“Oh man… the bullshit piled up so fast in Vietnam, you needed wings to stay above it.” — Captain Willard, Apocalypse Now.
by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) In B2B, the primary buying motivators are not based on emotions.
Gyro, a respected B2B agency, recently reported the findings of a survey concerning the dynamics of buying decisions. The survey’s goal was to reveal what’s wanted from vendors by the people who influence and make those decisions. The answers were revealed by Kenneth Hein, gyro’s global chief communications officer. Apparently, buyers want the same as players of Dungeons and Dragons. They want partners who will stand alongside them in a fellowship of adventure: “Willing to cast spells, fight orcs and, in turn, share in our victories. Even though it is business, it’s not about weighing numbers, metrics or being rational. It is about feeling. It has to feel right.”
Numbers, metrics and being rational
Can a senior player in an agency of gyro’s stature — and one of the team who worked on the report — believe that (honest) B2B buying decisions aren’t principally motivated by numbers, metrics and being rational?
The procurement departments of, say, automotive manufacturers don’t buy components because of emotional connections with the people selling them. No manufacturer will ever say their next generation of cars will feature chocolate brake pads because the folks from Choco-Brakeo are affable.
Being affable won’t motivate people to buy from you. Even in B2C, people don’t buy houses based on how much they liked the agent. We don’t buy cars because the sales person was nice. Other criteria are more important in our decision-making. Whether or not you like the agent or the sales person just isn’t a primary motivator.
In B2B, the primary buying motivators are not based on emotions. Choco-Brakeo’s pads will never be bought in preference to those from a Ferodo or a Girlock. Buying decisions are made on the basis of what differentiates one supplier from its competitors. If all the motivators — from how well the supplier understands the customer’s needs and mirrors their corporate values, through to questions of service, quality, time and price — are met in exactly the same way, the decision may well go to smiley Jill’s firm rather than frowny Jack’s.
People buy success
‘People buy people’. Contrary to all the nonsense supporting that adage, in B2B, people do not buy people. They buy success. They buy products and services that contribute to their professional success and the commercial success of their organisation. Prove how you will deliver greater success than your competition and you’ll be on course to win the decision.
According to gyro’s ‘Group. Mind. Set: How Group Dynamics Impact B2B Decisions.’: “A world alive with connectivity is becoming numb to businesses and brands. Now more than ever, emotion is the key to igniting business decisions.”
That’s the intro to the download link for gyro’s report. Holding my nose against the odour of this statement concerning emotion’s rise to pre-eminence, I downloaded and read it. There are no new ideas here but some established ones are nicely reinforced. I’m always keen to hear what motivates buying decisions and who supports them. These decisions create sales. It’s hyper-essential for marketers to understand what drives customers to make them. gyro’s report is about how marketers — rather than customers — think B2B buying decisions are made. The survey on which it’s based may have asked the right questions but it asked the wrong people.
The great majority of decision-makers aren’t marketers. Equally, a lot of decision-influencers, like commentators in the media, industry analysts, trade bodies and sector peers, don’t even work within the customer.
Don’t lose focus
In comparison to Hein, Christoph Becker, gyro’s CEO and chief creative officer, gives a grounded summary of the report in a Forbes article. He advises marketers not to lose focus on the cardinal rules that govern modern B2B.
Lots of people believe and respect what gyro says. This means its voice carries authority. It also carries responsibility. Gyro’s authority was diluted when it ignored that responsibility and spouted all that rot about orcs, spells and the irrelevance of numbers, metrics and rationality.
Maybe I should embrace such absurdities and convert to the age-old belief that bullshit baffles brains. Until that dark day dawns, I’ll keep the wings I need to stay above it. And look down on it.
Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) advises B2B companies on how to govern their marketing to attract and retain profitable customers; several of his clients have grown to become market leaders. He and Charlie Stewart have written Business-to-Business Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide (Penguin Random House), which offers practical, actionable advice on how to make marketing make money. His monthly “Back2Basics” column covers how B2B companies and their agencies should manage their marketing.
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Totally disagree with your view here, Mark.
You have failed to differentiate at all between B2B services or B2B products, you haven’t considered selling versus buying, you haven’t considered trusted relationships versus commodity buys, I could go on.
Irrespective of what companies buy – they will not buy from a seller that they do not trust.
Trust is ALL about emotion.
I think that you have fundamentally misunderstood Gyro’s research.
Warren, thanks for commenting and top-lining this as a trending B2B topic.
Gyro might be wrong, but as the head of Demographica, you are absolutely right. As you surely meant to say as a marketer, nobody will buy from a BRAND they do not trust. B2B buyers must trust the brand.
Contrary to gyro’s thinking, nobody’s going to trust any brand that claims it can cast spells and fight orcs. Nor will anybody trust a brand which thinks – as gyro does – that B2B buying decisions are no longer driven by numbers, metrics and rationality.
I think you will agree that, above all else, buyers must trust a brand’s promises. They must trust that those promises will turn into realities – trust that expectations will become experiences.
As you rightly say, it is all about trust. Trust in the brand and the promises it makes.