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Compared to end consumers, business-to-business buyers are more insightful, interested, rational, and fewer in number. And, as a result, they are the perfect marketing partners for the rollout of a new product, says Dan Adams, president of Advanced Industrial Marketing, Inc. and author of the new e-book 12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch. “If you don’t take advantage of their clear-headed wisdom, your new product launch is going to suffer,” he notes.

According to Adams, your prospects should play a vital role in every stage of the business development marketing process. “Traditional product launch methodologies don’t mesh well with the way people work now,” he notes. “In a business world fueled by digital technology and characterized by the free exchange of information, it makes more sense to let your prospects find you on their own timetable and spread the word about your new product organically.” Here are three suggestions for putting your prospects to work as part of a business development process:

1. Make it easy for prospects to find and study your new product. Think less about helping your sales reps convince prospects and more about helping prospects find your product when they are ready. Research by MarketingSherpa shows that customers now find suppliers — not the other way around — in 80 percent of b-to-b transactions. B-to-b buyers like to research, analyze, and make rational group decisions. Send out news releases full of content that will appeal to readers (and producers) of online magazines, journals, and blogs. Include both a link to your Web site and the keywords your prospects will likely use in their Google searches. When prospects search, they’ll find articles that lead them to your Web site. If your site is packed with interesting presentations, videos, comparisons, etc., prospects could spend an hour doing the work your sales reps normally do.
   
   
2. Encourage word-of-mouth marketing. When it comes to small business development, a kind word about your new product from a trusted colleague or expert will be far more convincing than a spiel from your sales rep. Consider these approaches:

• Identify and promote to industry thought leaders. Use communications to VIP editors and bloggers.
• Promote to people already in groups — e.g., trade shows and conferences — so they can discuss your product.
• Gain testimonials from respected early adopters. Get advance samples in the hands of willing customers.
• Locate the key decision influencers at prospect companies and build relationships with them.

3. Let your prospects help you figure out your new-product launch message and media mix. To get the message right, uncover customers’ hot buttons during the same “voice-of-the-customer” interviews you (hopefully) used to help design your new product. Then, use their specific language in your advertising copy as keywords to attract their Google searches, etc.