On Demand Domain is No Place for a Tortoise
Mike Greece, APR, senior vice president and managing director, Padilla Speer Beardsley/New York
As seen in the Business to Business Marketer

Internet inventiveness over the last decade has led to extraordinary changes in business. In the last 10 to 15 years, we've seen marketing techniques run the headlining gamut... "Segmentation," "Generational," "Cause-Related," "One-to-One," "Buzz," whatever! But because of the digital revolution, B2B marketers today need to cut through all the labels and respond at the speed of demand, i.e., supersonic.

A new mantra is needed to succeed in a "now" business landscape, where marketing has to be incredibly responsive. Clearly the empowered digital-business buyer of the 21st century has sufficient tools and ingenuity to deny vendors a second chance. A few years ago, the Gartner Group estimated the worldwide B2B market would grow from $145 million in 1999 to $7.29 trillion in 2004. More compelling, Internet empowerment has created an interesting displacement of values — many buyers now care more about speed than brand.

So to grow market share in the new millennium, agility is the key to the B2B e-universe.

The Internet and the new economy have given the business landscape the effect of a speeding "bullet train." In the old days, the business day stopped at nightfall. Now, everyone has 24/7 access to information. When you pick up the phone, your business and products have been "Googled" and prospects are looking for immediate closure. Control of the buying "dance" has been seized by the demander from the supplier. So whomever can respond the quickest will win. The overriding concern must be speed — getting the order, filling the order, delivering the order, and servicing the order quickly and correctly — or competitors will.

Then you must let the world know that speed won and promulgate that attribute as a marketing weapon.

Sure, cost and product differences will guide the selection process. But in an increasing number of opportunities, agility in responding will win. Marketers must now learn to make their enterprise facile to prospects who are now the hunters, armed with newer and faster technologies to find products or services.

I suppose if forced to label this new marketing era it would be "On Demand." What's the key? Creating and delivering on the promise to respond to customers when and how they want it. The sustained ability to meet organic, cross-cultural demand is now a significant force in winning or losing market share. This is the real legacy of the dot-coms. Those who have the ability, passion, and infrastructure to consistently meet the demands of the B2B hunters will grow and flourish. The prize in the B2B landscape can be worth the necessary evolution. Marriott, Mercedes and McDonalds built business empires on the expectation of consistency. B2B success will in large measure be based on responsiveness.

The upside of the Gartner prediction suggests that "he who hesitates" will be lost in a huge B2B space. Indeed, for B2B marketers, the story of the tortoise and the hare needs some serious revision. In the new B2B landscape, the hare will be the big winner.