As if we were making an academic or professional Marketing plan, first of all we are going to talk about the environment in which we operate. In the business environment, the term VUCA is a term used by many and experienced (or sometimes suffered) by everyone. This term is attributed to the United States Army school after the end of the Cold War and has since been applied to different environments, including business or company. The term VUCA corresponds to the acronym of the English words; Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. As I mentioned at the beginning, it is not a situation with which we were not familiar before the pandemic, although its effects have been exponentially enhanced with it.
“The intelligence of an individual is measured by the amount of uncertainty he is able to bear.”
E. Kant
We will not dwell on this term in great detail, as there is a lot of literature in the media on this subject, but we will give some brief advice on how to act on each point, applied from a business perspective.
Volatility ; a dynamic of constant change in the paradigms of the business environment. There are few companies that have not been affected by a change in their market in recent months, but I don't think there are any that have not been affected in the last 5/10 years. The key to dealing with this situation is the ability to adapt to new realities. The more vision of the future and attention we have to possible changes in our market or segment, the easier it will be to anticipate them.
Uncertainty , if volatility refers to changes in the current vp facility managers email lists environment, uncertainty affects companies that manage future environments , with the difficulty that this entails for business forecasting. The increase in unforeseen situations complicates the fact of foreseeing events and changes and, therefore, the ability to anticipate them. Constant updating of market movements, available techniques and technologies is becoming increasingly necessary. The other essential point is to work in strong and high added value associations that allow us to face this situation in less vulnerable conditions. And with this we are not only referring to clients , but also to suppliers and partners .
Complexity . It will not surprise anyone to read that we are moving in increasingly complex environments. Especially in B2B, which we will discuss below. The cause/effect relationship of B2B operations is increasingly difficult to decipher, and this will be the main topic of the post. Both internal and external factors affect and increase this complexity. Simplification and clarity in internal processes, as well as correct communication outside the company of our needs (suppliers and partners) and our solutions (customers) will be key when it comes to minimizing the effects of this complexity. Agile methodologies such as Scrum and having a data-oriented business culture are good travel companions in this regard.
Ambiguity , the three previous conditions create a situation of ambiguity in which the information generated must be subject to constant review and doubt, with the mistrust that this generates. Ambiguity is directly related to the lack of clarity about any fact. Cause/effect relationships, detection of opportunities or threats in the market and effects of unknown business decisions are mixed together, making it difficult to refine information and draw conclusions applicable to our company. I would like to say that we must anticipate movements with the data and information we have, but we are all aware of the utopian nature of this statement. However, there are certain tools that can help us enhance their positive effects and alleviate the negative ones. I recommend Luis Hidalgo's post on #scrumsales and agile methodologies. Once again I want to emphasize the importance of having a technological solution that is appropriate for our company, as well as the right partner #sum.
Given the environment in which we operate, we are going to start to deal with the content that may be of most interest to us because of its applicability to our daily professional life: the complexity of B2B sales processes and why they are different from B2C.
Greater number of purchasing decision makers
This will make the process more complex and longer. Each of these purchasing decision-makers involved will have different needs, aspirations and problems to solve. This is why #ABM strategies are key and so effective in B2B processes; we must find the right messages and solutions for each interlocutor.
