How influence works
This post is a very personal take on Influencer Marketing. I worked in market analyst firms for 12 years between 1995 and 2006, first for Ovum and then IDC. Importantly, I had also been a customer of analyst firms at my previous “end-user” jobs at Nationwide Building Society and the Post Office.
I’ve therefore seen B2B decisions being made from three perspectives: the buyer (of technology products and services), the vendor (of analyst consulting services) and independent third party adviser. In fact, depending on who was paying the bill I’ve been adviser to the buyer or vendor (but never both, obviously). You get a rounded view of how influence work when you play these different roles.
Influence and Buyers
Buyers use influencers to reduce the risk that they select a duffer product or supplier. As a buyer, I used analysts to guide the general direction of a technology – what functionality to request, which vendors to talk to, and so on. As an adviser to buyers I would do requirements elicitation, product comparison and recommendations on selection. I even did a financial assessment of a firm believe to have flaky accounts.
As a buyer I also joined user groups, to talk to other customers, and collectively we applied pressure to vendors’ future product plans. I acted as a reference for other companies considering technology purchases. I employed independent experts in areas beyond my experience, and followed their advice. Twice I fell under the influence of standards bodies as we pushed for ISO9000 compliance. I was influenced by James Martin, a management guru and eponymous founder of a consulting firm. I interacted with academics in trying to establish interoperability standards.
It should be obvious from this list that buyers draw influence from a wide variety of sources, and certainly not just analysts and journalists. In fact, it would be wrong to say that analysts had substantially more influence than some of the other players. Some people were influential early in the decision process, other much later on.
I am certain that my experience is the normbased on numerous discussions with buyers – decision makers are influenced by numerous people at different times on a variety of subjects.
Influence and Vendors
Vendors use influencers to remove risk from decisions in their favour. From a vendor perspective, the use of influencers is all about increasing sales and reducing sales cycles by making the decision process run smoother and faster.
As a vendor of consulting services I deployed customer references as often as practical, as strong influencers on prospects. But I would also drop influencers into conversation - books and papers I’d read. I would cite The Economist. Nicholas Carr’s IT doesn’t matter article in HBR still serves me well three years after it was written. I used the influence of the media, writing by-lined articles, appearing as an “authority” in numerous publications, and appeared on TV. I used the kudos of my MBA college (Henley, since you ask) as an influence on other MBAers. Anything to create a positive environment in which to sell whatever I was selling.
Again the theme here is variety of influencers. Not variety for the sake of variety, but to draw on a kitbag of resources that could be searched for that appropriate tool. It’s all about removing risk and objections to sales.
Influence and influencers
Most influencers don’t know that they influence. Those that do know rarely know who they influence. Those that do know who they influence end up influencing a few people only.
Influence is a game of scale. If you advise specific people on a regular and personalised basis you can’t get around many people. You just don’t have time.
An independent financial adviser may have a few hundred clients. A few hundred – in a consumer-based mass market of millions. But they’ll know each client well, and have a strong referral network in place.
In a B2B context, most independent consultants have a few tens of regular customers. They are very influential, but don’t have broad reach (though blogs may change this).
Most influencers draw at least some of their authority from their firm. We know the firms that convey the most credibility, and employees of those companies command influence. Companies are important to influencers because they provide the scale that eludes independents.
Influencers also interact with other influencers. Some influencers inherit influence from other influencers – Influencer Marketing’s version of name dropping. While I don’t believe there is a strict hierarchy of influencers, there are clear relationships and interplays between influencers that affect both vendors and their prospects.
I expect the nature of influence to change, as influencers become aware (through the rise in Influencer Marketing) that they have influence. Influencers will want to maintain or increase their influencer. Those that don’t have influence will want to obtain it. Those under influence will want to understand its intentions and potential outcomes. It will be interesting to chart the progress of influence.
I’ve therefore seen B2B decisions being made from three perspectives: the buyer (of technology products and services), the vendor (of analyst consulting services) and independent third party adviser. In fact, depending on who was paying the bill I’ve been adviser to the buyer or vendor (but never both, obviously). You get a rounded view of how influence work when you play these different roles.
Influence and Buyers
Buyers use influencers to reduce the risk that they select a duffer product or supplier. As a buyer, I used analysts to guide the general direction of a technology – what functionality to request, which vendors to talk to, and so on. As an adviser to buyers I would do requirements elicitation, product comparison and recommendations on selection. I even did a financial assessment of a firm believe to have flaky accounts.
As a buyer I also joined user groups, to talk to other customers, and collectively we applied pressure to vendors’ future product plans. I acted as a reference for other companies considering technology purchases. I employed independent experts in areas beyond my experience, and followed their advice. Twice I fell under the influence of standards bodies as we pushed for ISO9000 compliance. I was influenced by James Martin, a management guru and eponymous founder of a consulting firm. I interacted with academics in trying to establish interoperability standards.
It should be obvious from this list that buyers draw influence from a wide variety of sources, and certainly not just analysts and journalists. In fact, it would be wrong to say that analysts had substantially more influence than some of the other players. Some people were influential early in the decision process, other much later on.
I am certain that my experience is the normbased on numerous discussions with buyers – decision makers are influenced by numerous people at different times on a variety of subjects.
Influence and Vendors
Vendors use influencers to remove risk from decisions in their favour. From a vendor perspective, the use of influencers is all about increasing sales and reducing sales cycles by making the decision process run smoother and faster.
As a vendor of consulting services I deployed customer references as often as practical, as strong influencers on prospects. But I would also drop influencers into conversation - books and papers I’d read. I would cite The Economist. Nicholas Carr’s IT doesn’t matter article in HBR still serves me well three years after it was written. I used the influence of the media, writing by-lined articles, appearing as an “authority” in numerous publications, and appeared on TV. I used the kudos of my MBA college (Henley, since you ask) as an influence on other MBAers. Anything to create a positive environment in which to sell whatever I was selling.
Again the theme here is variety of influencers. Not variety for the sake of variety, but to draw on a kitbag of resources that could be searched for that appropriate tool. It’s all about removing risk and objections to sales.
Influence and influencers
Most influencers don’t know that they influence. Those that do know rarely know who they influence. Those that do know who they influence end up influencing a few people only.
Influence is a game of scale. If you advise specific people on a regular and personalised basis you can’t get around many people. You just don’t have time.
An independent financial adviser may have a few hundred clients. A few hundred – in a consumer-based mass market of millions. But they’ll know each client well, and have a strong referral network in place.
In a B2B context, most independent consultants have a few tens of regular customers. They are very influential, but don’t have broad reach (though blogs may change this).
Most influencers draw at least some of their authority from their firm. We know the firms that convey the most credibility, and employees of those companies command influence. Companies are important to influencers because they provide the scale that eludes independents.
Influencers also interact with other influencers. Some influencers inherit influence from other influencers – Influencer Marketing’s version of name dropping. While I don’t believe there is a strict hierarchy of influencers, there are clear relationships and interplays between influencers that affect both vendors and their prospects.
I expect the nature of influence to change, as influencers become aware (through the rise in Influencer Marketing) that they have influence. Influencers will want to maintain or increase their influencer. Those that don’t have influence will want to obtain it. Those under influence will want to understand its intentions and potential outcomes. It will be interesting to chart the progress of influence.
Labels: influencer marketing, influencers
posted by Duncan Brown at 3:29 pm
1 Comments:
test, sorry
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