B2B buyers are stereotypically logical. They rely on facts and figures (and the occasional steak dinner) to make their buying decisions.
Or so we used to think.
In recent years, B2B marketers have recognized that emotions play a role in even the crustiest buyer’s decision-making process.
Storytelling, empathy, mission-driven objectives, and customer understanding have become mainstream B2B marketing topics alongside traditional product and service performance.
However, the results from a recent survey by the global growth strategy powerhouse, Dentsu ,suggest a need to go even further.
In their words, “[For] the first time since we started [the] Superpowers [survey], we see personal decision drivers outweigh the more functional professional drivers in their overall importance in the B2B buyer journey.”
Given that their survey covers 3,500+ buyers across Dentsu’s 120-country footprint, including manufacturing, professional services, technology, and financial service industries, this is a big deal.
So, what does it mean for your B2B business, and how should you respond?
Let’s review the decision drivers highlighted in the report and consider how they fit within a strategic marketing framework.
The Dentsu survey asked B2B purchasing decision makers about their recent buying experiences to identify the factors that make the biggest difference between winning and losing their business.
It also considered commercial outcomes such as deal size, repeat business, and how cultural differences might influence respondents’ behavior.
Significant shifts are taking place as younger, Millennial and Gen-Z buyers replace older, Baby Boomer and Gen-X buyers in the workforce.
For example, the combined influence accredited to a product or service being “good for society” or “good for people” has risen from 35% to 52% since 2021, while being “good for business” has correspondingly fallen from 65% to 48%.
Such “personal” decision drivers correspond to feeling good about signing a contract because it aligns with the buyer’s personal values and ethical beliefs.
The ten top-ranked decision drivers in 2024 were:
1. I feel safe signing a contract with them.
2. They are known as being a good employer.
3. They are active thought leaders in their category/sector.
4. They comply with regulations, law, industry standards, and ethical practices.
5. They take care of their suppliers, partners, and communities.
6. They are a brand that aligns with my personal values and ethics.
7. They meet my company’s minimum quality and functional needs.
8. They support me and my company with expertise.
9. They offer enough variety and choice.
10. They provide the support, information, and expertise we need.
Let’s break those into a few groups and consider how your business might tackle them.
Making a buyer feel safe requires earning their trust.
Where does trust come from?
Places like authenticity, transparency, reliability, and reputation.
Buyers want to feel certain that picking your company to supply their needs is going to work out for the best.
The last thing they want is to be embarrassed or have their career impacted because doing business with you turns out to be a bad idea.
Authenticity is something they will pick up over time. The more genuine and helpful your content and any interactions you have with their team, the more they will trust that you’re shooting them straight.
A reputation for transparency emerges through the way you handle issues and feedback. Sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly is a way to acknowledge feedback and show that you’re listening and responding.
Reliability also takes time to prove out, so buyers will turn to their peers for accumulated insights. Customer reviews that speak positively about the consistency of your service and support can be powerful.
Mixing all these ingredients (and more) into a dough and baking it yields that marvelous thing we call a reputation—the cumulative stars, stripes, and scar tissue you’ve earned in the eyes and minds of your customers.
Trust and a solid reputation take a long time to earn and a heartbeat to destroy, so it’s imperative that your team respects and pays attention to them—not just lip service.
We’ve all heard a lot about ESG—environmental, social, and governance—in recent years.
And, while the pendulum may have swung a little too far for some people’s liking, the net result is that businesses cannot afford to place profits entirely above people or planet.
Being a good employer and taking care of your suppliers and partners is sound business, whether it’s making the headlines or not.
The same holds true for following the law and your industry’s regulations and standards.
But how can you ensure your customers recognize these efforts when choosing what to buy?
For most businesses, it’s as simple as remembering to talk about it.
Instead of focusing all your content on product features and benefits, take time to highlight your company’s performance in these other important areas.
Showcase employee and partner events, and mention some of the little things you do to make their lives better.
Summarize changes in laws and standards that affect your business and what you’re doing to remain in compliance.
Provide examples of how working for your company enriches your employees’ lives beyond the paychecks they take home.
Here’s another phrase that’s shot up the popularity charts of late: thought leadership.
What does it mean, actually?
Becoming a thought leader means doing the hard parts: thinking and then leading.
Fundamentally, it’s about sharing original ideas and opinions that move a conversation in a particular direction.
That might mean reinforcing or extending the direction your industry or sector is already taking or encouraging it to make a significant turn or take an entirely new path.
The most critical word is “original”.
Regurgitating other people’s ideas and opinions is the realm of generative AI. The internet and social media are inundated with un-original, plain vanilla, nothing-new-to-see-here content that individuals and companies are publishing just to publish something.
Becoming a thought leader means doing the hard parts: thinking and then leading.
In other words, developing a point of view and then articulating it in ways that are helpful to your audience.
Why do buyers care whether their chosen vendor is a thought leader?
First, it shows that you understand their world and have a plan for making it better.
Second, it shows that you care about where the industry is heading and are willing to invest some of your time and energy to help steer it.
And third, it means you haven’t succumbed to the siren-song of generative AI and abandoned all pretense of originality.
The last driver that we’ll examine here comes in at number six on Dentsu’s list but might arguably outweigh all the others.
We’ll get to that part in a moment.
First, let’s understand what it means for your brand to align with a buyer’s values and ethics.
What you choose to say and how you choose to say it will determine whether a buyer feels connected to your message or repelled by it.
Hopefully it’s obvious that we’re not talking about them agreeing with your color choices.
This is about Brand with a capital ‘B’.
In that sense, your brand is everything that goes into how a buyer experiences your company—from first contact to the most recent.
Yes, visual elements are still important.
First impressions matter, and the combination of fonts, colors, and imagery that you deploy can have a big impact on the way a buyer perceives your company.
How consistently you deploy those elements across your digital properties and physical products can engender a sense of quality and professionalism—or lack thereof.
However, it’s the behavioral aspects of your brand that really shine here.
What you choose to say and how you choose to say it will determine whether a buyer feels connected to your message or repelled by it.
Notice the word “feels”—once again, this isn’t a logical deduction. It’s something a buyer decides without realizing it.
If your company hasn’t yet identified and practiced its voice, or intentionally established tone and style guidelines for its content, now would be a great time to start.
Inconsistency will translate to perceived misalignment in the buyer’s brain. They simply won’t know which version of your brand is going to show up.
For more guidance on how to choose and deploy these elements, read our earlier posts on brand personality and brand guidelines.
So, why did we say that this decision driver might outweigh the others, even though the buyers only ranked it sixth on average?
It’s like the effect a restaurant setting can have on your enjoyment of the food being served.
If the décor is garish, the menu confusing, the wait staff poorly dressed, the music incongruous, or the experience different from location to location, your enjoyment is diminished.
You might choose not to go back—even if it’s the best food you’ve tasted within a hundred-mile radius.
The same is true for suboptimal branding.
No matter how valuable the information you’re sharing, how noteworthy your business, or how differentiated and superior your product or service, if your branding sucks, the buyer won’t pay attention, and they probablywon’t come back.
B2B buyers paying attention to factors other than product performance when making their purchasing decisions isn’t breaking news.
What is noteworthy are the “personal” factors that now dominate survey responses about what most heavily influences those buyers’ choices.
Earning their trust by paying attention to authenticity, transparency, reliability, and reputation is no longer a marketing gimmick; it’s table stakes.
Showcasing your company’s good side—that it cares about its people, partners, and the planet—must form an integral part of your marketing strategy.
You must develop unique opinions about your industry and its future direction, and show thought leadership by sharing them in ways people can understand and appreciate.
And finally, your brand must align with the values and ethics of your target customer by developing and employing a consistent personality—voice, tone, and style—that they recognize and that resonates with them.
Image credit: Adobe Stock
