Give Your B2B Buyer the Gift of Your Solution
The Article in 60 Seconds
Your company and your solution do not exist for your financial gain.
There it is: the provocative statement at the beginning of the article.
Before you argue with me that your board of directors and your stockholders would take issue with that statement, hear me out.
Your company and your solution exist for your customers’ gain.
If you allow that mindset to infiltrate every strand of your company DNA, you, too, will have an unstoppable financial future.
At the end of every episode of our podcast, Studio CMO, you hear us say three things:
- Truly understand your buyer’s problems
- Lead with that empathetic understanding
- Make your buyer the hero
When you do, you are giving your buyer the gift of your solution.
Why does that mindset make the difference?
Have You Dug Deep Enough?
Consider an archeologist for a second. When an archeologist decides to explore, she maps an area then takes off the top layer of soil. In that top layer, she will find shards of pottery, pieces of weapons, and remnants of building materials for homes. Next, she excavates with painstaking care, sometimes by teaspoon. She photographs, catalogs, and journals about the entire journey. Eventually, she will uncover an entire village, and through that process, become familiar with how many individuals lived there, how they conducted commerce, how they governed themselves, and even how they disposed of their waste.
Most companies think about their customers only on this top layer. They have a surface understanding of their customer.
You need to deeply and completely understand what we call The Buyer MatrixTM. A friend asked me recently, “Is that just your fancy, branded name for persona?” Nope. It’s not. Our Buyer Matrix process delves into:
- the problems your buyer faces
- The methods of trying to solve the problems — those that work and those that don’t
- How your buyer is motivated
- The questions your buyer is asking
- What’s at risk for your buyer to make decisions about new solutions
- Why your buyer acts in certain situations
- The wildcard factors that throw off the sales process
Do you understand your buyer that deeply?
Truly Understand Your Buyer’s Problems
In order to grow your business and increase your ROI, you must see and understand your buyer and the problems he or she faces.
Think about how you buy for a second: who gets your attention? Who moves you to decision? Are they addressing your needs and your problems?
It’s not enough just to have head knowledge of your buyer’s problems.
Lead with an Empathetic Understanding
Psychologists, theologians, and anthropologists have all researched empathy.
Empathy is your ability to see problems, questions, and fears from your buyer’s perspective. For a refresher, watch this short video from Brené Brown.
Empathy is essential to a powerful marketing and sales cycle.
Your buyer is making a career decision. This is not purchasing a new phone, car, or even a house. Your buyer is responding to corporate leadership driving change.
Will your solution—after purchase, installation, onboarding, training, and getting up to speed—drive down cost, increase ROI, and make everyone’s job easier?
If not, your buyer may end up searching for a new job.
Do you know the number of hours your buyer will spend advocating for your solution within his or her company? Do you comprehend the time spent developing presentations, practicing the pitch, contemplating all the angles in the shower, and worrying while trying to fall asleep?
If you do, you have empathy for your buyer.
My favorite picture of empathy: are you walking beside your customer, helping him or her with throughout this journey? Or are you standing in front of your customer always pitching and pointing a finger?
If you truly understand your buyer’s problems and lead your buyer with an empathetic understanding, you will still need one more piece to have the type of YoY growth you long for.
Make Your Buyer the Hero
We live in a culture of heroes. Superhero movies top the box office. We use the word to describe many “ordinary” people time and again. I believe that our front line workers, first responders, and more deserve the title. I point this out to say we might becoming a little calloused to the power of the term.
Think about three illustrations from literature, television, and movies.
Your customer is Frodo; you are Sam.
Your customer is Batman; you are Lucius Fox.
Your customer is Tony Stark; you are the Iron Man suit.
Does your buyer feel that, with your solution in hand, they will make their customers lives better? Do they feel they will grow their own ROI, win in the eyes of their superiors, and feel on top of the world? If so, you are making your buyer the hero.
Your company and solution do not exist for your financial gain. They exist for that moment of customer elation.
And if you achieve that moment of customer elation, you will have a financial boon.
What Do You Want to Accomplish in the Second Half of 2020?
What do you want to be true of your company?
In the next 180 days, I want to challenge you to start with your understanding of your buyer, and I want to further challenge you to spend 30 minutes with us.
We are not a tactics-first agency. We are world-class when it comes to our tactics because we have a cross-functional team that works together to bring about the greatest synergy in the tactics we implement. But, our tactics are built on a greater premise. We are a customer-first agency. We help our clients (as heroes) understand their clients as heroes so that both can win.
We start with this deep level of customer archaeology, then move back up to who you are, what your solution does, and what motivates you—your why. Only then do we define tactics, because the tactics must support who you are and reach your buyer. If they don’t, they are wasted time, energy, money, and resources. We seek in all that we do to help you bring about the greatest gain for your customer.
So, I challenge you to examine how well you know your customer. Even if you feel you have a heart-level comprehension of your buyer, spend 30 minutes of free, no-obligation time with us to more deeply understand them. Sure, we want to work with you, but we first desire your success.
Click here and schedule 30 minutes to talk about your buyer.
That conversation can set you up to make the second half of 2020, the next 180 days, defining days for your company’s future.
Your company and solution don’t exist for your financial gain.
But if you truly understand your customer’s problems, lead with an empathetic understanding, and make your buyer the hero, you will be a hero, too. That’s giving your buyer the gift of your solution.
