Sales Pipeline Radio, Episode 368 Q & A with Jesse Humphrey

Summary

In this episode, you will learn the importance of balancing brand and demand, building trust through a solid brand foundation, measuring brand impact on demand generation, and applying consumer brand strategies to B2B marketing.

By Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing

If you’re not already subscribed to Sales Pipeline Radio or listening live Thursdays at 11:30 am PT on LinkedIn (also on demand) you can find the transcription and recording here on the blog every Monday morning.  The show is less than 30 minutes, fast-paced and full of actionable advice, best practices and more for B2B sales and marketing professionals.

We cover a wide range of topics, with a focus on sales development and inside sales priorities.

This week’s show is entitled, “Balancing Brand & Demand in B2B“ and my guest is Jesse Humphrey, Vice President of Marketing at Diversified.

Tune in to Learn:

1. Balancing Brand and Demand: Understand the importance of maintaining a strong brand presence alongside demand generation in B2B marketing.
2. Building Trust: Discover how a solid brand foundation can reduce customer indecision and foster trust.
3. Measuring Brand Impact: Learn methods to gauge the effectiveness of brand initiatives on demand generation.
4. Consumer Insights for B2B: See how B2B brands can adopt strategies from consumer companies to enhance brand experience.

Listen Now | Watch the video HERE | Read the Transcript BELOW:

Matt: Alrighty. Welcome everybody to another episode of Sales Pipeline Radio. So excited to have you here. I’m your host, Matt Heinz. Thank you to everyone who is joining us. Thank you so much for liking, subscribing, downloading episodes. Every one of the Sales Pipeline Radio episodes, past and future, always available at salespipelineradio.com. Very excited to have with us, Jesse Humphrey. She is the Vice President of Marketing at Diversified. And Jesse, thanks so much for joining us today.

Jesse: Of course. Happy to be here, Matt.

Matt: There’s a wide variety of things we could talk about, but I think in our limited time, I want to talk about the balance between brand and demand.

I think a lot of conversations we’ve had on this show over the years, it’s called Sales Pipeline Radio. So you’d imagine it’s about demand. Increasingly, I see more and more companies as we head into 2025 indicate a greater investment in brand to support and grow their business. So I guess the central question I think is, What’s the right balance between brand and demand?

How do they best coexist? And to start with, how do you define and differentiate those in the work that you’ve done?

Jesse: It’s a great question. And I really think you’re right. Especially in B2B and technology, we see a lot of marketers really focusing in on that demand gen activity versus the brand stuff.

For me, I’m a little bias more towards brand. And I always feel like if you don’t have the brand as your foundation, your demand engine is not going to work as well. The data out there also shows so much. The 6sense report, the B2B Buyer Report that just came out, right? Talking about buyers, they’re already 69 percent of the way through their journey before they even engage with sellers. So all of that journey upfront, what is that? What’s driving that? That’s the brand. And so for me, I think if you’re defining brand demand I like to think about it a little bit too

like your brand is like the car. Your demand is the engine. It’s the functionality that makes the movement happen. And the intent signals as a customer in the driver’s seat. Maybe they’re hitting the gas pedal. That’s the intent signal. And then your demand engine is the thing that’s responding to that, to get the movement, the next thing, the conversion to happen.

And so that’s how I like to think about it, but with the data showing, I think that buyers, as they’re evaluating, they already, know the top vendors, people that they’re looking for and having that up front and the brand piece being more of a focus is only going to help to accelerate the action once they’re in the driver’s seat.

Matt: Yeah, I completely agree with you. We’ve seen for years data that indicates– and it’s uncanny to me that the data is usually in 68 to 74 percent right in the same place of the amount of the buying journey that is over before sellers are involved. And the newer data that I’ve seen from this fall actually makes it worse to say that those same buyers, they do not want to talk to you.

Until that moment, they don’t want to hear from you. They don’t want to have a conversation with you. What that really means is they don’t want to talk about product. They don’t want to have a sales conversation, but they will still listen if you have something interesting to say. They’ll still listen if you are doing something that is more value added, that is more educational, that is more about helping them be and think smarter.

To me, that feels like the activation of the brand opportunity for a lot of companies moving forward.

Jesse: Absolutely. And I think the other data that I’ve seen, that’s really interesting to me too, is that between 40 and 60 percent of sales deals are also lost due to customer indecision. And so there’s also something there that’s really interesting to me is that from a marketing, a brand perspective that we really have to start instilling that trust up front.

And it’s not just about brand awareness. It’s about building that trust as a credible company that’s going to help them get from point A to point B. And so some of those demand generation efforts that we’re putting in to supplement the brand efforts need to align to deliver on that brand promise.

Matt: That’s right. I think one of the reasons why the demand side has been so attractive as a focus area is because we feel like we can measure it more effectively. And I could argue that all day long too, because the more complex your motion, the less likely you’re going to say, Oh, the white paper download or the, paid search click generated the seven figure deal.

But at least we’ve convinced ourselves that we could actually measure the effectiveness of demand. How do you do that on brand, right? What have we learned from CPG companies and what have we learned from larger B2B companies that do invest heavily in brand and have throughout all of these changes in the market, like how should executives be thinking about that?

Jesse: That is the age old question.

And the thing that I think that people and marketers ask more than anything but there are ways. And I think when marketing starts looking overall at the metrics, that they’re not just looking at those campaign level KPIs, that we’re actually looking at overall the business, the pipeline that we’re generating, the deal sizes that are coming in, all of the things more from a higher level, business level perspective.

I think it’s important to track those things upfront, but for ustracking branded search traffic is one way. Comparing that against conversion rates to [00:02:00] identify awareness driven… how is that impacting our demand generation? And making sure that those things are trending in the right direction.

Inbound, obviously, if you’ve got people coming into your website, they’re converting more on your website, you’re able to see if those brand efforts are working. And for me, the first thing I did when I came to Diversified, I looked at our contact us form, our inbound form. And how did you hear about us?

And if you give them an open opportunity to tell you how they found you, they will pretty explicitly tell you. And I think being able to find some of that data and those details will actually be able to help you say, Hey, here’s some stuff that we’ve done from a brand perspective that is actually helping us to convert inbound deals.

Matt: Yeah, we’re talking today on Sales Pipeline Radio with Jesse Humphrey. She’s the VP of Marketing for Diversified. And, it seems to me that there’s an awful lot we can learn from the consumer space on this from the way back machine. I know you spent some time with Red Bull. And here’s an organization– very different market, but has invested heavily, not just in brand, but really making itself a media company, like legit creating channels and content that isn’t just about getting people into the funnel or getting a pixel or cookie on your computer.

They are a media company as much as they’re a beverage company. Is there a lesson there for B2B marketers and B2B brands how to create and really manifest this brand opportunity?

Jesse: Wow. Yeah, absolutely. And it’s very much in line really with even what Diversified does for our clients.

The business that we’re in really in pro AV, audio visual, is we have two business units. We have a workplace business unit and kind of a media business unit. But what we’re really seeing today across the industry is the convergence between the two. We’ve been saying this for years, but we’re really starting to see it even more now, is all companies are media companies. So that content that you’re producing and being able to enable that kind of thought leadership to be able to be distributed, whether internal or external is absolutely key I think in helping to create that demand, create that brand experience. Like I said, it is both internal and external.

Matt: It’s the brand experience as as an associate or an employee or a partner, just as much as it is for your clients that you’re talking to. Yeah. And I think that, if we take this from a different lens, where if we’re focused on demand, then what we do, we’re trying to go generate leads.

We’re trying to go generate demand. And if you ask the sales team, they’re like, we need more leads. We need more leads. I don’t actually think sales teams, that’s not really what they want. What they really want is a market that craves what they’re selling. Yeah. And and what are the ways that can manifest, like understanding the problem, quantifying the problem, having awareness that you are associated with solving that problem.

So when they call Oh, I’ve heard of you guys, right? Or when you email them or when they see you at an event, Oh, I’ve heard of these guys, right? And there’s an association with something. Because let’s face it, like a lot of the sales and marketing we do is driving by someone’s house at 35 miles an hour and trying to throw something in the mailbox.

You’re gonna miss a lot. Yeah. So if I say, how do I build awareness of us, but also a correlation between us and a problem that needs solving so that the prospects are more likely to answer the phone when the sales team calls? So they’re more likely to lighten their gate as they walk by your booth at the trade show.

These are measurable manifestations of what a brand can do in B2B.

Jesse: Yeah. And I think also, from my perspective too, when you talk about the investment between brand and demand and how marketing leaders are really separating that out today, it’s generally been really heavy, more like 70 percent more demand, 30 percent brand, and sometimes even, more than that, right?

I split it more down the middle. We really need to have both. Brand needs to be more of a focus area. And, when you talk about like at the trade shows, our company has been pretty event heavy. But it’s how are we activating at each one of those things? How are we also creating more content at those events and almost repurposing some of the things?

And then distributing them across multiple channels to make sure that you’re there when those buyers are ready to actually have that conversation.

Matt: That’s right. Thank you so much for being part of this today. I have a feeling we’re going to be talking a lot more about brand demand and how they all fit together in a go to market mix over the course of 2025 as well.

Thank you everyone so much for listening, watching, downloading this episode of Sales Pipeline Radio. We’ll be back next week with more content until then thanks so much for being here. We’ll see you next week.

Jesse: Appreciate it. Thanks, Matt.

Matt interviews the best and brightest minds in sales and Marketing.  If you would like to be a guest on Sales Pipeline Radio send an email to Sheena@heinzmarketing.com.