For every B2B purchasing decision, there are choosers, users and buyers. Traditional sales approaches have focused on the buyer, the person who makes the ultimate decision. But to maximise the chances of a sale, all three personas need addressing.
Choosers evaluate the needs of the people who’ll use the product or service to establish what will best meet those needs. Then they present their choice to the buyer, the person who holds the purse strings and makes the final decision.
Anyone hoping to sell into a business has to reach all these people, not just the buyer. And each needs a different marketing approach.
Suppliers need prospective users to be enthusiastic about their product or service, so they can advocate for it. This advocacy can be explicit. Many choosers will go along with what their users want, as dumping something on them that they don’t want can damage morale. Or it can be implicit. The users could add features to their shopping list that only one vendor can supply, for example.
Meanwhile, the chooser needs to feel comfortable with their decision. After all, their head will be on the block if they choose the wrong thing. So the chooser needs marketing messages that explain the benefits of the product (or service), but which also put it into context. For example, how will it integrate with other systems used by the company? What does the road-map look like? What support is available, during implementation and in the future?
Strategically important purchases may involve several choosers with differing areas of expertise. That’s when you have a buying committee on your hands.
Finally, the supplier needs the buyer to feel good about buying from them. This means emphasising financial stability, commitment to the product (or service) in the future, reliability and so on. It’s why people used to say “No-one ever got sacked for buying IBM.”
This ‘User, Chooser, Buyer’ model is the brainchild of Jon Bains, head of AI consultancy Obsolete (although he uses the term Investor rather than Buyer). It’s a useful way of clarifying the different types of marketing content that need to be created, and how they should be distributed. But there’s also a fourth role that needs addressing; that of the influencer.
Influencers are people who aren’t directly involved in the purchase decision, but who will feel its effects. A new system might need to integrate with something their department uses, for example, which would also bring in IT. Other influencers might come from HR, or compliance. And each will have their own information needs too.
We talked in an earlier post about identifying buying committee members who want to interact with vendors as late as possible. The problem for marketers is that influencers are even harder to identify. Influence is as likely to depend on the culture and structure of the purchasing company as the product or service they’re buying. But just as you can establish your typical buying committee by talking to existing clients, you can do the same with influencers.
Another approach is not to try to identify them at all. At least not yourself. Instead, find someone within the client company to act as an advocate. Someone who already believes in your product or service, and wants to use it. This person can then let you know what information you require to meet the needs of everyone else involved in the buying decision. They can also distribute that information for you. Or they can suggest the best way to distribute it.
The ideal candidate for the role would be a previous user or client who’s moved on. This is where a close relationship between sales and content marketing is vital. The sales team will know who their advocates are. Listen to them, and you’ll be creating content for real people, rather than personas. That’s easier, more efficient and more effective. And it’ll help you refine your personas so you can write better content for them in future.
