It Couldn’t Be More Personal . . . Why There’s No Such Thing As B2B Marketing
On my way to the office this morning I popped in my earphones and tuned my iPhone to an episode of the ridiculously popular (at least with snobbish intelligencia urbanites like myself) NPR series “This American Life.”
The episode was called “The Competition” and it was about two very different companies who deal with the pressure of rabid competition and hard-to-come-by profits in two *very* different ways.
Now, it’s a good episode, and I recommend you check it out at
But the real point here is what the show’s host Ira Glass whispered into my ear during his introduction.
He said:
“You know that idea, it’s not personal, it’s business? That what a company does is all about trying to make a sale, trying to stay afloat, trying to respond to market forces in the best way possible . . . And that it’s not about anybody’s feelings?
Well, today we have two stories about the places that market competition leads two very different firms. And in both of these stories you’ll hear *things could not be more personal.* There is *nothing* cut and dried and “business like” about any of this. For the people in these companies. And for the people who surround the companies.”
Which got me thinking about a simple fact of business and marketing that Ira touched on but has probably never really thought about.
What’s that?
That business is *always* personal, that it’s *always* about feelings . . . and that in the whacky world of marketing there’s really no such thing as “B2B.”
Yeah, I know, there’s a whole magazine called “B2B” that’s about selling to businesses (and if you want to waste an afternoon, try getting off their email list. I’ve clicked the unsubscribe button at least 8,100,000 times and still get their badly written “metrics poetry” each and every Monday morning.)
And I’ve done consulting gigs before where I’ve sat patiently as my client rambled on about the “core needs of the target business” like the companies we were trying to sell to were living and breathing folks you could sit down and smoke a cigar with . . .
But when you get right down to it, *businesses* don’t make decisions and *businesses* don’t cut you a check . . . people do.
If you want to be successful selling *B2B* don’t waste your time thinking about the business, think about Bob, the overworked business owner who hasn’t had a vacation in 5 years, who works 18 hours a day each and every goddamned day and is willing to pay out the nose to anybody who can take some of the weight off his shoulders and give him some time to hang out with his kids.
Think about Cassie, the long-nailed secretary who’s sick of getting balled out every time the printer fries itself and who will browbeat the higher ups to approve any product that will actually get the job done . . . and that lets her punch out at 6 and scoot her way through traffic so she can get home.
Think about Jeff, the corporate climber middle manager who’s desperate to find an idea he can “own”. . . and that will help him finally wipe that smug smile off Jenkin’s fat cow face as he earns the promotion he’s wanted for so long.
Think about the people.
Now, sure, there’s a game to B2B marketing. Sometimes you’ve got to disguise your intentions a bit and throw in all sorts of numbers and logic games to show that you’re playing by the rules.
But when it’s time to *sell*? When it’s time cause some action and get paid?
That’s when you forget about the business and talk to the people.
Later,
c