You feel a ripple of nausea as your stomach falls. You just heard from the sales team that your company lost a hot prospect that you really wanted to add to your client list.

You'd followed the tracking notifications as the prospect read your articles, downloaded your premium content, read additional articles, and checked out the case studies and bottom-of-the-funnel content that the sales team had sent.

Your hopes were sky-high when your company's best salesperson was assigned to this prospect, and you just knew she would close the deal.

But, no... And the worst part is, you lost the prospect to a competitor you've been enviously watching win again and again.

What happened?

Your competitor offered new insight

Content is like a new baby: To the people who made it, it's perfect—even though there are hundreds of thousands of other babies out there that are arguably just as "perfect."

To capture attention and get a response, your content needs to offer new perspective, new insight. If the prospect has spent any time at all trying to find ways to solve a problem or to achieve a goal, he or she has hit up Google; and if your content just re-hashes what's on the first couple of pages of search results, you aren't going to garner much respect.

Decision-makers want to learn something fresh and valuable that has an impact on their business. And you want to be seen as the company with something to offer that your competitors don't.

Action step: Get a clear picture of exactly who your prospects are and what challenges they are trying to solve. Understand their current level of knowledge about the issues you address at each stage of the buyer's journey. And before you create a piece of content, search Google to see what already exists. Then ask yourself a few questions: What's not being said about this issue? What new angle can I view this topic from? If everyone is talking about a new piece of research, how can I reframe the research, or cross-reference it with another study to come up with new insight? What thoughts do our company experts have on this subject? Put in the effort to come up with something fresh.

Your competitor delivered personal value

We often forget that B2B marketing is still person-to-person. Each of your decision-makers has daily challenges, fears, and goals. Each wants to be more productive, to do good work, to get that raise, to improve his or her career.

Enter your email address to continue reading

Why Your Ideal Prospect Just Picked Your Competitor (and How to Win Next Time)

Don't worry...it's free!

Already a member? Sign in now.

Sign in with your preferred account, below.

Did you like this article?
Know someone who would enjoy it too? Share with your friends, free of charge, no sign up required! Simply share this link, and they will get instant access…
  • Copy Link

  • Email

  • Twitter

  • Facebook

  • Pinterest

  • Linkedin


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Laura MacPherson

Laura MacPherson is a freelance B2B copywriter and content strategist who specializes in helping in-house marketing departments generate more and better leads.

LinkedIn: Laura MacPherson