If I could give every B2B marketer one piece of advice, it’d be this:
Get a tattoo that says, “I don’t know what I don’t know.”
Okay, I wouldn’t actually give that advice because I’m truly scared of needles — I’d go with something related to networking — but the thought underscores the mindset I think B2B marketers must embrace today. We must never stop learning.
As I’ve hit the road this year, I’ve taken my advice to heart and connected with a ton of B2B marketers who, like me, never stop learning.
Two themes kept popping up in my conversations: the best B2B marketers are focused on building trust with their buyers—and there are many, many good ways to build trust.
Let’s see how they do it.
Be ready for the C-suite to call your bluff
Not only are buying committees bigger than ever, but shrinking budgets are bringing C-Suite leaders (and especially CFOs) to the front of the table, forcing marketers to navigate tough conversations earlier in the sales cycle.
Unfortunately, according to Andrea Wunderlich, Director of Product Marketing at Maxio, many B2B marketers approach these conversations incorrectly.
When we sat down at Wynter’s Spryng event a few months back, she told me most CFOs don’t want to see ROI projections or a fancy calculator.
When I asked her why, she simply said: “Because your math sucks.”
She wasn’t calling me out directly, but her point was clear: CFOs care about spending in the smartest way possible, so when you throw numbers at them, they’ll naturally poke holes and make assumptions. “They’re going to look at your formulas and call BS,” she said.
Instead, Andrea said to approach the C-Suite with talking points they can’t refute (and may even surprise them). She points to things like customer evidence from their peers, a clear understanding of their pain points, where their budget will come from, and a solid business case that doesn’t revolve around fluffy metrics.
Start with the people who know what they’re talking about
Andrea knows her stuff, so our conversation naturally shifted to another key piece of advice:
If you don’t know what you’re talking about, find subject matter experts (SMEs) who do.
Andrea was quick to admit that when she started at Maxio, she struggled to have authentic and trust-building conversations with CFOs. “I fumbled through webinars and felt like an imposter,” she told me. “I realized that you’re either a CPA or you’re not — and I’m not.”
I experienced this first-hand in my own career when I worked at a startup who sold to mechanical engineers. I’m a marketer and can’t pretend like I know what the day-to-day looks like for mechanical engineers.
As a result, her CFOs weren’t buying what she was saying, which eroded trust.
She said, “I was better off as a facilitator of the conversation, so I found people who knew what they were talking about, built relationships, and asked them to join our content efforts.”
Trust is earned, not given. Whether you’re selling to the CFO, CRO, or a persona outside of the C-suite, if your content lacks depth and expertise, your buyers have the perfect reason to take you off their shortlist.
Switch up the customer evidence you lean on
Take a look at your LinkedIn feed or walk around an in-person event, and you’ll come across plenty of like-minded people sharing the good, bad, and ugly of B2B marketing.
For that reason, I wasn’t surprised when Victoria Sakal, Head of Growth at Wonder, shared Andrea’s sentiment about using ROI-driven metrics as proof of value.
Reflecting on her recent experience buying software, she said, “ROI-driven KPIs are important, but they’re cherry-picked. As a buyer, you must take them with a grain of salt.”
When I pressed further, she told me she groups metrics into three categories when she evaluates software:
- Group #1: KPIs you’d expect to see, like ROI, and time saved
- Group #2: Customer stories that highlight likes/dislikes about the platform
- Group #3: Intangible qualities, like whether the team feels trustworthy, and the product is stable
Her point: Most B2B marketing teams will throw group-one metrics at buyers. While that may have worked in the past, buyers see through these today, which is why it’s important to switch up your evidence and give buyers more convincing proof points, like customer evidence, that gets them thinking, “Hey, this product really can help me.”
Switching up evidence isn’t only beneficial to B2B marketers. The switch will also help sellers who desperately need customer evidence to build trust with buyers, accelerate deals, and overcome objections before they come up.
Victoria didn’t stop there, though. Further reflecting on her buying experience, she said that she doesn’t only care about financial returns. “There’s obviously a degree of accountability toward revenue,” she said. “But most leaders just want their teams to be more effective, and marketing needs to reflect that.”
Don’t neglect your brand in favor of demand gen
I get it. For every dollar the C-suite gives you, they expect three or four trackable dollars of revenue in return — and they wanted them yesterday.
You and I both know that instant results aren’t always possible because B2B buyers don’t wake up one day, grab their morning coffee, and say, “I think I’ll buy some software today.”
Instead, their decision comes following months — sometimes 12+ months — of research, evaluation, and back-and-forth with vendors.
This is a good reminder that B2B marketing is a long-term game. Trust comes from showing up with the same message and building a brand that sticks with people, whether they’re in the market for your product or not.
When Adam McQueen, Head of Content and Community at Klue, told me that brand building was the current focus at Klue, I wasn’t surprised. I mean, Klue is everywhere and a brand I admire.
Adam mentioned content marketing, influencer marketing, and customer marketing as three levers he’s pulling to push Klue’s brand even further.
It’s our job to walk the fine line between driving immediate results for the leadership team and investing in the long-term plays, like brand building and demand generation that keep you top of mind with the 95% of your market that isn’t ready to buy.
"There aren’t that many business clients that will say, ‘You know what, I’m comfortable signing a contract with a company that I’ve hardly ever heard of before.'"
Show off your customers
Okay, I’ll admit some bias here, but the idea of customer evidence has come up a lot (sometimes even organically) — and I’m fired up because it’s one of the most important things we can do as vendors.
When breaking down her most recent experience buying Sequel, Trinity Nguyen, VP of Marketing at UserGems, said she wanted to make sure Sequel would be something her team would use for years and that it’d grow with them.
She told me that the Sequel team instilled confidence in many ways — like showing her unique use cases her team hadn’t thought of — but one of the biggest swaying factors was the list of companies she saw already using the tool.
Her reaction was essentially, “Wow, these are companies I know and trust with strong programs, and if it works for them, it must work for us.”
Here’s the cold-hard truth: You can’t control what buyers say about you behind closed doors, but you can showcase customer proof as part of your marketing strategy and shape the narrative.
Make it easy to buy
As my conversation with Trinity continued, she said something about her buying experience that floored me: It only took her just two weeks to buy Sequel (from the time of the first demo to signing the dotted line).
I’m sure she noticed the shocked look on my face, so she followed that up by explaining how her final decision came after a much longer process.
Leading up to that two-week dash to the finish line, Trinity said:
- Seeing Sequel and its founder from LinkedIn helped build awareness and trust
- Someone reached out to her Director of Demand Generation, making Sequel visible to her team
- She met the founder at an event, letting them build a face-to-face relationship
- She saw a list of companies already using Sequel and recognized names she trusted
There’s a lot of insight into what Trinity said, but a good takeaway is this: Make it easy for people to jump when they’re ready.
Whether that’s by putting an interactive demo on your website, offering a demo on a first call, building confidence with logos and customer proof, or forging such a strong relationship that you jump to the top of the list when they’re ready to buy, empower buyers with the knowledge, confidence, and insights they need to make an easy decision.
Make your team visible
Tim Davidson, Founder of B2B Rizz, was a Metadata customer and spoke at DEMAND 2023, so our latest conversation was far from our first. Still, Tim never fails to drop some knowledge — and this time, it was about the human side of B2B marketing.
Tim offered a powerful reminder: We’re selling to people, and, more times than not, they’ll base their purchase decision heavily on the voices of their peers.
When I asked Tim about his decision to purchase Metadata, he admitted that he had known about it for two years before buying it, and one of the biggest reasons he decided to do so was because he trusted the people behind it (yours truly included).
The key takeaway? A visible team, especially at the leadership level, can make all the difference. If your company has a team that’s vocal, approachable, and genuinely helpful, aka not pitching everyone they meet, you’ll build trust that naturally closes deals.
Take a consultative, helping-first approach
When Devin Reed (previously Head of Content at Clari and Gong) bought Orca, a customer advocacy platform, he knew there was some risk.
Not because he didn’t trust the team or have faith in the product, but because Orca is still a relatively small fish, with more established players like Influitive and Birdeye eating significant market share.
So, why did Devin opt for Orca? He told because Orca seemed genuinely willing to “really work” with Clari and grow alongside them — and given how fast customer marketing is evolving, Devin needed a tool that could evolve, too. Orca fit the bill perfectly.
The lesson here? If you’re a smaller company still gaining traction, go the extra mile by taking a consultative approach.
Sure, you may still have some feature gaps, but by stopping at nothing to make sure your customers are successful, you’ll build something other companies want to be a part of — and each of those customers can turn into success stories that fuel your growth.
My biggest takeaway: Trust is more than the sum of its parts
I don’t walk around marketing events and hunt conversations that I know will let me to talk about UserEvidence or customer evidence (I promise).
But I also promise that B2B marketers are realizing the value of genuine proof points and prioritizing trust — my conversations at marketing events prove that (pun totally intended).
Whether it was Andrea telling me that she had to find SMEs to have more authentic conversations with CFOs, Trinity highlighting how company logos influenced her buying decision, or how Orca built trust with Devin by going the extra mile, the message is starring every B2B marketer in the face: buyers want real, authentic, and genuine connections with vendors that are built around trust and shared goals.
Let’s explore how UserEvidence can help you build trust with your buyers. See it in action today.
