EBlog

Who are you selling to and when?

June 1, 2008 | Posted by: Lee

Selling to the masses inside a company talked about the number of individuals who participate in the decision making process for a complex technology sale.  So who are these people and what are they looking for?

According to MarketingSherpa's 2008-09 Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide here are some insights:

• Users of the product have the most involvement early on in the decision making process.  They define needs and feature sets.
  
• Influencers (typically project managers) have more involvement once research begins into a specific solution.  They act as the traffic cop, keeping track of needs from multiple departments, analyzing solutions from a business perspective, and deciding on what vendors to look at.
• The decision maker (the one who controls the money) tends to come into the picture once vendors are being evaluated.  They focus on ROI and negotiations.

So what does that mean for B2B marketers?

It's critical to provide different types of information to meet the needs of all the different audiences.

• For users provide details on features, customization. Include demos, screen shots (if applicable), product brochures, and testimonials around product reliability.
• For influencers include information on pricing, customer service support, customization, case studies and testimonials focusing on results.
• For decision makers, pricing and results are key.  This audience also wants to know more about your company - current info is important.  They want to see an active involved company.