."

While I suspect this statement is probably accurate, it's not clear from the study report that the survey data directly supports this conclusion.

The 6sense researchers asked survey participants ". . . whether their first interaction with a provider organization was with the ultimate winner or instead with one of the other providers." Eighty-one percent (81%) of the respondents reported that their first vendor contact was with the ultimate winner.

The focus of this question is who buyers contact first. However, it's not clear from the study report that the survey specifically asked participants (a) whether their buying group identified a preferred vendor before initiating content with prospective vendors, or (b) what percentage of the time the preferred vendor turns out to be the winning vendor.

I'm not sure why the researchers didn't ask these questions, and I hope they will be included in future editions of this research.

*****

The 2024 B2B Buyer Experience Report provides great insights into B2B buying behavior. I encourage you to take the time to review the full 65-page report.

[Book Review] How to Build the Strategic Human Relationships that Drive B2B Growth

Source:  Kogan Page

An old business adage states, "People buy from people." Other versions of the adage include:  "People buy from people they like" and "People buy from people they trust."

Whatever version, the adage makes the point that human relationships are vital to business success, just as much in B2B as in B2C.

This is the central theme of a new book by Dr. Ryan O'Sullivan. In Building B2B Relationships:  How to identify, map and develop key relationships to win more business (Kogan Page, 2025), Dr. O'Sullivan presents a compelling argument for the importance of high-quality person-to-person relationships in B2B, and he provides a detailed process for building such relationships intentionally and strategically.

Ryan O'Sullivan is a senior business executive, board member, business advisor, and university guest lecturer. He is currently a Global Account Manager at Introhive, a relationship intelligence and mapping company. Previously, he was a Regional Head (EMEA) at Infosys, a global IT services firm. Dr. O'Sullivan earned his PhD from the University of Portsmouth in 2022.

What's In the Book

Building B2B Relationships is structured in three parts.

Part 1 (Chapters 1-3)

In this part, Dr. O'Sullivan explains what trusted relationships are and why they matter in business. He also discusses the three attributes that are necessary to create trust - ability, integrity, and benevolence - and he describes how trust forms between organizations. Lastly, he introduces relationship mapping and explains why it's important.

Dr. O'Sullivan clearly states his view on the importance of relationships when he writes:

"It is my view, based on many years of experience, that strong relationships lie at the heart of successful B2B interactions. In a world where there is access to so much data and information, it is becoming harder and harder for many suppliers to offer a truly unique, differentiated product. Relationships are by definition bespoke and personal (even though of course they are often built in a business context), and thus continue to present the supplier with the opportunity to offer something different from their competition."

Dr. O'Sullivan also makes it clear that his book is focused on the importance of leveraging existing relationships. He writes:

"So, while there are many people out there today who can advise you on cold outreach strategies, this book takes a very different tack. It is focused on strategies to leverage your existing relationship network and will help to open your peripheral vision beyond what you might consider to be 'your network.'"

Part 2 (Chapters 4-6)

Part 2 of Building B2B Relationships describes Dr. O'Sullivan's three-step process for mapping relationships for business purposes, and he provides a simple but persuasive argument for each step.

• Step 1 is the initial identification and mapping of key stakeholders (". . . if you don't know who the key people are, how can you influence them?")

• Step 2 consists of research and intelligence gathering about the priorities of key stakeholders and other relevant factors (". . . if you know who they are but don't know what is important to them, why will they give you their time?")

• Step 3 involves the development of a detailed strategy for engaging the key stakeholders (". . . if you know who they are, and you know what is important to them, who is the best person to engage, through what channel, and with what message?")

Part 3 (Chapters 7-10)

Throughout Building B2B Relationships, Dr. O'Sullivan focuses on three specific use cases for relationship mapping - winning key deals, managing key projects, and managing key accounts.

In Part 3 of the book, he devotes a separate chapter to each of these use cases, and he concludes the book with a chapter discussing how to implement relationship mapping and how to take it to the next level.

My Take

Astute businesspeople intuitively understand the importance of creating and sustaining good customer relationships. But despite this recognition, relationship management doesn't always get as much attention as it deserves.

Many of us tend to think that strong customer relationships will naturally develop if we do the rest of our jobs well. We don't usually treat relationship management as a distinct "thing" that, in some circumstances at least, calls for a distinct, intentional strategy.

Building B2B Relationships provides a detailed roadmap for developing and executing an intentional relationship management strategy. As noted earlier, the book focuses on three use cases - winning key deals, managing key projects, and managing key accounts.

What these use cases have in common is that they are strategically important and can have a significant impact on a company's financial performance. Dr. O'Sullivan's relationship mapping process is clearly best suited for these kinds of game-changing scenarios.

Building B2B Relationships is well-written, but it often reads a little like an instruction manual. This is not a criticism of the author's writing style; it's simply a reflection of the book's subject matter.

Dr. O'Sullivan includes four case studies in the book, which help readers better understand how his relationship mapping process works in the real world. More case studies would have made the book even better.

Building B2B Relationships will be a valuable resource for anyone in a customer-facing role at a B2B company. The book will be particularly valuable for anyone involved in developing or managing a strategic account-based marketing or key account management program. If you're in such a role, you should put Building B2B Relationships on your reading list.

Cracking the Code on Strategic ABM Success

 The Story of ABM

Over the past two-plus decades, account-based marketing (ABM) has evolved from a niche marketing discipline used mainly by large IT services firms to become a core component of marketing at many B2B companies.

The Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA) (now part of Momentum) coined the term "account-based marketing" in 2003, and ABM soon became a central focus of its research and consulting.

ITSMA defines account-based marketing as ". . . a strategic approach to designing and executing highly-targeted and personalized marketing programs to drive business growth and impact with specific, named accounts." [Source]

The popularity of account-based marketing has grown dramatically because B2B marketers perceive that ABM is highly effective. In the 2023 Global State of Account-Based Marketing survey by ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance, 81% of the respondents said ABM programs deliver a higher return on investment than "traditional marketing initiatives."

As originally conceived, ABM was viewed as a special approach to marketing that would be used with a company's most valuable customers. Within a few years, however, the successes achieved by early ABM adopters prompted marketers to look for ways to scale account-based marketing so that it could be cost-effectively used with a broader range of accounts.

In its 2016 Account-Based Marketing Benchmarking Survey, ITSMA documented the rise of three distinct types of ABM - strategic ABM (a/k/a one-to-one ABM), ABM Lite (a/k/a one-to-few ABM), and programmatic ABM (a/k/a one-to-many ABM).

This three-part framework has become the standard way to describe account-based marketing, but the reality today is that one-to-few and one-to-many ABM aren't materially different from state-of-the-art conventional outbound B2B demand generation marketing.

This is not true for strategic ABM, which embodies a very different marketing approach. With strategic ABM, marketing activities and programs are components of a multi-faceted management plan for a single customer account, and they are customized for that account.

Strategic ABM Still Rules

While one-to-few and one-to-many ABM have broadened the reach of account-based marketing, the linchpin of any successful ABM initiative is still strategic ABM.

Strategic ABM remains the most widely-used type of account-based marketing, and most ABM thought leaders and practitioners agree that strategic ABM - if done well - will generate a higher ROI than one-to-few or one-to-many ABM. Put simply, it's hard to have a high-performing ABM program if don't master strategic ABM.

The functional centerpiece of a successful strategic ABM initiative is the account management plan. With strategic ABM, a separate plan is developed for each account in the initiative. This is the first distinguishing characteristic of strategic ABM. It's truly one-to-one.

An effective strategic ABM account plan is also distinguished by the process used to develop it and the content it contains.

Developing the Plan(s)

Strategic ABM is often implemented in companies that already have a key account management (KAM) program. Key account programs have existed in some large B2B companies since the late 1950s. Early KAM programs were usually led by a sales executive, and their primary focus was managing sales opportunities.

The discipline of key account management has evolved substantially over the past six decades. Many companies now have well-developed KAM programs that are designed and executed by cross-functional account teams, and led by dedicated, senior-level account managers.

Today, the best KAM programs are focused on identifying longer-term growth opportunities in the account and maintaining the long-term health of the customer relationship, as well as on shorter-term sales opportunities.

In these circumstances, strategic ABM is essentially synonymous with key account management. A marketer becomes a member of the account management teams (usually no more than 5) and brings marketing expertise to the formulation of the account management plans. ABM activities are fully integrated into the account management plan so that the company has a single, cohesive strategy and plan for each key account.

Content of the Plan(s)

An effective strategic ABM/KAM account management plan is essentially a full-fledged business plan that is focused on an individual customer. The objective of the account planning process is to formulate a strategy and set of actions that will (a) protect the current revenue you are earning from the customer, and (b) enable you to grow the revenue you earn from the customer.

I used the term "business plan" intentionally because an effective strategic ABM/KAM plan is similar to the kind of business plan you would develop for any strategic move, such as the introduction of a new product or service, or an adjacent market expansion.

You can easily find dozens of business plan templates by performing a simple Google search. The framework that I've found works well for an account management plan contains six major components.

Customer Description

The objective of this portion of the plan is to provide a comprehensive picture of the customer's business operations, competitive position, organizational structure, and financial performance.

This portion of the plan should describe:

• The market(s) the customer serves and the economic attractiveness and growth potential of those markets
• The products and/or services the customer offers
• The types of individuals and/or organizations the customer primarily serves
• The customer's principal competitors
• The customer's current and recent financial performance
• The customer's business strategy and strategic priorities
• Any recent or planned structural changes (expansions or contractions)
• The customer's senior leadership team

If the customer is a public company, much of this information, including financial performance data, can be obtained from the customer's regulatory filings. If the customer is privately owned, financial data can be more challenging to obtain.

A mindset that I've found useful when preparing this portion of an account plan is to imagine that you are a stock analyst who is preparing an evaluation of the customer for investment purposes.

Current Relationship

This portion of the plan is where you describe your current position with the customer. What products and/or services do you sell to the customer? How long have you been doing business with the customer? How has the revenue you earn from the customer changed over the past 2-3 years? Who are your principal competitors for the customer's business? How strong is your current relationship with the customer? Most importantly, what "share of wallet" are you currently earning from the customer?

Relationship Objectives

This portion of the plan details your objectives for the relationship with the customer. Most of these objectives will be about increasing the revenue you earn from the customer, and those objectives are usually best expressed in terms of increasing the share of customer spend you earn in relevant areas.

You may also want to include more "operational" objectives. For example, if the customer has several business units and you are currently doing business with only some of those business units, you may have an objective to win business from a new business unit.

Threats/Barriers to Success

This is where you identify the events or circumstances that could throw a wrench into your plan. Obviously, you can't foresee every possible threat or barrier, but if you have deep customer insights and a realistic picture of your company's capabilities, you can identify many of the plausible events or circumstances that could derail your success.

Measurable Outcomes and Milestones

Every account management plan should include specific outcomes that are quantitatively measurable. Obviously, these outcomes will include your ultimate relationship objectives. For example:  "Increase the revenue we earn from XXX by 15% in our next fiscal year." You should also include measurable outcomes that are milestones or leading indicators of progress toward your ultimate objectives.

Action Plan

This portion of the account plan details the actions you will take to achieve your relationship objectives. Your account plan should identify who is responsible for each action and specify a target completion date. This level of detail will enable the members of your account management team to organize their work, hold each other accountable, and track progress toward success.

Final Thoughts

It should be clear that developing this type of account business plan isn't a trivial undertaking. It requires a significant amount of time and effort, especially the first time it's done for a customer. That's why strategic ABM/KAM initiatives should be reserved for your most valuable customers.

The deep customer insights and level of focus resulting from the account planning process also go a long way to explaining why well-designed and executed strategic ABM/KAM programs deliver outstanding value and ROI.

Image courtesy of emiliokuffer via Flickr (CC).