Although we all know it’s easier to talk about ourselves, that’s not going to quite cut it in today’s marketing and selling environment. Today’s successful B2B marketer is buyer-centric. Rather than simply focus on selling a product, they focus on (and understand) how to help their buyers solve their business challenges. Because if you’re not relevant to your buyers, then you’ll lose many prospects at their first visit of your website. Or worse, they’ll never even make it to your site.

Buyer-centric organizations capture the attention of buyers with valuable content, continue to engage them with helpful, quality content and Sales interactions, and turn them into happy buyers and repeat customers. There’s a lot of industry chatter around buyer-centricity, but what does it really mean to be buyer-centric? And how can you ensure your marketing initiatives – and company as a whole for that matter – are buyer-centric?

3 Core Attributes That Define Buyer-Centricity

To be buyer-centric you must:

1) Think from your buyers’ point-of-view

You strive to understand the needs your buyers are seeking to fulfill and how they go about doing it.  Your actions (think content, nurtures, Sales interactions) are aligned to their needs and journey rather than to your internal processes and checklists.

2) Be an expert in your buyers’ business challenges

You understand the pains your buyers are experiencing that drive the need for a solution like yours.

3) Support your buyers’ needs and processes in the manner they desire

You make it easy.  You not only understand your buyers’ needs and processes, but also how they prefer to execute on fulfilling them, such as their content preferences and interaction preferences at different stages.

By achieving this buyer-centric mentality, you’ll connect with your buyers on a deeper level through a trusting, engaging conversation that helps them move along their purchasing path.

3 Key Principles to Achieving Buyer-Centricity

1. Know Your Buyers Inside & Out (and Before & After!)

Listen to your buyers, customers, and internal stakeholders like Sales and Client Services.  Gather critical insights such as your buyers’:

• Primary business challenges
• Pain points
• Information and solution needs
• Professional and personal goals
• Daily responsibilities, activities, and interactions

Audience insights such as these will guide all of your marketing activities.  But don’t stop understanding your buyers’ needs and preferences once they become customers.  Continue to understand their evolving needs and challenges after the buy from you as well so that you can engage in a long, trusting partnership with them.

2) Build Your Brand Around Buyer Value, Not Solution Features

Companies are excited to talk about their solution.  I get it.  You spend significant resources developing amazing capabilities, and you want to share this with your world!  While this is of course critical information you must provide, it’s supporting points, not the main messaging to build your brand on.

For example, rather than message “our product seamlessly integrates into your IT infrastructure,” communicate “you can quickly adapt to spikes in consumer demand and changes in consumer shopping behavior.”  The latter is the main message, while the former is the supporting point.

Don’t get bogged down in features.  Align your brand’s key messaging and core value proposition to your buyers’ top must-haves.  Think of the primary business challenges facing your buyers and how your solution services their needs to address these challenges.  You’ll craft a brand that resonates with your audience because the value you communicate is in what you enable your buyers to do.