What do you know about the people who buy from your business? Whether your product or service is aimed at businesses or consumers, the sale always comes down to the person responsible for making the purchase decision. The more you know about your typical buyers, the stronger your marketing message can be.

Businesses Aren’t Buyers – People Are

If you’re selling products or services to businesses, there’s a very important fact that you need to keep in mind: businesses don’t make purchase decisions – people do. You might think you’re a “business-to-business” marketer, but what you actually should be is a “people-to-people” marketer.

Who Are the People that You’re Selling To?

While your target market might be composed of “mid-sized manufacturing firms in
Orange County,” you need to know who the people are at these firms that will be making or influencing the purchase decision. Are you selling to the Purchasing Director, General Manager, Controller, CEO or Administrative Assistant? Will it be a group or solo decision?

What Do You Know About These People?

Can you make any generalizations about the demographics of the people you’re marketing to, such as age, gender or educational level? What does their typical work day look like? What pressures do they face? What are their hot buttons?

What Problems Can You Solve for Them?

People buy solutions to problems. How is your solution better than your competitors’? When it comes to considering a product or service like yours, what issues are important to these people?

What Are Their Hidden Agendas?

The people who buy from you probably won’t base their decisions solely on factors such as price, quality and service. They also have emotions, fears and hopes that drive their decisions. They’re dealing with internal politics. They’re worrying about how this purchase decision will affect their career. They’re wondering if buying from you will make their own job any easier. Sure they want to do what’s best for the company – but they’re also likely to do what’s best for themselves as well. You need to keep all of this in mind, providing solutions that work on both the personal and business levels.

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT: CHEBEL MINA

Chebel Mina is a Senior Loan Consultant at Broadview Mortgage. A dedicated professional, Chebel is known for his perfect loan approval track record, and for creating a detailed financial pro forma for each of his clients, in order to ensure that the mortgage he recommends makes sense for their financial well-being.

The brochure which I wrote for Chebel needed to appeal to two distinct audiences: consumers (i.e. homebuyers) and business people (i.e. the Realtors who work with these homebuyers). Take a look at the brochure that I created for Chebel (with the help of Leah Ligotti at Graphically Speaking), and see how the text addresses some of the common concerns these people have.