Product manufacturing companies are reporting changing B2B product customer priorities. And, what matters to customers now—superior product quality—looks likely to increase in value in 2022.
You may have heard that “trusting relationships” matter most to your customers. We’ve even written about the importance of trusting relationships here in this blog.
In 2020, “Trusting relationships” was the topmost reported priority by marketers working in B2B product sales.
But by February 2021, that had changed, and August 2021 results continue to point to other priorities overshadowing trusting relationships.
The most recent Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) survey found that 37.9% of B2B product marketers selected “superior product quality” as customers’ first priority. In contrast, only 14.7% said that “trusting relationships” matters most to customers.
Now, trusting relationships is not even in second place as a customer priority. That rank goes to “superior innovation”—another product related factor.
To be clear, relationships still matter. It’s just that other priorities have risen higher than we’ve seen in the past.
All of the content you’ve developed around trusting relationships needs to remain in place. Now, though, we’re seeing companies invest more in product-related content marketing.
Now that you’ve heard more about the CMO survey findings, I’m curious, how do the survey results compare to what you’re seeing? Connect with us on LinkedIn or Tweet us. We’re always happy to talk.
–parin
Managing Partner
Data source: Moorman, CMO Survey, August 2021
With over two decades of experience, Parin leads an expert demand-generation agency, StratMg, that helps industrial manufacturing clients achieve unambiguous and quantified organic sales growth across the US, EMEA & APAC.
Parin has built & positioned StratMg to be a value-added marketing services provider that strives to create a culture of quantified sales-driven marketing initiatives leading to sustained business growth through channel management, diversification, new customer acquisition and retention strategies and tactical execution.
