Three Laws of Business to Business (B2B) Marketing

By: Bryan Johnson, President of Tango Marketing

Have you heard about the Three Laws of Business to Business (B2B) Marketing? Whether you’re aware of them or not, they’re real—and undeniable. The good news is, if you understand them well, you’ll see your marketing efforts deliver real—and sustainable results.

It's Not 1999

Before I reveal the Three Laws of Marketing, let’s first look at the environment in which you’re going to apply them. The marketing environment you’re competing in is vastly different than it was even a few years ago. It’s important to understand your marketplace and your potential buyers, so let’s explore today’s buyer and the impact the environment has on your buyers and your marketing techniques.

Today’s Buyer

  • Today’s decision makers are well seasoned; most business executives have been involved in at least two major software purchases.

  • The buyer has multiple stakeholders to satisfy, and precious little time to do it in.

  • When the buyer has identified a problem and agreed to spend money solving that problem, they’ll perform a preliminary search to find the products—not consulting firms—capable of solving that problem. Today, this preliminary search takes place almost exclusively through the Internet or through recommendations from trusted advisors such as an accounting firm or colleague.

  • Once they’ve identified a short list of products the buyer then looks for the right firm to buy from.

Environmental Factors

  • Business software is now better than ever. Highly-evolved development processes have produced remarkably stable software.

  • Costs to switch software is high—conversions are expensive, time consuming, and disruptive. Many organizations are hesitant to switch business software because of the overall impact on the organization.

  • Your prospects are deluged with marketing messages. As a result, they are more skeptical than ever of the claims these messages make—and they’re far too busy to read messages that don’t make an immediate impression.

  • The marketplace is saturated—Google has more than 3 million hits for “software companies”. Getting noticed is difficult.

You’ve got savvy buyers and an overloaded marketplace. But businesses are still buying. You just have to hit them with the right message at the right time. Read on for the Three Laws of Marketing and how they can help your marketing efforts succeed—even in this marketing environment.

The Three Laws of Marketing

Law #1: Be A Problem Solver
Businesses spend money to solve problems. Period.

You must clearly identify the problem you can solve—in your prospect’s industry lingo, if appropriate. Describe your solution—how can you address their pain. Leverage your experience and expertise in solving problems for other, similar businesses. Features only sell if you can show how they solve real-world business problems.

Law #2: Know the Sequence
To our own ego’s detriment, businesses first identify the software they believe is capable of solving their problems. They won't look for a firm good at implementation and then buy whatever software it happens to sell.

Tailor your marketing message to focus on the product you sell and how that product solves targeted business problems. Give your marketing message a clear call-to-action that ties your solution back to the problem. Your lead-in is the product—when you have their attention, you can set about demonstrating why they should buy it from you.

Law #3: Be Repetitive
Buyers look for solutions when they have a problem to solve. To win, you and your product need to be top-of-mind when a problem arises.

Ask yourself the question: "Do I remember any direct mail or email marketing message I got yesterday?". 99.9% of you will not remember one message because it didn't address any item on your current problem list or you're saturated with marketing messages and just don't retain irrelevant information, so it's all about timing.

The only way to ensure that your marketing message is there when a problem arises is to consistently put your firm and your product’s in front of prospects. Your message has at the most two seconds to grab their attention and get them to read further. Don’t worry about being repetitive with your message; go ahead and reuse the same postcard graphic—twice or even twelve times. Remember they won’t even read your message until they are solving a problem that you address.

Playing By The Rules
How can you apply the Three Laws of Marketing to your best advantage? Let’s look at Web sites and direct mail campaigns as examples, citing some common mistakes business partners make, and how to avoid them.

To turn your Web site into a powerful marketing tool, the home page must focus on the products you sell (Law #2). If you focus too much on yourself, your awards, your certifications and you’ll quickly bore prospects. Prospects should be able to determine in just a few seconds which Sage Software products you represent and which industries you have expertise in, as evidence to them that you can address their problems (Law #1). Make your site easy to navigate. You want prospects to quickly find their way to potential solutions and software information (Law #3).

Common mistakes in direct mail marketing can also be rectified by applying the Three Laws of Marketing. Too often, direct mail pieces lack a clear problem/solution message (Law #1), and focus on your services, not your product (Law #2). Always include a clear call-to-action, such as an invitation to download a free white paper focused on the business problem (Law #1). Send your communications frequently and keep a consistent look and feel to those communications (Law #3).

The Three Laws of Marketing help you be competitive in today’s marketplace. Prospects need to know you understand their business problems, and have a product capable of addressing their solution. Don’t give up—your messages will get through when the problem rises to the top of a buyer's list. Before you launch your next marketing effort, I encourage you to see how well it obeys the Three Laws of Marketing.

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