The CEO and BtoB Live for Word of Mouth

One of the coverage areas most looked forward to adding in next year's CMA "From Mass To Grass" word of mouth conference, was to include a section on BtoB. It would appear the BtoB marketer lifeline is word of mouth.

As judged by a study from Keller Fay and Jack Morton, the C-suite is both influenced and influences word of mouth. When considering purchases, word of mouth is #1, trumping an entire ecosytem of sales people, conferences, internet, trade shows and trade direct mail and print advertising.  Interesting, 75% of the channel is face to face.

They not only listen but they participate - having 118 word of mouth conversations each week with 102 different brands mentioned. And when the CEO participates in word of mouth, it usually means a fleet of directors and managers get moved to action or scurry for cover...