| | |  | How2 Bring the B2B Buyer into your Marketing Strategy
The need for a product or service is always preceded by a problem. A need without a problem often means no sale - something happens before prospects have this need. Find out here what that “something” is.
Companies occasionally develop innovative solutions which meet needs that didn’t previously exist - the iPod is one example. However, this is not the norm. | 
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| | | | | | Back to the world where most companies sit – a world where companies need to assess buyers' existing needs. Market research and user panels are formal ways of establishing buyers' requirements, and feedback from your sales people can provide “off-the-cuff” but still very valuable feedback.
However, the best way to develop a strategy incorporating the needs of B2B buyers doesn’t come from them, but from something that happens before buyers even have this need. |  |  Here is an example from one of our client’s prospects | "Despite some frustrations, we managed with our old network server. We read the eMails sent by server manufacturers, and we spoke to their sales people.
"But we didn’t place an order. The pain of spending time and money exceeded the perceived benefits (greater speed and a larger storage capacity). However, with new staff members due to start soon, we decided that the problem had to be actioned. The old server simply did not have enough extensions capacity and it could not be upgraded.
"The need had always been there, but now we had a problem. We decided to purchase a new server, which took just a few days to source, and it was installed within a week."
This case study shows that it was recognition of the problem that proved to be the turning point, rather than the need, as you might have expected.
There are four steps in bringing the buyer into your marketing strategy |  | | 1. | First of all, consider your own organisation’s basic marketing strategy - what to sell, who to sell to, and what channels to use | | 2. | Examine the challenges in implementing this strategy –identify your potential buyers’ problems and needs which you have competitive solutions for. Then make a list of those solutions and prioritise them | | 3. | Shorten this list so that you have just one ‘most competitive’ solution to a need/problem. You will need to make a very careful choice. If you have a very competitive solution that generates limited margin, you will not boost your company’s profits by very much. On the other hand, if you’ve selected a problem with a very well-established need, but you don’t have a strong solution, the competition will win instead. Choose the one problem that will financially reward your business the best, and one which your company has the best solution for. | | 4. | Next, abandon your existing marketing strategy and rebuild a new strategy, specifically around the problem/need that you’ve selected. If you’ve chosen the “best” buyer problem, let it guide your future marketing strategy. Determine which companies suffer from this problem and whether they have the budget - this is your new market.
Choose the channel which best covers this market - that is your new channel. Now decide the form the new solution takes - this is your new offering. | | | | | | Summary | | What began as: | Becomes: | | Which problem? | Best problem? | | Who has the problem? | Who has the most need? | | Which channel? | Who sells best? |
| | Your revised marketing strategy should now focus on solving your prospects’ problems. It may look similar to your existing strategy, but will differ substantially in many ways. You will now be able to develop tactics to inform prospects that they suffer from this problem.
Your marketing strategy will move from theoretical to real through the prospect’s growing awareness generated by your new approach. | | | | "A need without a problem often means no sales" |  | |
| | | "Choose the one problem that will financially reward your business the best, and one which your company has the best solution for" | | |
| | | "Your marketing strategy will move from theoretical to real through the prospect’s growing awareness generated by your new approach" | | |
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