Connecting Emotionally

When in doubt, connect. That's what fast-growing, important organizations do. Making stuff is great. Making connections is even better.

—Seth Godin²

Inbound strategies prioritize this engagement and connection above any product features and emphasize the common values that are shared.

HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan says the following about engagement:

At some point in your business, whether due to scale, timing, or stress, you start going through the motions. Sales reps default to competitive feature selling; marketers ship emails because it's easy, and your entire team is micro-focused on who is doing what and who is getting what instead of why your customers choose to do business with you. Whether you're selling widgets or wagons, software or services, you started your business because you believed there was a why for what you're doing. If that why is not baked into everything you do at every customer touchpoint, you're missing valuable opportunities to build your business and your brand.

People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.³

Research shows that the best way to create a great customer experience is to connect with buyers on a personal and emotional level by “tapping into their fundamental motivations and fulfilling their deep, often unspoken emotional needs.”⁴ Examples of these needs include belonging, confidence, uniqueness, being part of something special, security, fulfillment, community, desire for success, and the need for recognition.

Buyers are delighted with small successes, moments of surprise, outstanding service, free stuff, making the buyer's life easier and more enjoyable—all of these help to build trust. The reverse is also true: the smallest inconsistency, moment of disappointment, underwhelming service, or misalignment in the buyer experience triggers an emotional response and often turns buyers away from your product or service for good.

Personalizing the buying experience helps show the buyer that you understand and care about their specific needs. It helps to bring the conversation back to the individual. Everyone wants to feel valued as an individual. A recent study from the University of Texas ascribes our preference for personalized experiences to two main factors: “an innate desire for control and the need to limit information overload in our increasingly hectic lives.”⁵

Technology often allows us to substitute digital connections for real human engagement. Inbound organizations humanize the interactions with every person in their ecosystem.

Automating aspects of the buying experience helps companies respond to the buyer and start to anticipate their needs. Buyers want to set their preferences for communication and then forget about it. But we need to be careful about how we automate. It is easy to do automation wrong.

Inbound strategies use automation to facilitate engagement at the buyer's pace. The challenge is to make sure the organization stays connected to the person and continues to present a human touch at all points in the process. Being more human means individualizing your connections with an honest and authentic story. Creating an inbound culture, sharing it with potential buyers, and reflecting those values in each interaction delivers an experience that becomes H2H, human to human. Inbound is about dropping the facade and bringing the values of the company to life.

It means being more conversational and less rigid. It means listening and being empathetic to the person on the other end of the conversation. “Humans don't buy from companies; humans buy from humans, so solving for humans is every smart company's primary goal.”⁶

Are you more or less attracted to companies that tell a story from a specific point of view? How do you feel about companies that show vulnerability and admit when they are wrong? Most people reflect positively on a brand when they experience real human beings associated with that brand. You cannot be a human-focused brand if your culture is not built on the idea of people first. An inbound culture will communicate and deliver messages in a more personal, empathetic, and understanding way.

There are many examples of our emotional connections to successful consumer brands, but the same holds for B2B brands as well.

Delivering the Right Help at the Right Time

Technology continues to create new ways for people to connect and engage in a human way. Mobile phones, email, text, apps, live chat, and Facebook messaging are all examples of modern human-to-human communications. Facebook Messenger alone has 1.3 billion users.⁷

Recent statistics show that 49.4 percent of people would rather reach a business through a messaging app than a phone.⁸ And 45.8% would rather contact a business through messaging than email, while 51% of people in the same study said a business needs to be available 24/7.⁹

One of the big reasons behind the consumer shift to messaging applications and live chat is the buyer preference for getting immediate, real-time communication.

Social media also provides organizations with opportunities to deliver inbound strategies. Social media reduces the barriers between a company and their customers. It opens up opportunities to observe, engage, and interact, but it also creates opportunities to embarrass, annoy, and disappoint those same people. Social media doesn't make a business good or bad; it showcases your culture and amplifies it.

Delivering the right help at the right time boils down to listening both with your ears and with your technology tools.

Try Before You Buy

Buyers love it when companies make it easy for them to try before they buy.

The idea behind try before you buy is not a new one. Free samples at the grocery store, test driving a car, and buying a mattress with a 90-day return policy with free shipping and a full refund are staples of a good buyer journey. This concept has led to the buyer expectation that they can try anything, including large B2B purchases, before making a final commitment. Recognizing this change in buyer behavior is a critical component of developing an engaging inbound strategy.

HubSpot describes this as the code funnel. The code funnel means providing free software to everyone to provide immediate value. With this model the prospect moves from acquisition to activation and potentially to monetization at their own pace. The prospect becomes a user early in the customer journey and makes a conscious decision of how much time and effort to spend with the product.

The code funnel leapfrogs the education stage and goes directly to the problem-solving stage. It delivers a useful user experience immediately for free. Users can download, install, test, and use the product at no charge and see if they like it. Users are now engaged with a product immediately, without seeing a demo or needing salesperson interaction. It's self-service. It's automated. It's easy.

In today's environment some buyers prefer to skip over the education stage. Some buyers prefer to jump right in and get started immediately. Some buyers prefer more immediate forms of interaction like chat or messaging to get answers to their questions.

The advantages of try-before-you-buy options for the buyer include:

• Determining if the solution is a fit for their needs
• Understanding the ease of use of the product
• Determining the quality of the training and product support
• Moving at their own pace

The seller also sees significant benefits and opportunities:

• Accelerates the buying journey
• Builds a relationship before asking for remuneration
• Creates a positive experience with the brand
• Builds user statistics including buyer's favorite features
• Creates a self-selecting buyer journey
• Creates strong brand awareness

The idea of try before you buy is not limited to consumer goods, software, or software-as-a-service products. The idea applies to every industry. Buyers choose to purchase from organizations that develop try-before-you-buy options because they have the freedom to research and customize a solution on their own, with the option to ask for help if needed.

When HubSpot asked buyers what makes an exceptional sales experience, 69% said “listen to my needs.”¹⁰ In other words, hear me out and understand what I'm trying to achieve. Connect emotionally.

In the same report, 61% said “I want you to share relevant information.” Or, I don't need to hear about all the things, only the things that concern me. Be more human and personal, please.

HubSpot also found that 51% said “respond to me in a short amount of time.” So, don't leave me hanging. Help me get to an answer quickly. Deliver the right help at the right time.

And 49% said “provide a range of options for me and help me understand all the ways I could tackle the challenge in front of me.” Please, don't decide for me what I need. Show me a few options and let me decide. Let me try before I buy.

Inbound strategies build engagement by being helpful, human, and timely, while providing risk-free options.