The marketing world is still trying to adapt to the fluid global B2B impacts and find solutions.
Two recent reports including the MDM 2020 Top Distributor Report and the Demand Gen Report’s 2020 Content Preferences Study point to significant changes including more buyer committee members.
If you’re dealing with a small industrial safety buyer and or service, your buyer persona is simple and straightforward. With large organizations, more people are being placed on buyer committees. Instead of just the end user and purchasing dept, now HR, finance, IT, engineering, legal and even executives are members.
You need to understand each member’s need (problem) and what answer (solution) they need to justify the purchase. Let’s look at these new members by placing yourself in their shoes.
Human resources: you might wonder… what on earth does HR has to do with a new piece of equipment? Well there could be plenty of questions such as; what is the training time to learn this new product, will it require more senior employees to train new users? Can it be done online? Another concern might be if this product will cause any liabilities like an injury, or long-term disability.
Finance: The bottom line is a given for a purchase expense, however like HR, what are the potential extra costs associated with that extra/new training. Is there a better ROI option such as leasing to purchase, guarantees, warranty, etc. What are the service costs such as spare parts or technical repair/breakdown?
IT: Compatibility and learning curves are 2 questions from IT, will this product integrate or does the system need a complete overhaul or additions to switch over? Does IT need extra training and is there a demo? What support is available, 24/7 or only during business hours?
Engineering: Their questions might be: could this product be installed during operations or is a shutdown required? What is the service time/tools and requirements, is there training to do this? Do personnel have to attend training at the manufacture/supplier, or can the seller send someone for in-house? What type of technical support is needed at each stage?
Legal rep: Lawyers want to understand liability issues such as insurance, reputation, or potential lawsuits from product failure or misuse. Just like a court case they want the evidence and ultimate proof this product will be safe to have and use.
End user: Certainly, the most important individual to convince, but remember they are most often the lead of research and justification for the purchase. The end user’s job will be much easier if they can have the information available to the rest of the buyer committee. You can support them with a full research/info package to take to the entire committee.
Executives: Again, they want to know the bottom line, however liabilities are now legitimized by social responsibility. Will the product cause or eliminate environmental concerns? Could the company face public/user scrutiny, or will it increase shareholder value because of benefits overall.
You can see that each member has specific questions, so how do you answer them? Ask the end user for help, they should inform you of the members and their particular issues. This research is as critical as the research required by the buying committee, so don’t ignore it.
Remember that relevant content are the keys to providing solutions to their problems at every stage of the sales flywheel. Include all answers for every potential question from this growing list of key shareholders. At the end of the day, not only do they need to justify the purchase, they also need to justify their jobs.
From a small business owner to being part of senior management at the world’s largest energy producers, I know your buyer committee team members. As an end user I also know the resources and evidence required to appease member concerns to buy your product or service.
Email me now for your free consultation to discuss your B2B Industrial Safety Marketing flywheel solutions.
I encourage your comments on our B2B Industrial Safety Blogs to provide you relevant content.
Follow me on social media or sign up with email using the links.
Thank you from your B2B Industrial Safety Copywriter!
Bryan Popowich
