B2B marketing is about buying: What? How? Who?
Marketing is not about selling. Marketing is all about buying:
- What are customers buying?
- How does buying contribute to their success?
- Who is buying?
These are the must-knows that determine tactics in B2B marketing. Cultivating consistent customers and preventing price pressure – CCC & PPP - provide the strategic direction, but What-How-Who drives implementation.
1. WHAT are customers buying?
Customers are buying outcomes. They are buying outcomes that make a positive contribution to the continued success of their business.
All too often, the marketing focus gets shifted from buying to selling. ‘We sell every variety of nuts and bolts.’
Ok. So, presumably it works like this: There is one gigantic pile of all sorts of nuts, and another huge pile of different bolts. Customers come and get all the nuts they need and then find the matching bolts. Right?
Maybe not.
In terms of customers ensuring a positive contribution to the continued success of their business, it’s fair to say they are also buying:
- Matched and packaged nuts and bolts
- Adequate stockholding
- Structured discounts
- Nationwide deliveries
- Technical advice and customer training
- Accounting services, credit facilities, stock monitoring
- Warranties
Already it’s clear that they’re buying a lot more than more than just nuts and bolts.
2. HOW does buying contribute to their success?
To answer this question, marketers need to know how their products and services are being used by customers:
‘If these bolts fail, the wings fall off…’ ‘If you don’t have any of these nuts and bolts, we can’t put the wings on. This means we can’t sell the planes…’
Pretty important bolts. Pretty important contribution, too, if they never break, are always in stock, if technicians are expertly trained how to fit and test them, if they are guaranteed to consistently conform to certain specifications, if you can supply them worldwide and track their usage and life-cycle.
Discovering how the contribution is made highlights the Value created within the customer’s business.
Listen up
Listening to customers is the fastest, simplest way to discover this. Meet them, ask them questions about how you are creating Value in their business. A sales team can provide a lot of insight here because they should understand each customer’s business. But marketing needs to develop its own perspective.
Marketing needs this perspective to see the customer in the context of the market.
3. WHO is buying?
The market can exert powerful influences on buying decisions. In B2B, although customers might be buying outcomes, market reflections have to be considered.
The market is not just made up of customers. It may include distributors, overall solution-providers, specialist consultants and support providers. In addition, there may be user-groups, analysts, the media, statutory regulators and industry associations.
Who is buying? The answers to this question are so important because they pinpoint the targets for marketing communications – they provide that all-important focus. Gotta be talking to the right people.
Bringing it all together
Understanding the ‘What’ and the ‘How’ provides crystal clear guidelines for the content and format of these communications.
‘Who’ ensures that marketing is addressing the right audiences within the customer and within the market.
And this means that marketing can maximise the impact of its communications in terms of its two objectives: cultivate consistent customers and prevent price pressure.
Cultivate consistent customers, prevent price pressure – CCC & PPP: the two objectives of B2B marketing
Back to The Long Hello: making B2B marketing work for the bottom line
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