B2B marketers are well aware that making a sale to a business is a more complex endeavor than making a sale to an individual consumer. It is their job to understand the business buying model and develop communications strategies that lead to success within it. B2B complexity is due in part to the longer sales cycles of businesses. The decision-making process is extended, sometimes because of extensive research practices, and almost always because multiple departments are involved in a single purchase. The nature of this business sales cycle requires the seller to attempt “courtship before marriage” in the form of marketing.
Throughout courtship, B2B sellers must consider the needs and expectations of multiple decision makers as the product passes through the various channels necessary for purchase. For example, what’s most important to engineering management will probably not be most important to procurement. B2B marketers are dealing with more educated buyers in businesses, requiring them to address varying needs at each step in the process.
This trajectory of B2B sales shows marketers the breakdown of what happens within a business before purchase. Traditionally, companies assert their brand during the middle two stages, assuming it is the moment of greatest influence. The digital age, however, has invited a shift in this thinking that is becoming important to B2B marketers. Now, over half the buying process is completed before a consumer ever engages with a vendor.
This change has made it necessary to shift from “courtship before marriage” to “online dating,” or impressing them before you ever “meet in person.” In the past, B2B buyers weighed biased messages coming directly from competing brands, but today, buyers can read recommendations, blog posts, and discussion forums about the pros and cons of any given product. The buyer has been liberated by the perceived lack of bias in these loyalty-free reviews. Brands no longer have the luxury of making undisputed claims; the internet can refute them with a simple Google search. Not surprisingly, many buyers cite social media as a large influence in purchases, and because of these changes in culture, there has been a decrease in brand influence at the stages highlighted in figure 1. As a result, B2B marketers have been left with the challenge of engaging buyers before the buying process even begins. We believe the secret to doing this effectively is Brand Empathy.
Creating Brand Empathy – the perception that your company deeply cares about a prospect’s needs, challenges, and the marketplace in which it operates – with customers before they enter the buying process is the new ticket to B2B marketing. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing a series of posts about how to foster Brand Empathy and use it to your benefit. Stay tuned!
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