Cinchy’s Contrarian Take on Enterprise Marketing: Why Being ‘Different’ Beat Being ‘Better’
Enterprise tech marketing often feels like a sea of sameness – blue logos, stock photos of people in meetings, and buzzwords about digital transformation. But at a recent Gartner event, one booth stood out with a provocative “no integration” sign and anti-integration swag. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Dan DeMers revealed why Cinchy deliberately chose to break every enterprise marketing rule – and how it worked.
Breaking the Enterprise Marketing Playbook Having spent years on the buying side of enterprise tech, Dan knew exactly what he was pushing against. “I’ve been on the buying side in enterprise contexts, and you’re exactly right, it’s boring as hell,” he explains. “And it’s also not only boring, it’s filled with vaporware. And the sales process is PowerPoints and promises and how do I make the decision that won’t get me fired regardless of what the outcome is?”
The Psychology Behind Standing Out Instead of following the conventional enterprise playbook, Cinchy took a radically different approach. Why? Because as Dan notes, “The reality is the people who work at these people are also outright. So thinking of them ultimately as consumers, and the fact that you need to stand out in order to get people to at least put their eyes on you.”
The Different vs. Better Framework This led to one of Cinchy’s most important marketing insights. “Different, not better, is amazing at getting attention, but it doesn’t translate to immediate sales,” Dan explains. The solution? “We are different, not better is the hook. But when it comes to a sales process, we are actually better because we are different.”
Creating a Media Engine Rather than relying on traditional enterprise marketing channels, Cinchy built their own media operation. They launched Cinchy TV, which Dan describes as “almost like an alternate site to Cinchy.com. And of course, you can navigate back and forth, but.com is for the let’s call it an old school site, but TV is what I’d call it, a new school site, which is where you can binge watch on all things data collaboration.”
The results were striking. “When we started to get inbound prospects… they would hit our site and they would go to Cinchy TV and they would talk about how they would watch literally hundreds of hours of the content, like it was crazy.”
Challenging Enterprise Content Conventions When Cinchy first proposed video-based content for enterprise buyers, they faced skepticism. “Enterprise buyers aren’t going to watch video. I heard that so many times,” Dan recalls. His response? “Well, wait a minute, aren’t these humans? If they’re humans, they watch video. Sorry. And if they don’t, when they retire, someone else will, I guess. There’s no question about it. It’s like they live on a different planet and they’re a different species or something.”
Making Bold Messaging Work At a recent Gartner event, their provocative messaging paid off. “At least a third of the traffic that came to our booth and were definitely one of the busiest booths at the event was, what does this mean? The obsolescence of integration? Tell me more,” Dan shares. The key? “It’s a great conversation starter, and it’s not bullshit.”
The ROI Question When asked about measuring ROI on these unconventional approaches, Dan acknowledges the challenge: “Sometimes you just have to rely on your gut… Not everything can be measured. Maybe one day it all can be measured, but that day is not today.”
Lessons for Enterprise Marketers Cinchy’s approach offers several key insights for B2B founders:
- Trust that enterprise buyers are human first, buyers second
- Use bold messaging to start conversations, not just drive conversions
- Build your own media channels rather than relying solely on traditional enterprise marketing
- Focus on being different first, then prove you’re better because you’re different
For B2B founders tired of blending in, Cinchy’s experience suggests that the riskiest move in enterprise marketing might be playing it safe. As Dan puts it, if you’re creating a category and “no one thinks you’re crazy, then there’s something wrong with that.”