A Call to Action: The Importance of Storytellers, Substantiators, and Derailleurs in Today’s Changed B2B Market — Part One
A shift in the buying cycle means the sales representative is no longer an exclusive expert and the marketer is no longer the exclusive promoter. How are fleet service providers adapting to today’s buying cycle?
Ed Pierce, ITA Communications. Fleet
November 2020
The generally-accepted B2B sales cycle – discovery of user needs, building customer trust, developing a compelling case to win through a strong use case, and closing the deal -- has evolved. The modern sales cycle is driven by an ever-more- informed sourcing team.
A shift in the buying cycle means the sales representative is no longer an exclusive expert. It means that the marketer is no longer the exclusive promoter. Sales reps will always be the lynchpin between a B2Bservice provider and a customer. And, marketing’s role will continue to be finding opportunities.
But, both sales and marketing need to be prepared to fill the roles of Storytellers, Substantiators, and Derailleurs. These three roles frame the future of marketing and sales for any B2B organization or brand.
3 Simple Ways to Become Less Anxious and More Decisive
Do you find yourself regularly agonizing over decisions, caught in analysis paralysis, unable to just decide? We’ve all been there, spending 15 minutes combing over a restaurant menu, or 20 minutes debating what to watch on Netflix.
When it comes to bigger decisions like what job to take or where to go to school or what house to buy, those minutes can become weeks or months of agony, caught in endless loops debating the pros and cons of different options.
For those of us who struggle with decision gridlock, here are three simple tools for becoming more confident and decisive: The Happiness Test, The Only-Option Test and Quit-To-Itivness.
Read the article at Fast Company.
Trends Toward Mobile Services Accelerate During the Pandemic
During the pandemic, trends toward mobile services - like mobile fueling and mobile maintenance - have only accelerated. These services offer more efficiency, so that your fleet can recapture some time to better serve customers.
Lasting Changes to ISU’s Transportation Department?
Fewer trips. More caution. More car sharing. Changes to fleet and transportation at Iowa State University may be here to stay in the wake of COVID-19.
Disruption Comes with Opportunity
Where do we go from here? Now that we have the US presidential election behind us (well, behind most of us), we have only seven weeks until we usher out 2020.
So, eager to look ahead, we were delighted when Anthony Sasso, president at TD Bank Equipment Finance, offered to share his thoughts on the promising signs he is seeing for 2021 in How Fleets Can Finance for Uncertainty. He says, “Though there is a lot of uncertainty ahead, there are also good reasons to be hopeful. Disruption comes with opportunity…”
We happily note the number of young companies we’re seeing thrive during the times of COVID, and CrewVanCo. is a perfect example. Phil Sansotta, co-founder and managing partner of CrewVanCo., gave us a superb interview which centers on their unique solutions: Cargo Van Crew Cab Conversions: How Work Truck Fleets Can Save Big Bucks.
And proving that disruption does come with opportunity, FMW congratulates Donlen president Tom Callahan and his hard-working team for being recognized as a 2020 Company of the Year by the Business Intelligence Group!
Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief
