The popular narrative #b2b: "Businesses that create demand will win" The better narrative: "Exhaust all capture demand channels before attempting to create demand"
I think what you are trying to get across is that demand capture isn't "bad", and I totally agree. But I don't agree with waiting until you exhaust your demand capture. Creating demand requires different mindset, metrics, skillsets, org structure, processes, and you cannot just start doing all of a sudden. Also there is a lag between starting to create demand and seeing results, and this lag is significant especially when we are talking about products with super long sales cycles. The best moment to start creating demand was yesterday, just my take.
Don't agree with this narrative. It's like saying "cut down all the trees in the forrest before you plant more trees" 🌲 Wouldn't you be better off if you plant one tree for every one you cut?
I partially agree. In my view, a key factor to consider when it comes to deciding what you’ll focus more on is: How mature is the category? If you’re entering into a mature category, you’re going to have a very hard time if you focus on creating demand. You’ll likely burn a lot of cash doing so. So in this case, focusing on capturing demand makes a lot more sense. If it’s a relatively new category, do both, because capturing existing demand would help you fund demand creation and brand building which will put you in a strong position in the long run. Doing this will allow you to capture a larger share of the overall demand as the category matures.
I guess given that demand capture activities have some lead time, you should probably eventually start a bit earlier, not just when you hit the ceiling. I think both pieces of advice are too simplified. I think the point here is: businesses historically over-indexed on demand capture channels. So to get the message delivered some element of escalation and drama is used. Is the message true? Probably. Are there some nuances to it? Sure. But I guess the same thing applies to your advice, too.
This will have resonance with SMEs who might be worried by the demand gen lag in income. The Federation of Small Businesses reckon 99.2% of UK businesses have 49 employees or less. B2B buyer habits are changing, but there are other channel to wring income from.
I don’t understand why that it is a better narrative? Doing both is surely the ultimate win? Even with a small team that’s possible 🙃
Tom Hunt I like your thinking, but don’t we as professionals, sell urgency? It’s been my experience that most of the time, my customer doesn’t know he needs xyz, Thus my job is to educate, and and ask questions to see if my product the right product and save the customer the cost of frustration.
Capture short term demand while investing in the mid to long term.
You start with making sure you're capturing demand before you start creating it. It's not a different narrative.
B2B Marketing @ Slice
2yThis is a classic short-termism. Let's say you are at the point when you exhausted all demand capture and now you can start *attempting* demand generation. It will take you at least several months to get the demand gen work, assuming you can figure it out relatively fast. What about the period between the exhaustion and getting the demand gen work? By no means I'm against demand capture and never said a word against it, but what you suggest is exactly what the majority of companies have been doing for years and it led them into a trap. The trap is exactly this: there is not much demand left for capturing and no one at these companies has a clue how to create demand.