Slay the status quo: How to win in B2B

This article is based on Bryan’s brilliant presentation, ‘Overcoming your biggest competitor in B2B technology – the dreaded status quo’, given at the Product Marketing MisUnderstood event. PMA members can watch this presentation in its full glory – plus hundreds of others – using our OnDemand service.

Hi, my name is Bryan Socransky, and I’m the Director of Product Marketing at Zendesk. Most of my career has been in B2B technology, and SaaS in particular. I’ve worked for startups as well as large corporations like Oracle, launching dozens of new products, and I’ve run many, many B2B marketing campaigns over my 25-plus-year career. 

I’m here today to talk to you about overcoming the biggest competitor in B2B technology, which is almost always the status quo. 

Here’s what I’m going to cover:

• The power of the status quo,
• Why the status quo is a problem in B2B, 
• The cause of this problem, and 
• How product marketing can help overcome the status quo.

The power of the status quo in B2B

First, let me share a valuable lesson I learned about the status quo and how it is almost always the biggest competitor in B2B – especially B2B technology. 

In 2014, I was chasing a deal at a utility company. It was a big opportunity. They were a perfect fit for the B2B SaaS solution I was selling.