ZMOT is the zero moment of truth. It has changed significantly. If you believe the HBR article about solution selling being dead, then you believe that for savvy buyers, the salesperson is relegated to being a price jockey. It might be true for really technical services like IAAS. It is also true for commodities. The ZMOT is when the buyer has finished its research and is ready to buy. the Internet has changed how we decide what to buy. At Google, this online decision-making is called the Zero Moment of Truth -- or simply ZMOT. It is an interesting concept, especially for telecom, VAR's, VoIP/cloud providers and telecom agencies.

"88% of U.S. consumers engage in the zero moment of truth prior to going in-store or online to purchase."

Google says, "Search is one of the most widely used and influential sources on the purchase journey." Does anyone doubt that?

So what does ZMOT mean to you?

Seth Godin talked about "How does a photographer distinguish itself today?" How does an online backup service? How does an MSP?

Buyers have so many choices. Websites are the minimum requirement. If buyers are doing research and price shopping, then the marketing department has to do a much better job of positioning and differentiation. Marketing has to fill the search engine with user reviews, case studies, white papers, videos, newsletters, and stories. Lead generation becomes a really important function of marketing. So does your website for SEO. A blog and social media interaction are another tool in that belt. And as the noise increases, the targeting and the story-telling has to get better and better.

Google has an ebook and a toolkit for improving the ZMOT. When you think about this stuff, no wonder CMO's have such short tenure.

Google says, "We think you'll be surprised just how much you can learn by focusing on the right questions." It's always about the right questions.