Many providers are still relying on their company’s viewpoint for their marketing. Since buyers can instantly share information in the 21st century, it is best to adjust heavily toward helping the buyer reach their goals. Buyers want information in specific ways at ideal times to accelerate and improve their decision-making. Unless providers start building their marketing from the buyer’s perspective, they make everyone’s job harder than it has to be.
Target your audiences and markets.
Has your company defined the best groups that would want to research what you offer? Defining characteristics may be range of size, geographies, industries and motivation. This is your low-hanging fruit. You would be surprised at the number of companies who have not done this necessary work. One of the wasteful results out of not understanding audiences is that expensive salespeople spend time with companies that will never buy.
Target a few key buyer personas.
Does your company clearly understand a few critical personas in the markets you’ve chosen? The saying is “all politics are local”, well then so is “what is my benefit?” Relevancy to the persona as well as well as the company is necessary or it’s difficult to sell internally for the buyer. As an example, an economic buyer will want to understand ROI (return on investment). If you cannot show the ROI, the transaction cycle will be painfully slow, if not impossible.
Target your buyer’s steps.
Can your company clearly articulate the steps buyers usually take in making decisions? Most companies think in terms of awareness, interest, nurturing and selling. That is based on what the provider wants. The major steps B2B buyers take in the 21st century that I’ve discussed in my book, “Buyer Steps” are Research, Tryoritize, Purchase and Optimize. There are also sub-steps in the Purchase step. Bonus – Do you know which persona dominates a particular buying step?
By seeing things from the buyer’s viewpoint, not only does the buyer make decisions faster, the provider gets the most traction out of their revenue activities. Focus on the buying process and watch the confidence of your company’s revenue efforts rise over time.
