Reaching Out for Guidance

Given the struggles facing both buyers and sellers in today's markets, it's surprising that a shared solution has been so slow to emerge. But the outlines of such a solution are becoming clearer.

As we have discussed, buyers now seek assistance in managing risk, choice and complexity. They want their expectations properly managed. And they seek trust and credibility in sellers to bolster their confidence in a decision.

Sellers, meantime, are seeking an opportunity to differentiate themselves in hyper-competitive markets. They want to generate demand more effectively and earn the trust of key decision-makers. 

One common denominator here is trustworthy and reliable guidance. This is the element necessary to build the confidence of buyers while setting sellers apart from their rivals.

While management consultants and other professional services firms have always provided guidance as a core service, the difference now is that traditional product and services firms could begin to make this an essential element of their overall value propositions. Some firms already have.

The field of information technology offers lots of examples. Both software and hardware firms have built up professional services practices to help implement and maintain their offerings. Some even go further and offer strategic advice based on the experiences of their clients and projections of changes to come. IBM, HP, EMC, Oracle and SAP all have respected consulting organizations.

And there are other examples. General Electric offers vigorous consulting services in various industrial sectors. UPS and FedEx provide strategic consulting on logistics to their clients. By going upstream in a strategic sense, they have become more valuable to their customers.

Given the growing frustrations of buyers in general, we can now expect a growing number of firms in the world of complex offerings and solutions to provide consultative services in various new forms and fashions. Some will even leverage new media and technologies that enable them to deliver their offerings in more accessible or sophisticated ways. 

Get ready for this coming wave. Guidance will deliver solutions-oriented value in a way that the blending of conventional products and services cannot. As buyers and sellers realize their interests intersect around this distinct offering, we will be entering the guidance economy. 

Comments

[Mike Barlow]

I provide complex, high-margin services to my clients. Frankly, they expect a fair amount of hand-holding during an engagement, and it seems reasonable to meet their expectations. I find it more difficult -- but just as necessary -- to provide guidance, advice, counsel and a modicum of free consulting to prospective clients. Sometimes I feel myself becoming frustrated by the amount of time I spend explaining the value proposition, the process, the expected outcome, the tangible business benefits, the ROI, etc., but then I have to remind myself that I'm not selling a commodity -- I'm selling complex, expensive services in a competitive environment. So I really have no choice -- I have to offer guidance and counsel and advice if I want to close deals.

[Steven Woods]

I think that guidance is a great way to put it, and is very similar to a lot of B2B marketers' recent focus on lead nurturing. Now that all basic information on a product or service can be found online, and opinions can quickly be found through social media, sellers need to reinvent themselves to provide a much higher level of value add during the sales process. Call it guidance or call it lead nurturing, it's the same idea.

[Vaibhav Domkundwar - ReadyContacts.com]

I totally agree and can relate to it personally based on our experiences at ReadyContacts, where we focus on delivering B2B marketing data management to our customers. Most marketing managers are realizing a challenge that is making it difficult for them to run campaigns that deliver stellar results - the challenge of building and maintaining a marketing database that is made of accurate role-based decision makers and that is kept current atleast on a quarterly basis. Marketing managers are unsure if the 43,238 leads that they have in their database are good or how many of them are good. Its not an easy problem and we see ourselves helping them navigate this problem and its solution before discussing anything that we can do and they can budget for.

[Britton Manasco]

Thank you all -- Mike, Steven and Vaibav -- for the comments.

Mike, I think you've driven home how true the guidance issue is from the perspective of independent consultants. I think product and service companies will need to feel your pain, but also experience the pleasure you feel in helping to guide the client down the right path.

Steven, you are doing some great work on lead nurturing and I am pleased you were able to see the connection. Am looking forward to spending some time on YOUR blog.

Vaibav, I wasn't familiar with your firm but I look forward to checking it out. I agree that we can't provide guidance on a consistent basis and develop sales-ready leads if we can't get a grip on our data. Sounds like a useful service.

Best, Britton

[Authority Networker]

Making yourself an indispensable source of information can establish your identity as an authority marketer. The more helpful and valuable your information is the greater the chance those customers will purchase from you. This is the concept of attraction marketing - develop ongoing relationships with clients and moving them along the buying path in your communications to greatly increase profits on autopilot. These clients will also bring in more business for you via referrals.

[Britton Manasco]

I am intrigued by your use of these two concepts: authority and networking. It suggests your authority exists within a web of interactions and relationships. I wholeheartedly agree. When you get to the point of "autopilot," as you say, then you are really rolling!