The Value of Asking the Right Questions - Kris Bondi - Hard Corps Marketing Show #119

A marketer’s learning never stops. They need to understand their product or service inside and out, they need to understand their buyers, the market their product or service plays in, and also how to report it all.  In an ever evolving field, marketers face a challenge of keeping up with their knowledge of the space they move in. An international marketing thought leader, speaker, writer, and CMO of LogDNA, Kris Bondi, encourages marketers to ask questions throughout their career to advance their skills. She reminds listeners that it also is not just about asking questions in general, but asking the right ones.   Takeaways: If you do not understand the audience or personas you are working with, then you need to educate yourself by asking the right questions. Marketers need to take initiative and educate themselves on the technical side of their product or service. They need to be the translators between the end users and the business value. Listen in on sales calls and then after the call, meet with the sales team members and ask them why they were asking certain questions. Dig deeper for understanding and learn at every moment you can. A marketing leader not only is concerned with the leads they are bringing in, they also have their minds on the bigger picture. Where is the company going? Is the marketer putting their brand or business in a limited box? In marketing, it is not just about answering a pain your buyer has, but answering a pain that they care about. Is the pain real or is it a nice-to-have improvement? B2B marketers need to consider the different buyers they are marketing to in a deal. Will the person signing the check care about that your product or service makes someone’s life at their company easier? How will your product or service contribute to revenue? When considering attribution, think about not only the lead source, but also focus on what campaigns are triggering the conversion to an opportunity. Before joining a company consider, is there a market opportunity, how much has been invested in the company, what pain points are they solving, and where are they looking to go in the next few years? Kris Bondi’s advice for asking the right follow up questions: “You actually have to listen to what the person said the first time.” A follow up question needs to be related to what the person just said as opposed to just running through a list of predetermined questions.   Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisbondi/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kbondi LogDNA: https://logdna.com/   Busted Myths: You can’t market to developers. - Marketers will not be able to market to developers if they only deliver fluff and pushy messaging. Marketers succeed with developers when they are concerned about the end user. They need to be concerned with empowering them and educating them on how to use the product or service.