Is Narrative More Important Than Evidence In B2B Marketing?

[max1000000]

I notice b2b buyers seem to be more convinced by narrative, stories and case studies than by hard evidence. Is this true?

Thanks

Max

[scorpiojo]

Hmmm

[rockyracoon]

What it B2B marketing?

[max1000000]

b2b = Business to Business

[max1000000]

You're joking? What am I promoting? It's a simple question which I would like an answer for. Is this place always so unfriendly?

[factor-fiction]

Welcome, max.
You have posted in Adverts section, max, and given the number of posts like this that are followed up with an ad,I can see why people may have suspected it was a prelude to an ad.
It sounds more like an essay title to me.
It may help us answer if you can give some context to the question

[Maydup]

As you say you notice this behaviour then it must be true. What precisely is hard evidence in comparsion to case studies etc?

At Work I am most convinced by recommendations from others who are either in a similar sector as who I admire greatly. So a case study by them word make me stop and read.

[max1000000]

Hi

Thanks for friendlier responses :) Let's say I've developed a new product which claims to help companies accurately measure the performance of their employees.

Personally if I was buying something like this, I'd demand hard statistical evidence that it works on samples of companies similar to mine etc. Yet, I'm surprised by how few people demand such evidence. Instead, they seem to be easily won over by individual case studies which I could easily have cherry-picked just to make my product look good.

I feel like I'm an unusual buyer in that I demand evidence in a market where everyone else is easily seduced by good narrative. To back up my view, LinkedIn is filled with marketers telling people that "you must create a good story". I always thought good stories were a necessary condition but not sufficient condition to win sales; but now I'm seeing that it's possible to make a fortune just with a good story alone. Am I the only one that feels this?

Thanks

Max

[scorpiojo]

Max,

I wrongly assumed that you would be treating us to spam and for that I apologise :)

[max1000000]

No problem, and thanks :)

[Maydup]

Maybe few people beleive the so called hard evidence and do not warm to statistics responding instead to a good story that they can relate to. Tell them how it will work in their business and most importantly, the difference it will make to the bottom line.

[ABAuntie]

I have moved this to our Business section in the hope that you may get some more sensible answers max :-)

auntie xxx

[Canary42]

In view of the success of marketing hype, I would say the answer to your question max is "Yes". Dismaying, but true.

[buildersmate]

Yes, Max, and it is called the power of persuasion. This will invariably seek to get people to part with their money, commit to this or that, whatever, without undertaking much in the way of checking or due diligence.

Get under the surface of your question, and you should realise why the cynics, including myself, immediately suspect that your 'narrative' here is yet another simple attempt to convince the reader of this via 'stories' or 'case studies'.

I refer to it as SUGGING - Selling Under the Guise of Gaining INformation.

As that is not your intent, then fair enough - but you are on entirely the wrong forum to get any kind of measured response from people experienced in B2B marketing.

[max1000000]

Thanks BuildersMate. Yes, I'm not keen to use stories and narrative to sell because it's so easy to mislead people as you suggest. But colleagues suggest that it is particularly effective.

If this isn't the right forum to discuss b2b, can you suggest an alternative?

Kind regards

Max

[Zacs-Master]

If you're talking about stories which are completely made up then this is, technically, misrepresentation however, if you use a true story, or one which has a grain of truth and is very hard to dispute then this is fair tactics in the business world. For example, you could say 'company X has sold more widgets than any of its northern hemisphere competitors' a fact which would be very hard to disprove. Throw in a few superlatives and narrative language and you have a viable sales tool e.g.
Through its excellent advertising campaign in early 2015 and the dedication of its highly motivated sales staff, company X triumphed in the widget arena, selling more of their market leading widgets than any other comparable company in the northern hemisphere.
You have to be savvy as to what is a story and what isn't.

[max1000000]

Thanks ZM. I think this is helping to get closer to my concern: specifically, when I do try to sell using hard data, people glaze over and are not interested. When I tell a good story (which happens to be true but if I were less honest need not be), I sell dozens. That feels weird to me.

Best

Max