Face-to-face word of mouth #1 influence on business buying decisions

May 15th, 2007 Lois Kelly Posted in Conversational Marketing, Research, Word of mouth |

Face-to-face word of mouth has the largest influence on business buying decisions, according to a study released yesterday by The Keller Fay Group.

Most executive word of mouth occurs offline, with more than 75% happening in person. (A very small portion happens online.) The 700 U.S. and U.K. executives interviewed for the study said that they value communications channels with two-way dialogue, Top influences on their business purchases:

Recommendation form a colleague or friend
Interaction with a salesperson
Participation at in-person marketing events, conferences and trade shows.

Based on my research for Beyond Buzz there are several implications to this research:

- Most sales training focuses on style, but lacks ideas on how to jump start conversations with a point of view that is relevant to both the seller and buyer. In the Web 2.0 exuberance many, many companies are overlooking how to make face to face sales conversations more effective.
Word of mouth for business to business marketing and sales isn’t about buzz, it’s about providing advice and ideas and making meaning.

Face to face word of mouth requires that your people — executives, sales reps, folks at shows — have interesting ideas to talk about. Ideas that are fresh, engaging, memorable and are easy for people to take back and talk to others about. Give them more to talk about than more about your products and capabilities.

[word of mouth marketing]