Facing The Faceless Decision Maker
Posted on January 7, 2008
Filed Under B2B
A toughest part of selling your products and services to other businesses is reaching the decision maker. This is the quasi-mythical someone who has the ultimate power to open the company purse strings - and to give your contract the final go-ahead.
In my line of work as a B2B copywriter, nothing is more important than knowing how to identify with a client’s specific audience. Are they predominantly male or female? Young or mature? The boss or a spear-carrier? What do they worry about? What don’t they care about? Before we even begin crafting your business message, we need to lock this down: who exactly is this going to impress - and why?
Now wait, I say - don’t answer that one so quickly.
Traditionally, this mythic someone is called the decision maker. Almost every book on sales strategy obsesses over this person. Most businesses working in the B2B sphere focus nearly all their efforts to reach this person - often, far too much - operating on the assumption that once we’ve impressed the decision maker with our stellar sales pitch, the deal is as good as closed.
If only it were that easy in real life! If you want to succeed in selling your product or service to a business willing to pay for it, the path there gets considerably more complicated.
Why is that?
No decision maker works in a vacuum. Everyone, from the janitor to the CEO, is accountable to someone. Decisions have to be justified, usually by someone who gets your message second- or third-hand. Your marketing message must have the legs to communicate well beyond immediate impressions, because the final decision is almost never made on immediate impressions. There isn’t just one mind to win: there’s a whole chain of them.
Emotion ultimately doesn’t sell B2B. If you think otherwise, you’re confusing B2B with B2C; the people you’re dealing with here have greater responsibilities that require more careful contemplation. Be prepared to take the time to explain why and how your offering represents a solid business decision.
The fatal flaw of pushing for an impulse purchase from a business decision maker - there is always someone else in the chain of decision who will look at your advertisement with a dispassionate and skeptical eye. If you’re fishing for a decision, you must always remember that your goal is not to appeal to an individual.. it is to convince a collective thought process. You must anticipate the questions that will be asked by people you will never meet.
Credibility is every day. Successful businesses aren’t on the lookout for good deals, but good relationships. They don’t want to be constantly shopping around; if they know that you can be trusted to deliver reliably, it may be a very long while before they even consider switching to one of your competitors.
That means that every communication you offer to a customer, from website and brochure copy to your voice mail answering recording, must convey and maintain a consistently professional tone and message. Every contact that you have with your customer is another opportunity to solidify your credibility - and to win them all over again.
In the end, business decision makers - at every link in the chain - are just like you and me. They’re busy. They worry about the risks of doing business. They don’t want to talk to you directly. And they want to survive to grow and succeed another day. They’d rather vet you first before letting you in the door. And then they’d rather not have to hunt around to find a replacement for you.
If you can face that challenge, you’re ready to face your B2B audience - and close more deals.
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