Creating an Effective B2B Marketing Strategy with John Bruno, VP of Commerce Strategy at PROS

Welcome to the Marketing Growth Podcast. I’m your host, Shane Barker. On this episode, John Bruno, the VP of commerce strategy of PROS, is back with us with more B to B insights for those joining our conversation with John for the first time. Check out our previous episodes on my website. We discuss effective B to B omni-channel marketing and how PROS can make this reality for marketers. We also talk about the future of E-commerce, marketing, and how B to B marketers can leverage dominating trends. On today’s episode, we’ll discuss how B to B marketers can create competitive marketing strategies.

Another thing I want to touch on with you is B to B marketers. How can they stay competitive? Right? Because we talk about what needs to happen. I mean, obviously the airline industry, last time I checked, they have a lot of money, right? I don’t know how much they have now, but I know they do have a lot of money, right, historically, to be able to invest. What I mean, how can you be B to B marketing? Like, how can people compete? Like, what do you think? I want to know, actually, what this is, what I want to know how the pandemic has affected B to B. Marketing, like, what do you think that this pandemic and the whole COVID-19 thing, how has it affected B to B?

I love that. So, so that’s, and I think I agree with that, right? Because it’s obviously from the pull standpoint of, like, hey, you need to be there. It’s equipment. You don’t even push as much. It’s like making sure that you’re there when they’re looking for that type of information. So for like, A, B to B marketers, like, how can they make sure their products stand out? Because you kind of touched on it a little bit like, what? Little bit. Like, what would be, what would be some pointers that you could say, Hey, these are some of the things that you need to do. I mean, obviously, need to be in the place where your people are. But, like, what are some other, some other good things you can throw out there for us?

No, and I think that makes total sense—especially when you talk about, once again, more of the downloadable content: PDFs, videos, that kind of stuff. I know that’s always been helpful for me when I’m going to purchase something. If it has a video, I’m like, “I’m pretty sure this is it.” Then when I watch the video, I’m like, “Okay, this is exactly what I need.” Obviously, it helps you get to a point where you’re 70% sure and you’re not ready to pull the trigger. Then, all of a sudden, you have a video or anything you can do once again to stay in front of them and educate them on why this is the right decision. That is obviously very valuable.

So what is your opinion—what’s the recipe to create an effective B2B marketing strategy? What would it be? And once again, you guys being the pros—literally—the pros on the front end and the back end of this thing, what would you see? What do you do when you come in there?

Yeah, I think that that is so key to the customer journey and what they’re doing, what they see along that way, in that process, and being a part of that process right to better understand that so that you’re telling them, “Hey, you got to make a right turn here. Make a left turn here. Hey, now you need to go ahead and buy.” I think is important. I mean, we talked about the customer journey, but I don’t know if people really understand what that entails. I mean, that customer journey can be, especially in a B2B situation, can be lengthy, right? And you want to make sure that they’re not going and veering off the path. When it’s like, raising a kid, you know, you want to kind of, oh, no, no, go this way. No, no, I kind of can do this. And then you’re like, hey, now we get to a point where they’re in college or getting married, or whatever that is. It’s the same thing with B2B. It’s like, how do you understand better, understand what that customer’s going through, and then how you’re going to want to be able to get them to the finish line, to be able to get something.

Yeah, well, it’s interesting because I use the example of raising a kid, and you said there’s weapons. And I was like, Oh, interesting. I didn’t know that we could use weapons on kids, but I, I mean, I’m all for it. I mean, I guess if it helps, you know, tailor them to become better people. But that’s good to know. I think it was probably made more sense on the pro side of things and then that. But yeah, I got you. I got you on that note, John, allow me to pause the conversation for a minute to talk to our listeners. Okay, guys, remember that you can hire my team and I for services, including influencer marketing, online PR, content marketing and more. You can also contact us for consulting or fully managed services to get more information. Check out our website at Shane barker.com that’s S, H, A, N, E, B, A, R, K, E, R.com, now back to John in our conversation about effective B2B marketing. So, what in regards to like B2B marketing campaigns? Are there any campaigns out there that you’ve seen, either you know, current campaigns or past campaigns that you were really impressed with, that you were like, man, that’s like, like, nah. They know what they’re doing. They’re doing it right. And it probably, probably is a PROS client, which I don’t, I don’t doubt, because you guys have been around before AI was called AI, so hit me. Hit me with some good stuff.

Yeah, yeah, it’s interesting. Well, that’s, and I think that’s what’s cool about it, is that, you know, it’s, there’s, especially these days. I mean, we talk about, like, food, farm-to-fork and all this kind of stuff. I’m seeing that as an example of, like, you want to know, once again, where your food comes from, or you want to know the company that you’re working with, what are their core values on certain things? And does it resonate with what your core values are?

And I think before, in the past, it wasn’t that big of a deal necessarily, but now I think it’s definitely become a big deal—like, hey, that could be a deciding factor, right? Assuming that your core values are going to align with my core values because I want to spend my money with a company that supports things that I support. And that can be, that could be a slippery slope, but, you know, I guess depending on which side you’re on.

But I love that. I love the fact that that’s, you know, something that, once again, you can put out there and say, “Hey, this is who we are, this is what we believe in, and these are the kind of people we like to work with.” And so I think there’s definitely some value to that for consumers to be able to understand that, hey, it resonates with them or puts them at ease with their decision, because the core values are there.

So John, this has been awesome, man. Like I said, I was super excited about this interview today, just because I looked around and you guys, once again, have been around for almost, what, 30 years? The fact that what you guys have been doing and the fact that you guys are the ones doing the stuff with the airlines—I mean, just, I think it shows the complexity of what you guys can build, and the complexity of what you guys have built to this day. And so I do appreciate it once again. If there’s any way to hook me up with cheaper airline tickets or anything like that, I mean, you know, just send me the code or whatever I need to do. We can do a secret handshake or whatever needs to happen there.

If you don’t have that intel, that’s still okay. We can still be friends, and I’ll still come out to Boston. We can watch Good Will Hunting and have a beer or something like that. But I do have a few other questions. Where do you feel like we could go? So, I always like to ask people about traveling, and that’s one of the questions that I ask: if there was one place you could travel to for free (and this would obviously be a COVID-free environment—you wouldn’t have to wear a mask or do all the fun stuff we have to do here in 2021, which blows people away because I don’t even know if people remember what that’s like anymore), where would that be? What would you do there?

Yeah, nobody needs to know. It’s a secret. Yeah, wherever you want to go, bud.

That’s funny. So I’ve only been to Germany once, and it was, I was traveling with some friends of mine, so we really didn’t make it past the Hofbräuhaus. I mean, we didn’t make it past the, you know, the beer there. So that was, but that sounds awesome, like I didn’t know there was. That’s why I asked these kinds of questions. Because I honestly, it’s, it’s partly for my audience, but it’s really 80% for me. So I can write down a place that I haven’t been to and add it to my top 10 list, which is like now a top 30 list, because I can’t seem to go anywhere at this point. But so okay with that being said, with that, what would be? What would a superpower be, if you could have one superpower, and this can be, you know, an X-Men type superpower. It can be something off the wall. Can be whatever what would be? I mean, other than the superpower of what you guys currently do, and that’s to figure out everybody’s behavior and make them buy stuff, that’s a superpower in its own. But let’s talk about you. Let’s start you as an individual. What would be your superpower?

yeah, yeah. I’m all for that, man. Let me know if that little, what was the movie? Wasn’t it, um, Adam Sandler?

Yeah, it wasn’t like, rewind, though, click something, yeah.

Yeah, that was, that was a little kind of funny, gimmicky. But I like your point of, like, saying, hey, that’s gonna that’s, this is an important point. Can I go back to and really soak it in? Because I don’t think a lot of times we have experiences in life, and I don’t think a lot of times you don’t think about what it is until it’s happening, like, how that was really cool, or, God, I really wish I could have, like, soaked that in and realized the magnitude of what happened there, or even a loved one if something was to happen, like, Oh, that would be nice if we had, you know, 20 more minutes, or something like that. So I love that. That’s a great nobody’s ever said that superpower. I do. I like that. That’s something that would there was some way to vote that in to give you that superpower. I would just, you know, vote hands down to give you that superpower. And then, yeah, exactly. I’m all in. I’ll tell my family to vote for it as well. So what about favorite books? Got any favorite books or podcasts that you listen to religiously? Anything fun?

Well, and I think the thing is, with your position the VP, I mean, you, you have to be fixated on that. Like, to me, that would be to have the guy that says, Well, I mean, I’m intrigued by it. That’s not the VP. The VP needs to, like, to the point where you’re probably, you know, where you get the tattoo. This is something like, I fix problems, or something like that, you know, like across your chest or something. I’m not recommending you do that, but I’m just saying, right, you need the person that says, Listen, this is the kind of things that keep me up at night, and this is the kind of stuff I want to figure out. And I think that’s, that’s what it’s going to take to be able to go into 2021 and even further on, to be able to make this accessible for businesses, to be able to do that. And I think you couldn’t have a better person at the helm of the VP doing that for PROS, man. So congratulations on your guys’ success over there.

Yeah. Well, if you guys like this podcast, actually, no wait, before we go to that, John, if anybody needs to get in contact with you, my friend, or wants to know more about PROS, where can they get some information about that?

and quick question, how did you guys always have pros.com, the URL?

Okay, I’m asking because I used to be a domain name buff, so I’m always interested in, like, people saying, No, I paid $7 million for it. I wish I would have had it 12 years ago. So I was just curious if you guys had, maybe, you know, picked it up a long time ago, if you had to pay some exorbitant amount.

Yeah, I was curious. I always like to hear that. Oh, not that people paid too much, but that, you know, somebody made some money off a domain name. Because I used to own a ton of domain names and I was trying to sell them. And I always like to hear those funny stories. So anyways, John, pleasure of having you on the podcast, buddy. Once, can you guys keep up the good work over at PROS? And you guys, if you’re listening to this podcast and you like what you hear, make sure you subscribe to it. Please go ahead and click that subscribe button. And if you really like the podcast, you can even write a comment, and that would be only good comments. If you would like to have a bad comment, then don’t write a bad comment. You can email that to me. We can discuss why you have those feelings. John, once again, buddy, thank you so much for being on the podcast. We really appreciate it taking time out of your busy day, and we’ll be chatting soon.

That’s a wrap, folks, thanks for listening to this podcast episode, and I hope you now have enough tips to improve your B to B marketing strategies. It was a pleasure speaking to you, John, thank you for your time. Stay tuned to the Marketing Growth Podcast, because next week we host another digital marketing leader.