The common perception is that B2B it’s all about rational buyers and the ability to deliver a compelling value proposition supported by thought leadership, that the Buyer you are interacting with is an organization, a structure that is making very rational decisions; as opposed to B2C, where it’s all about the emotional value of brands. The reality is that organizations are only one part of the equation, while the “WHO you are selling to” is the other part of the equation.
As sellers know very well, any buyer is a human being. And human beings, despite all efforts to make purely rational decisions, are primarily driven by emotional motivations. While our rational side is concerned about business value (price, performance, business outcomes), our emotional side looks at personal value, such as:
- professional benefits (i.e. career advancements)
- social benefits (i.e. admiration from peers)
- emotional value (i.e. confidence, happiness)
- self-image benefit (i.e. sustaining the community)
- According to recent study by CEB Marketing Leadership Council:
Customers who believe a brand will provide business value are 4x more likely to consider that brand, meaning: business value is a given. If you don’t provide business value you are out of the game;
Only 14% of buyers perceive enough meaningful difference between brands’ business value to be willing to pay extra for that difference, meaning: unless really unique (always difficult to prove), business value is not a key differentiator from competitors that can provide a value proposition close enough to yours;
Personal value has twice the effect of business value across a broad range of commercial outcomes, meaning: if you want to win, you must get personal in your messing and interactions with the buyer;
Personal risk in business purchase is significantly higher the in commercial buying, and the more personal risks a purchase entails, the more emotional buyers feel, meaning: across touch points, across the customer journey, building trust is a key priority for anyone (marketing, sales, services, finance, operations…) interacting with the Buyer.
The challenge is that while we can know most or all about any organization, going through their financial reports, doing some internet search, reading their strategic plans, it’s much more difficult to know the Buyers. Today, 91% of CMO say they should use more customer data to drive decision-making, but 34% of them claims customer data are collected infrequently. It’s our responsibility, as marketers, to understand customers as individuals across millions of interactions, working with Sales and Influencers to paint a vivid picture of the Buyer: understanding the fundamental bio, challenges and motivations; buyers internal and vendor relationships map; how the Buyer wants to learn at each stage of the buying cycle.
Data-Driven marketing and Persona can change the way we connect to our customers. It’s not Business-To-Business, nor Business-To-Consumer. It’s Human to Human. Getting Personal Matters. Marketing and sales should work together to deeply understand buyers, and to craft and deliver messages that always convey the three following elements:
- Why: teaching something new, eye-opening;
- Why now: driving action by focusing on both current buyer’s pain and projected gain;
- Personal value: tapping into emotional needs and using customers’ language, especially when talking about personal interests or concerns.
