B2B Marketing: Overcoming Integration Challenges in the Current “VUCA World”

‍In the ever-changing landscape of today's technology, navigating and understanding available solutions is the challenge to embrace in order to participate in the change.

Following the rapid and chaotic asset digitalization triggered by the pandemic, the B2B industry continues to advance this process but needs a more structured approach.

Clarifying the scenario, as well as identifying the critical issues and concerns of the sector, are the first step to entering a highly specialized and opportunity-rich field.

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Challenges of the “VUCA World”: Navigating a Shifting Context

We live in a world characterized by a constantly evolving technological landscape, making it difficult for companies to navigate and comprehend the various available solutions.

The abundance of tools and services, along with their continual updates, exacerbates this issue. The VUCA concept (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) perfectly applies to this changing reality, where market conditions shift rapidly.

For B2B companies, this means adopting a flexible approach to asset digitalization and acting swiftly to remain competitive.

Consider examples like artificial intelligence, digital transformation, IIoT, Big Data, and Analytics, which are reshaping B2B businesses, redefining the boundaries and logic of production processes, particularly in sectors with high levels of engineering. 

However:

One significant challenge lies in the vast availability and variety of tech stacks, whose usefulness is often undeniable but requires careful integration (both with each other and with existing technologies), as well as solid multidisciplinary skills for their effective implementation. 

The massive introduction of technology stacks has resulted in widespread difficulty for companies in finding talent with the necessary technical and analytical skills to use them effectively.

According to Altimeter Research, this poses the greatest obstacle for marketing professionals in successfully executing business performance. In both IoT and Marketing, this issue is referred to as the “talent gap,” indicating the severe mismatch between required and available skills.

Experts with these competencies are hard to find.

Why? “Firstly, they combine marketing and technological skills. Secondly, they need to be business experts, meaning they should be able to structure processes, data, and technologies.” — Frans Riemersma (author and MarTech researcher).

If this lack of MarTech expertise leads to their exclusion from business strategies, it is pretty evident that the tasks to promote companies and their services fall back on other methodologies.

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Marketing in the Engineering Industry: Where Do We Stand?

In sectors like IoT, Mechanical Engineering, Life Sciences, Renewables, and Oil and Energy, marketing and communication strategies are often undervalued and limited to traditional activities such as trade shows, brochures, and phone calls.

Data reveals that in the current VUCA world, such an approach is no longer sufficient, resulting in very low conversion rates. For example, phone calls generate a result of around 0.47% (source: Baylor University 2019).

But why continue to adopt obsolete and ineffective solutions when other sectors and the B2C world have long since changed their approach?

ETO (Engineer-to-Order) companies fear that the marketing teams' lack of experience in this field might lead to a poor understanding of the company's real needs.

Additionally, the resources and time dedicated to marketing activities are often limited, and the dedicated teams may lack decision-making power. Despite a general acceptance of the asset digitalization, engineering sector companies seem hindered by the difficulty in measuring return on investment (ROI) and accurately attributing the impact of marketing efforts, making it hard to justify costs.

It's essential to adopt a value-focused approach, shifting the influence spectrum from criteria solely concerning the economic sphere towards more Human-Centered dynamics.

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Two Worlds Meet: Integrating into Existing Realities

Integrating different tools and platforms in digital marketing can be complex, requiring time, specialized knowledge, and resources. Plus, these activities must fit into existing systems and infrastructures that rely on established processes.

Unfortunately, new solutions are sometimes not fully utilized, and the misalignment between Marketing, Sales, and Customer Care departments often leads to project failures.

A value-driven approach can harmonize and align the goals of all actors and departments involved in companies, generating the phenomenon known as breaking down silos. Operating within the B2B engineering sector also necessitates a deep understanding of highly specific and specialized processes.

Finally, data plays a crucial role in effective marketing. Incomplete, outdated, or inconsistent data can indeed undermine a project's effectiveness.

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Conclusion

Upon reading this, one might feel discouraged and consider turning towards safer and simpler paths.

On one hand, there is a continuously evolving VUCA world with significant challenges like the talent gap, crowded solutions, and stakeholders' fears towards the not yet fully understood MarTech world.

On the other hand, there is the need to integrate tech stacks into well-established ETO companies. However, precisely because the digital experience in this sector is relatively nascent, exploration becomes so stimulating.

For this journey to be fruitful, it is necessary to start from the beginning and understand the context.

Awareness of the scenario is thus the fundamental first step to generating value: an exciting challenge worth every effort!