Decision-maker - Anatomy of a Target Business

If you are marketing to a specific customer – your John or Jane – then you are trying to design a marketing strategy that will appeal to that specific individual and others like them.

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The temptation when targeting a whole business is to treat them the same way – as a singular entity - when, in fact, a business is typically formed of a whole group of individuals with different roles, characteristics and drivers. 

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It’s always worthwhile to pay close attention to the inner workings of an organisation and to think about who, within the business, will need to buy into your proposition.

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For example, marketing business-to-business (or B2B, as it is informally known) means that at some point, you will be tasked with convincing the relevant decision-maker that your offering is worth the expense.

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Put simply, for a sale to take place, your offering is going to have to tickle the fancy of someone high up the chain… your high-end executives, department heads and so on and so forth of the world.

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We’re talking about the main decision-makers; the people that, quite simply, call the shots.

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These are the people who will officially need to sign off on purchasing your organisation’s product or acquiring your services.

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It’s important to remember, however, that organisations can have more than one decision-maker, and which one, or ones, are relevant to you will likely be determined by the product or service you are trying to sell.

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For example, it makes absolutely no sense targeting the head of a multinational organisation if you’re selling staples or printer ink, right?

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You’d have far more luck with someone further down the food chain like, say, the head of the department responsible for office supplies. 

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Also, businesses can have a considerable employee base; an employee base that could become disgruntled if they don’t agree that a particular product or service will meet a genuine need.

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So this advice comes with a health warning - targeting the decision maker is sensible, but don’t forget to keep in mind all the people who will need to get behind the decision! 

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Where there is more than one person involved in the decision making process, you will want to factor this into your marketing approach.

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Here’s a few questions to get you thinking…

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·       What is the organisation’s decision-making process for the type of product/service I am trying to sell?

·       Does the business owner make decisions independently?

·       How involved are employees and high-ranking members of the organisation in the decision-making process?

·       If there are multiple players involved in the decision-making process… do they all carry the same level of influence?

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In short, it’s important to figure out who exactly the main decision-maker(s) is in the company structure.

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If you can work that out, you can begin to dig into what drives them, what they care about and, therefore, what will resonate.

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Meaning that you can finetune your marketing strategy and present your offering in such a way that appeals to them. 

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So, take our advice and make sure you know who at your target business holds the power to give the final thumbs-up or, perish the thought, thumbs-down.

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Want more? Read last week's blog 'Size - Anatomy of a Target Business'