Touchdown Tactics: Super Bowl Predictions Meet B2B Sales and Marketing Strategies

As 2024 kicks off, many of us are excited about all the fun events that come with the beginning of the year. Valentine’s Day, company holidays, and even an extra day to enjoy, thanks to 2024 being a leap year. But perhaps one of the most invigorating events in these early days of the new year is the Super Bowl. And as sellers and marketers do, we usually find a way to make an analogy out of almost anything.

So what does the Super Bowl have to do selling and marketing? Well, we asked a few seasoned sellers and B2B thought leaders what their opinions and predictions are for the 2024 Super Bowl (these conversations happened in mid-January 2024), alongside their personal anecdotes and predictions for B2B sales trends in 2024.

We chatted with Chaniqua (Nikki) Ivey, Client Success Coach at Stimulyst, and Aaron Wallace, Account Executive at Chili Piper to get their expert opinion on these hot topics.

Here’s what they had to say…

Who do you predict will be playing the Super Bowl this year?

Nikki: I would like to say the cowboys because they’re my favorite. I think based on how this team is playing now, the Ravens. But Cowboys all the way!

Aaron: As an Eagles fan, I wish it would be the Eagles, but I think it will be the 49ers versus the Ravens.

What do you predict will be the biggest sales channel used this year? 

Nikki: It’s gonna have to be Linkedin DMs. When we think about LinkedIn and social selling, a lot of the time it’s just that. We talk about how people respond to our content and what we can bring in in terms of demand. But as a hard sales channel, Linkedin DMs is where it’s at. You can do everything – voice notes, videos, etcetera and get directly to your buyers. That’s always been the case, but I think this year and for all people will wake up to that and start using it more than other channels.

Aaron: Companies are going to find ways to build awareness first through inbound content that’s engaging, maybe a little funny, but also educational. In terms of outbound, I think it depends on the company and who you’re selling to. For us, and Demandbase, we sell to sales and marketing teams. I think LinkedIn is already a big channel for that and will continue to grow.

Which brands do you predict will have the most memorable and impactful commercials during the Super Bowl this year?

Nikki: Doritos actually does really good commercials. I remember they did one with a model where she does a cartwheel and catches a Dorito in her mouth. The impact it made on me was incredible! I’ve always loved Pepsi, too. Pepsi is always on brand with their ads so that’s one I look out for too.

Aaron: I feel like Doritos always has good ones. Ram has the emotional ones. I remember Gong had a really good one last year.

What brands or sales strategies do you think will be the most impactful in the Saas industry this year?

Nikki: I think we’ll be seeing an evolution in video saas. Meaning video saas moving away from just an extension tool…it’s a very limiting set of things you can do and now that space is getting more crowded. So folks are going to have to do things like find their own ways to filter through that. I saw something cool recently where someone came to a website and they were able to video chat with sales then and there. So I think that we’ll see videos showing up in places we hadn’t before. It’s keeping up with this theme that it all comes down to relationships. People don’t always trust sales people, it’s an unfortunate truth. But they trust people, and all these categories that put sellers in the best possible light as human beings are going to be trends that we see this year.

Aaron: I think it’s going to be the brands that help you identify who’s interested and help you reach those people the quickest, which relates to Demandbase. We’re in an era where people are educating themselves. They’re coming to your website, educating and digesting, and then they show that intent, and then we need to get to them as quickly as possible. So I’d say it’s about the brands that help people educate themselves and then help sellers get to them quicker.

What was your favorite Super Bowl game?

Nikki: The Cowboys in the 95’ Super Bowl. It was a time in my life when I really fell in love with the NFL and with the Cowboys themselves. I was an army brat, so America’s team really was “America’s team” and their games were playing everywhere. It was the golden age of the Cowboys.

Aaron: The one where the Eagles won! I was at Buffalo Wild Wings.

What has been your favorite sale ever?

Nikki: I have to go all the way back to my first year of selling. It was a one-call close. I don’t think those really exist anymore, but we were doing tons of cold calls a day and again, this was my first ever Saas job. We took folks from being strangers to letting us impact their business in a matter of 20 minutes. And the very first time you have that conversation with a person, lead them through your pitch, and end with a sale, there’s nothing else like that in the world. What I was selling was email marketing for small business owners. Say you’re a realtor, you sold a house in a given neighborhood to some people last year, then you find out that they’re buying a new house a couple years later, but they aren’t buying from you. Why didn’t they buy from you? Because they forgot all about you. This was the conversation I had with the folks on the phone. How do you make the impact question? How do you make sure that the people you’ve done great work for before refer you and come back to you? This was stumping people. And it became such a clear value prop, an intersection of a really smart script, the ability to infuse my own personality into that script, and to really understand the actual impact that this service was going to make for these people. Obviously, it stuck with me a decade later.

Aaron: I had one where I was up against a competitor and was able to show the value that Chili Piper brought against that competitor. It felt good to me in that moment, seeing how we stood out.

What are your predictions for the Super Bowl halftime show? Any surprise guests or memorable moments you anticipate?

Nikki: I predict one of the best halftime shows we’ve ever seen because what can’t Usher do? I heard at his Vegas residency he rollerskates. He’s memorable.

Aaron: I’m sure there will be some surprise guests. They may try to tame it down a bit, to make it more family-friendly.

How do you plan to create surprising and memorable moments in your sales outreach this year?

Nikki: One of the things that we do when we do sales outreach is we want to get a reply. We don’t necessarily need them to buy or meet with us right away. Instead I’m thinking creatively about what my reply has to be. Do they have to reply to a direct sales question? Maybe not. You can start a conversation, and then it becomes a pattern of questions that may not have to do with the sale itself, but more so questions about themselves so I can see what information I can find out about people that gets them excited and passionate to open up about. So if I see that somebody talks about the NFL in their content, the initial message could be as simple as asking them their thoughts on a game. And I could be saying that to them on one channel, and then on another channel the message is subtly different that’s more geared toward a sales conversation. I’m telling the story that this is an entire human being, and as a seller you’re allowed to be an entire human being too. It’s “inviting” people to be human. The next frontier is getting people to play along, to trust us and have enough fun to play along. It comes down to identifying what they’re passionate and excited about and engaging with that enthusiasm.

Aaron: For me, it’s important to just be human and build relationships with people. In sales the goal is always to book a meeting. But for me, it’s really to advance the conversation and to show them that I’m here to help and educate and when they’re ready, I’m here.