Personal factors play a part. B2B buyers are overwhelmed with choices, features,
benefits, information, data, and metrics. They often have to interview dozens of
potential vendors and ask them hundreds of questions. No matter how disciplined
they are in their buying procedures, they will often find a way to simplify their
decision making either consciously or subconsciously.Jon Miller, “Why B2B
Branding Matters in B2B Marketing,” Marketo.com, March 18, 2007,
http://blog.marketo.com/blog/2007/03/b2b_branding_wh.html (accessed
December 13, 2009). For example, a buyer deciding upon multiple vendors running
neck and neck might decide to simply choose the vendor whose sales representative
he likes the most.
Factors such as these can be difficult for a company to control. However,
branding—how successful a company is at marketing its brands—is a factor under a
company’s control, says Kevin Randall of Movéo Integrated Branding, an Illinoisbased
marketing-consulting firm. Sellers can use their brands to their advantage to
help business buyers come to the conclusion that their products are the best choice.
IBM, for example, has long had a strong brand name when it comes to business
products. The company’s reputation was so solid that for years the catchphrase
“Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM” was often repeated among purchasing
agents—and by IBM salespeople of course!Jon Miller, “Why B2B Branding Matters in
B2B Marketing,” Marketo.com, March 18, 2007, http://blog.marketo.com/blog/2007/
03/b2b_branding_wh.html (accessed December 13, 2009).
In short, B2B marketing is very strategic. Selling firms try to gather as much
information about their customers as they can and use that information to their
advantage. As an analogy, imagine if you were interested in asking out someone you
had seen on campus. Sure, you could simply try to show up at a party or somewhere
on campus in the hopes of meeting the person. But if you were thinking
strategically, you might try to find out everything you could about the person, what
he or she likes to do and so forth, and then try to arrange a meeting. That way when
you did meet the person, you would be better able to strike up a conversation and
develop a relationship with him or her. B2B selling is similarly strategic. Little is left
to chance.
Chapter 4 Business Buying Behavior