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native species that allows users to narrow down a specific species according to its sunlight requirements, soil pH, drought or moisture tolerance and much more. “The most successful companies today win by helping, not just selling,” he said. “Organizations that are engaging their customers early on in this buying cycle are helping by providing the information, the tools and the community that these people are looking for when they’re researching businesses, products and services.” Jason Becker, Caterpillar’s senior manager of growth markets, reminisced on his 23 years with the company, and how he considers the relationship forged with the landscape industry as a key reason for CAT reaching its 100th anniversary this year. “For me – don’t tell the other industries that we serve – but landscaping is my absolute favourite business we engage with. Not because another industry is
terms of search engine optimization (SEO), mobile functionality and security. There is a catch: HubSpot is a customer relations management (CRM) platform and their Website Grader is a vehicle to sell their platform. But the tool is a huge success, having conducted three million Website Grader checks since its introduction that have resulted in 50,000 monthly leads. Another example is the e-commerce platform Shopify, which offers tools to speed up the process of a startup to start up, like a business name generator, a Terms and Conditions generator and a refund policy generator. Gordana also mentioned a more industry- specific example of tools offered by Network of Nature, a Guelph-based organization whose goal is to enhance the knowledge and awareness of Canadian native plant species. Network of Nature has an interactive map of garden centres that sell native plant species. They also offer a database of Canadian
generating photos and being used by software companies for development functions. “All of this was really complicated for businesses,” said Gordana. “Businesses are still getting into this workflow of learning about new technology. How is it going to apply to our business, and how does it apply to our customers?” The rapid evolution of technology is changing the buying behaviours and processes of customers. Most customers do online research in advance of a purchase, and it’s estimated customers take up to 79 days when considering a major purchase before deciding to engage with a brand. Successful companies are finding ways to assist the customer as they conduct online research, to guide them through those 79 days. An example of helping customers is HubSpot’s Website Grader, which breaks down the performance of a website in
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