Authenticity: the foundation of great Marketing

In my recent reading a book title caught my eye: “Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want.” The book itself is about consumers gravitating toward purchasing experiences where they feel they’re having a genuine experience and focuses on B2C companies like Starbucks. I was tempted to pick it up just to see that title staring back to me from my bookshelf.

In my experience, in B2B sales authenticity is also very much in demand. We live in such an over-hyped world that customers of any size are immune to being bombarded with benefit messages. A prospect or customer wants to have a feel for who your company is and what you stand for that saturates all levels of their interaction with you.

This is why it’s important to align Sales’ customer contact with Marketing’s messages. On the surface one off-message email isn’t that bad, but it does give a prospect the nagging sense that your company has two faces.

There’s often a misconception that Marketing is about making companies and products sound better than they are. In fact for many companies the true job of Marketing is to express the authentic face of the company and to keep it consistent even when that company is comprised of thousands of individuals.

Both the prospect and your organization are more inspired and more likely to work together when they experience something real and true in that relationship.