B2B Success Mantra: Why Industry Relations Trump Everything Else

I recently joined a fintech startup which has thrived for 6 years with no marketing. They’ve onboarded 150+ customers – with no marketing! It is all founder-led sales. These are the people who have been in the industry for 20+ years. 20+ years spent in making contacts and building relations. They have been instrumental in selling to some of the largest Indian banks and NBFCs. Even if a VP of Risk from say HDFC Bank doesn’t want to purchase from these founders, they accept the meeting invite. They give their 30 minutes to listen, just out of respect. Pretty crazy!

This experience got me thinking about something we often overlook in our rush to perfect pitch decks and optimize conversion funnels: the incredible power of industry relationships in B2B sales.

When Relationships do the Heavy Lifting: A Real-World Example

Take LiveRamp, a SaaS company specializing in data connectivity solutions. When they needed to break into the competitive Fortune 500 market, they didn’t rely on cold outreach or fancy marketing campaigns. Instead, they leveraged their founders’ existing network and industry relationships to implement an Account-Based Marketing strategy.

By identifying their top 15 best-fit accounts through their network connections and creating personalized, multichannel approaches for each one, LiveRamp generated over $50 million in annual revenue from just those 15 targeted accounts. The key wasn’t their product features or competitive pricing – it was the trust and credibility that came from existing industry relationships.

Image credit: Dun and Bradstreet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQlrlFnnsuc

Similarly, Derek Rey, CEO of Demand Inc., consistently tapped into his vast network of industry professionals and previous clients to position his company as the go-to authority in sales development. His hands-on approach, backed by deep industry knowledge and relationships, set Demand Inc. apart in a crowded market.

How to Build These Golden Relations

Building industry relationships isn’t about collecting business cards at networking events (though that’s part of it). Here’s what actually works:

• Be genuinely helpful first: Before you ever think about selling, focus on providing value. Share industry insights, make introductions, offer advice. As one sales expert put it, “The more focused you are on selling right off the bat, the less effective your networking becomes”.

I had a call with a LinkedIn Sales expert who told me that “don’t purchase this, you don’t need it!”. 10/10 would believe her for any purchase decision in the future.

• Show up consistently: Attend industry conferences, workshops, and events regularly. But don’t just show up – participate meaningfully. Ask thoughtful questions, contribute to discussions, and follow up with people afterward.

• Invest in personal branding: Share valuable content on LinkedIn, write thoughtful posts about industry trends, and position yourself as someone worth knowing. Remember, people do business with those they know, like, and trust.

• Play the long game: Think of relationship building as planting seeds rather than making immediate sales. The most valuable connections often take years to fully mature.

• Listen more than you speak: When you do engage with industry contacts, focus on understanding their challenges and goals. Ask open-ended questions and really listen to the answers.

The Compound Effect of Industry Credibility

Here’s something fascinating: once you’re known and respected in an industry, your credibility becomes transferable. When Salesforce wanted to maintain their market position, they focused on building friendly relationships with CMOs, CFOs, and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. This wasn’t aggressive selling – it was relationship building that positioned them as trusted advisors.

The compound effect is real. One good relationship leads to introductions to two more. Those relationships lead to more introductions. Before you know it, you have a network that opens doors you never could have opened cold.

Think about it: when a potential customer receives a warm introduction from someone they trust, they’re already predisposed to like and trust you. The sales conversation starts from a completely different place than a cold email or LinkedIn message. Worked all the time for my previous sales leader, who was liked by all for his warmth and friendly approach.

Conclusion

In niche industries that I worked (publishing and fintech), I realized that relationships aren’t just nice to have – they’re everything. When you’ve spent decades building trust and credibility in an industry, people will give you their time, their attention, and eventually, their business.

It is tough to build such relations in a short span. But we as humans tend to be best at trying, and failing, and eventually cracking it 🙂

What’s your experience with industry relationships? Have you seen them make or break deals in your business? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments.

This HBR Review article is worth a read: https://hbr.org/2024/07/toward-healthier-b2b-relationships