-- Overreliance on legacy customers and a shortfall of industry-specific business-to-business (B2B) marketing and sales expertise have left many manufacturers and distributors struggling to fill the sales pipeline. The new book “Imposters on the Zoom!” by marketing leaders John Buie and Jason Hagerman helps B2Bs overcome these two common hurdles to become more profitable and resilient.
Photo courtesy of Journey
Hagerman says, “Something we’ve found over the last decade, and it certainly feels even more pronounced in the last three to four years, are businesses doing a lot of tightrope walking. They invest in brand recognition and lead generation as a one-time thing, maybe to push a new product or service area, then relying on a single influx of leads to carry the business over several years.”
He adds, “That’s an uncomfortable way to do things. It leaves businesses at a risk that leadership might not be aware of. And it’s probably why so many manufacturing businesses fail.”
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 80% of manufacturing businesses fail within 25 years. According to Buie, failing at that advanced age and struggling in the years that follow can often be attributed to the comfort of legacy customer relationships suddenly drying up with no immediate prospects to fill the gap.
“You don’t know until that one big purchase doesn’t show up in the second quarter,” Buie says. “Then suddenly you’re down. Scrambling to figure out the problem. And the real problem is that you had too many eggs in that basket. Maybe you weren’t appropriately nurturing that customer—which is something we address in ‘Imposters on the Zoom!’”
Addressing Overreliance on Legacy Systems
However, another area of concern is that businesses were also not finding ways to reduce their reliance on that legacy customer. They suddenly realized they should have been investing in lead generation two years ago to prepare for this eventuality. This ties into a theme of overreliance on precarious resources across B2B manufacturing and distribution businesses, which, the authors say, also extends to staff.
Employee turnover in marketing and sales roles is also a difficult expense to plan for and absorb. Gallup, Upwork, and Jobvite reports indicate that the cost is one-half to two times the employee's annual salary.
Based on a turnover rate of 26.3% from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a 20-person marketing and sales team receiving an average salary of $70,000 could have turnover and replacement costs of approximately $175,000 to $700,000 per year.
That is in addition to intangibles like employee morale after the departure of close colleagues, loss of institutional knowledge, the potential performance gap between the new and previous employee, and the straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back factor of other employees leaving.
Solutions with "Imposters on Zoom!"
In “Imposters on Zoom!,” the authors outline a plan B2B owners and leaders can implement to prevent this overreliance on precarious resources.
“We wanted to create a resource to help people feel safer and less stressed about the state of the business,” says Hagerman. “So we wrote ‘Imposters on the Zoom!’ as what we consider a blueprint that organically preempts these two common problems and several other peripheral challenges surrounding them.”
According to Buie, “Imposters on the Zoom!” is ultimately a standard operating procedure anyone in the business can follow to generate new leads and nurture those important legacy clients expertly. It contains checklists, walkthroughs, illustrations, and links to out-of-book resources that make assigning and completing valuable tasks simple and accountable.
“We’ve had a lot of feedback from business leaders using ‘Imposters on the Zoom!’ as a hands-off training program for new staff, reducing the burden that falls on the business when a previous marketer or sales rep leaves the company,” Buie says. “It helps shorten that new staff member’s time-to-competency in the industry and time-to-productivity in the role.”
The authors say an always-on, evergreen lead generation program that is employee agnostic, meaning new hires can step into the program at any point and generate value for the business, can help safeguard the business long beyond the 25-year mark.
“When a B2B can generate a predictable volume of sales leads every month, regardless of the specific staff doing the job, it’s protected from the risks that cause most of these businesses to fail within 25 years,” shares Buie.
“With a blueprint like ‘Imposters on the Zoom!’, you can establish a baseline of predictable, manageable year-over-year growth that insulates the business from the impacts of a big customer loss or rapid staff turnover. If a business isn’t doing this right now, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a statistic.”
For more information about “Imposters on the Zoom!”, please visit www.jbbgi.com.
About Journey Better Business Group Inc (Journey).
Journey, a B2B marketing agency, helps manufacturing and distribution businesses generate more sales leads and revenue, increase customer lifetime value, and reduce internal staffing workload. It works with B2B marketing and sales teams and alongside C-suite leaders to launch new products and revitalize old favorites.
The organization maintains a uniquely high customer retention rate, with client relationships averaging 6 years (compared to the industry standard 3).
The best-selling B2B marketing and sales book “Imposters on the Zoom!” is available where you buy your books. It contains the blueprint Journey leaders John Buie and Jason Hagerman use to make the businesses they consult for more successful and profitable.
Contact Info:
Name: John Buie
Email: Send Email
Organization: Journey Better Business Group Inc.
Website: https://www.jbbgi.com/
Release ID: 89140726
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