The B2B Blockchain of Sales and Marketing

 

It's time to decentralise your marketing and sales models - Nick Raeburn thatsocialnerd

Bitcoin is looking pretty good right now. Yep I’m HODLer!

I’ve been fascinated by crytpocurrency since it came along. Always been a bit of a futurist me. But the great thing about cryptocurrency that a lot of people don't understand. Is that it’s built on the blockchain.

An almost perfect system of decentralisation.

But blockchain doesn't just pertain to crypto, in-fact it can be applied to anything with a store of value. Like trust.

"The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value." – Don & Alex Tapscott.

There are 4 key concepts pertaining to Blockchain.

These are

1 Cryptographic Hash

A Hash is a cryptographic function that transforms any input data into a fixed-length string of numbers. One of the most important features of the Hash functions is that the conversion is one-way

2 Immutable Ledger

Since every block of the chain contains the Hash of the previous one, it is not possible to modify any block without changing the entire chain

3 P2P Network

The Blockchain does not need any external or internal trust authority. This is possible because the Blockchain data is distributed among all the users.

4 Consensus Protocol

The nodes check that the new block meets the requisites of their Proof method, including validation for all the transactions inside the block. If the block is valid, they consider it as a part of the Blockchain and keep adding new blocks.

What's happening with blockchain and the decentralisation of the internet (hello Web3) is now happening in the realms of B2B (yep, you guys have always been a little slower on the uptake).

What are you babbling about Nick? Come with me and I’ll show you.

Here’s what your company used to look like in the pre internet age (and probably still does).

Tried trusted and true. If it ain't broken don't fix it right?

Except it is broken isn't it. So very, very broken.

And it isn't getting any better.

Here is what it looks like from today onwards.

Look at how segsy that looks! 😘 total chefs kiss.

Sales and Marketing your job isn’t to control this anymore.

Your remit is now is to allow these functions to become decentralised amongst your blockchain.

Which is every. Single. One of your employees.

Ogilvy says

"CEOs and CMOs concur on the factors that contribute to business success. It is not solely dependent on accurate balance sheets, the latest CRM systems, or even the charisma of company founders. 90% of c-suite executives recognize their employees as their most valuable assets. The collective network of a company's employees is, on average, ten times larger than the company itself. Activating an employee advocacy network can enable brands to access this invaluable, untapped resource. 89% of c-suite marketers acknowledge the immense value of using employees as influencers for their businesses."

That’s where that big old word TRUST comes into play.

DO you trust yourself?

DO you trust your culture?

DO you trust your companies vision and mission?

DO you trust your colleagues and employees?

If the answer is no to anyone of those 4 components, then I’m afraid your B2B employee blockchain is about to fail. Hard.

New roles like Chief Content Officers (CCO’s) to align the core brand with your employees brand and create the collateral needed to weaponise your team at scale.

And Employee Creator Managers (ECM’s) to sit between sales and marketing to effectively manage all of your employees and help map out and pull their stories from them.

Will become the roles of the future.

It’s no longer enough to have a single brand voice. You need a contextual real time flow of narrative between the brand and employee which creates a single unified voice that speaks to everyone all at once. Contextual content at scale is where you’ll win. Like a giant real time sales conversation with prospects, buyers, champions and influencers. Across all of your people. A beautiful , giant dance of data. Like the blockchain itself.

And dear CMO if this terrifies the pants off you. Good.

You can either carry on doing what no longer works or embrace a future where you get to adapt to a changing environment and ride a new wave of marketing.

Be a pioneer and lead this charge. Creating new roles and functions and new ways of working (exciting times). Or get left behind. It’s up to you 🤷

Ogilvy's recent article highlights this

"As we move toward an era where 75% of the workforce will be digital natives by 2025 (as per Harvard Business Review), businesses must adapt to the new reality of digital relationships and professional communication, which are becoming increasingly integrated with the physical realm."

So are you going to stay centralised or are you going to decentralise and trust your vision and culture?

There is only one winner here.

Now it’s just a question of choosing a side.

Old Skool or New Skool?

Choose wisely. And I’ll see you in another week for more Electric Dreams.