Introducing Your B2B Buying Team. Know Them and Love Them.
Whether you're a B2C or B2B marketer, it's critical that you know and understand your target audience. To say things are a little more complicated on the B2B side is putting it mildly.
Your B2B buyer is actually a team of people, each with his or her own responsibilities, biases, "turf" to protect, and persona. To effectively market to the entire team, you need to understand who they are, what their roles are, and how to communicate effectively with each of them.
If you think about the buying process your customers go through, chances are you'll be able to identify these key members of the buying team:
Decider - This is a team member with significant influence who must be sold on both your company, and your products. It's important to build a relationship with this person, who is usually a high level decision maker. It's usually very difficult to get a meeting with the Decider, so it's important to stay in front of them with branding and product focused advertising, public relations, direct mail, search engine marketing, etc.
Influencer - This is someone with a particular expertise or past experience that gives them a high level of credibility. Their credibility means they will significantly influence the final buying decision. The Influencer is usually a high level decision maker. Believable, benefit oriented and product focused messages should work best to gain this team member's attention and trust.
Gatekeeper - We all know the Gatekeeper. This person gathers information and keeps all team members "in the loop" on the decision making process. They may have more or less influence than is not immediately evident. It's important to build a strong and positive direct relationship with this person.
End-User - This is the individual(s) who will actually be using the product you're selling. As odd as it seems, the End-User is often times not a member of the buying team. This will vary by the type of product or service you offer. You should monitor this to see if the person who will use your product each and every day is influencing the purchase decision. If they are, they will respond to a strong and clear product message - features, benefits.
One thing to keep in mind with this person(s) - if your product is going to reduce labor requirements, the End-User may not be such a big fan, since you may actually threaten their job security.
Buyer - This is the person who actually places the order and facilitates the buying process once a vendor is chosen. Often times this person is part of the purchasing department. They can influence the decision, especially when price is a major issue. Commodity type consumables come to mind - tapes, glues, lubricants, etc. They may have allegiances to particular vendors that may or may not include your company.
If the Buyer is a factor, you need to communicate topics such as how easy you are to order from, quantity discounts, affinity program availability, price decreases, price increases, etc. You need to build a relationship through direct (phone) contact and email. Keep this person informed, so there are no surprises!