Three Basic Questions of Your Marketing Strategy (2024)

Finding answers to the following three questions: "why, how and what?" is crucial for B2B marketers and sales representatives, especially when they want to meet the principles of the so-called account-based marketing.

The writer Simon Sinek introduced a model called The Golden Circle at the TED Talk conference held in 2009. His presentation entitled "Start With Why" was focused on the three following questions: why, how and what.

Why?

In his lecture, Sinek explains, "Very few organizations know why they do what they do. And by "why" I don't mean "to make a profit". That's a result. I ask them: "What's your purpose?" Very few B2B professionals can answer the question: "Why does your company exist?"

How?

Only some B2B companies understand how they managed to attract their customers, and even fewer managed to formulate their corporate values by developing several effective ways of selling their products to groups of selected customers based on sales data.

What?

Every B2B company knows what they do. They know their mission as well as the product or service they offer, the know the price charged to the customers and with whom they do business. The question "what" is, therefore, crucial as it is a matter of life and death.

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B2B marketing based on three questions

The three fundamental questions mentioned above can be easily applied to the role of a B2B buyer and extended into the overall customer experience. The methods traditionally used by companies to interact with their potential customers follow the same path.

Therefore, every marketing team starts a presentation by explaining to their prospects what and how their company does. If they are lucky enough, potential clients listen to them and pay attention to the service or product the sales team is offering.

However, this model is not the best one, because the sales representatives should put their customer first and start the presentation with the question โ€œwhy?โ€. Potential clients need to know why the company exists and what is the product or service it offers.

Of course, you have to find the customers that care about your offer. Marketers must support salespeople and focus on specific needs and problems of potential customers. As a solution, they offer a companyโ€™s product or service. Therefore, in the interest of successful B2B marketing, business teams should primarily focus on finding answers to the question โ€œwhyโ€.

What it is not the most important question

If we follow Sinekโ€™s model, we can say that most companies know why they exist: to service the companies that are their best customers. If we add another layer, companies should also know who they want to target.

Although most B2B marketers are perfectly aware of these facts, most of them do very poor job and focus only on the most promising customers. Historically, marketers bombarded new clients with emails and repeated phone calls.

Unfortunately, B2B marketers used these methods to find out the answer to โ€œwhatโ€, instead of focusing on โ€œwhyโ€ and โ€œwhoโ€. Nowadays, executive managers expect high profits on a shoestring budget and, therefore, no one can throw money out of the window and be unsuccessful.

Marketers must begin to define the personality profile of their ideal customers clearly. And create offers that target specific companies and employees. They must address them, both online and offline, and use such a language and words they understand. Your customers want to be addressed in this way, and it is the best approach to achieve perfect results.

Letโ€™s give the word to ABM

Sinekโ€™s model of the The Golden Circle can be perfectly applied to the concept of account-based marketing. Start with selecting your best customers. It might seem like a tricky task, but it is not a brain teaser as you work with your own company data.

If you are not a brand-new company, which was launched last week from scratch, you have your CRM system loaded with data about your clients. Just have a look at the list of your customers and find your VIP customers and clients who bring you the most money. Then ask yourself three Golden Circle questions:

  • Why did they decide to do business with you?
  • Are they successful as customers?
  • What defines these companies in terms of their area of industry, market share, number of employees and sales achieved?
  • Who is the end user, what is his position and responsibilities?

Based on answers to these questions, you select the companies that meet the same criteria. These companies and their employees become the target of your successful B2B marketing efforts.

Why, how and what in everyday life

Once you learn to use Sinek's approach, you realize that you can apply it to your everyday entrepreneur life. In order to define new goals and overcome the existing ones, it is necessary to know the answer to "why".

Why do you do business in your field, why do you take specific business steps, and why do your customers trust you? Once you realize that you are not able to find answers to one of these questions, you are in a vicious circle.

At the same time, you have to know how your customers respond to this question: Why do they buy your products and use your services? Do you know it? (Btw. do you know what is a buyer persona?) And do you suppose that you know it or did you conduct really relevant research? Without a thorough understanding of your target audience, it will be very difficult for you to innovate and satisfy the needs of your customers. And as we know, who does not innovate is doomed to failure.

Three Basic Questions of Your Marketing Strategy (2024)

FAQs

Three Basic Questions of Your Marketing Strategy? โ€บ

Finding answers to the following three questions: "why, how and what?" is crucial for B2B marketers and sales representatives, especially when they want to meet the principles of the so-called account-based marketing.

What are the three basic elements of an effective marketing strategy? โ€บ

For any marketing activity to be successful, you need to think about these three elements before you start doing your marketing. If you don't, any time, money and effort you expend is likely to be wasted. What are these three vital elements? They are PLANNING, INTEGRATION and CONSISTENCY.

What are 3 keys points to an effective marketing plan? โ€บ

3 Key Elements of a Successful Marketing Campaign
  • Branding โ€“ Highlight Uniqueness Of Your Brand.
  • Unique Selling Point โ€“ Make Your Product/Service The Best Thing About Your Business.
  • Media Channel โ€“ Choose The Right Channel To Reach The Target Audience.

What is the 3 3 3 rule in marketing? โ€บ

The 3-3-3 rule is a guideline that suggests breaking down your marketing message into three parts, each lasting ๐ญ๐ก๐ซ๐ž๐ž ๐ฌ๐ž๐œ๐จ๐ง๐๐ฌ, ๐ญ๐ก๐ซ๐ž๐ž ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐Ÿ‘๐ŸŽ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ, respectively. This rule acknowledges the short attention spans of today's consumers and aims to deliver concise, impactful content across various timeframes.

What is the main question in marketing? โ€บ

1. Who is my target market? To answer this question, consider who benefits most from using your product or service. Once you understand your target market, you can create a marketing campaign tailored toward this audience.

What are the 5 important marketing strategies? โ€บ

While there are various marketing strategies, here are five that will not cost you too much money and will still be effective.
  • Content Optimization for B2B. ...
  • Claim your business. ...
  • Lead Nurturing. ...
  • Optimize your website. ...
  • Use good security practices.

What are the 4 keys to marketing strategy? โ€บ

The four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion. They are an example of a โ€œmarketing mix,โ€ or the combined tools and methodologies used by marketers to achieve their marketing objectives.

What are the five 5 common marketing strategies? โ€บ

Five of the most common marketing goals are:
  • Generating leads.
  • Building brand awareness.
  • Increasing website traffic.
  • Converting leads into customers.
  • Developing customer loyalty.

What is a good marketing strategy? โ€บ

In conclusion, a successful marketing strategy must include five key elements: a clear understanding of the target audience, a unique value proposition, effective communication channels, a well-defined brand identity, and a plan for measuring and adjusting the strategy as needed.

What are the 3 marketing circles? โ€บ

As we have noted, the upper right-hand circle represents customer needs and values; the upper left-hand circle represents customer perception of the value that our company provides; and the bottom circle represents customer perception of the competitor's value.

What is marketing 3 sentences? โ€บ

Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships. It is the business process of creating relationships with and satisfying customers. Because marketing is used to attract customers, it is one of the primary components of business management and commerce.

What was one of the 3 main purposes of marketing? โ€บ

But if you look in that section of the newspaper, you'll see that none of the ads there accomplishes the three objectives of marketing: 1) to capture the attention of the target market, 2) facilitate their decision-making process by educating them about what they need to know, and 3) give them a low-risk way to become ...

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