B2B climate tech buyers: 3 myths and 3 must-do’s
This (rather overdue) blog, focusing on the B2B buyers of climate tech solutions, is part of a series on the key questions that climate tech companies should be asking related to their business strategy. As with the other blogs, this is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to B2B buyers and marketing, but rather addresses some key misconceptions and also highlights 3 important actions that are often deprioritized or simply blown off.
3 myths
B2B Buyers are all rational actors, driven by the bottom line. Yes, B2B buyers are acting on behalf of an organization, and are focused on the value a solution provides to them. But they are also humans who have their own idiosyncratic motivations, including the desire to look like a hero, to get promoted or to avoid getting fired. And they have emotional needs and behavioral quirks that need to be understood and addressed. The only way to do that is human to human. (I defy an AI chatbot to parse out whether a buyer is refusing to share information because they are neurotic control freaks vs. because they are using you for column fodder vs. because they are simply busy and disorganized but are really your champion.)
Unlike B2C, branding doesn’t matter. Branding is not just for consumer-facing businesses. Establishing a strong brand presence is equally crucial for B2B. Firstly, a brand creates awareness among buyers in a noisy market, and provides the first signal to people researching solutions that you are relevant. And a compelling brand narrative can instill confidence and trust, which are important because as stated above, you are selling to humans, not simply to a purely rational corporate entity.
You should put all your attention on the key decision maker. Buyers are not singular– they are a team, which may have an overall goal but whose individual members may have conflicting goals. I delineated the typical key buying team members in a previous post. It may seem wise to focus all your efforts on the key decision maker who will sign off on the project/purchase. But other people on the buying team can have significant or even make-or-break influence on the purchasing decision. It’s critical to sell across the entire buying team, in a way that is tailored to their different roles, from hands-on users looking to make their day to day tasks easier to executive sponsors who are reporting results to investors.
3 must do’s
Develop the right kind of persona profiles. It’s not about whether your typical buyer likes long walks on the beach or are suburb-dwelling GenXers. B2B persona research should focus on what makes them tick as they solve their problems. How do they do their own networking and research on topics in their industry? Do they tend to be risk-averse or not? What is their comfort level with digital solutions? What do they value? How do they behave? What are their decision criteria? What freaks them out? Nothing beats primary research with buying teams to develop persona profiles for the key people and roles you will need to convince in a buying cycle.
Find the hero’s story, or provide a get-out-of-jail card. As mentioned above, buyers have their personal motivations for professional decisions. If at all possible, find a way to make them look like a hero in their organization or their industry. Show how they can impact the bottom line, achieve climate goals efficiently, leapfrog the competition or increase end customer loyalty. Or find a way to drastically reduce the organization’s risk of a major operational, financial or climate-related debacle, and thus their personal risk of getting fired. If you can’t find a way to create one of these narratives (aka value propositions), think hard about whether your solution is really worth their effort.
Identify– or create– a deadline. B2B sales cycles can be long. But as one of my sales mentors used to say, time kills all deals. Some of this is unavoidable especially in regulated industries. But you have to keep things moving. It’s critical to understand your buyer’s deadlines, whether they are part of a larger corporate initiative with its own timeline, a regulatory deadline, or they are standard quarterly and annual budgeting cycles. Make sure to use every existing deadline as a way to push for progress. You can help create additional urgency by providing information on how their competitors are getting ahead of them, or how their end customers have new demands that you help fulfill. I don’t think artificial discounting deadlines work particularly well as buyers know those are fungible. But you can be creative in other ways like nominating the customer for an industry award, which helps them with positive recognition and helps you by creating a deadline.