B2B – Single Target Market – Deep Analysis – 3

B2B, Marketing, prioritizing, single target market

We have in the last two posts, looked at the challenges of the B2B market, whether its the hierarchies involved or the dynamics between various roles.

There’s another two dynamics which are specific to the companies and the people in those specific companies.

Some companies are marketing driven, which means that generally they want to lead the market whether its in the use of new technologies, tools, new initiatives. They are willing to experiment to continue to be the leader in the market. Since these companies are willing to experiment, they are generally more receptive to new ideas. The culture in these companies is to experiment hence down the line every one is generally open to seek new ideas. People are generally not afraid to take decisions.

Then there are others which are finance driven and keep a very tight control on “accounting ” costs, audits etc. They are always wanting to ensure that they take steps once something is proven. They want to have proof before moving forward because they don’t want to be caught up in audits. People are always trying to ensure that their “backside” is protected. These companies are therefore slow in adopting new initiatives.

These are the two extremes. If you look at it as a continuum then most of the others fall in between. There’s nothing good or bad about either of these. It’s more important to map with you’re selling

If your product or service is ‘new’ with technology or process etc. then it makes sense to start with marketing oriented companies. On the other hand if your product or service is more a replacement or substitute for something where you can give cost benefits, then you should look at starting from the other end.

Once you have identified the Single Target Market, your next step will be to identify the companies and do more research on them to prioritize your efforts.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

B2B – Single Target Market – Deep Analysis – Part 2

B2B, ideal customer, Marketing, single target market

Yesterday we looked at the key challenges that you face in the B2B space because of the various hierarchies involved as well as the inertia because of the various stake holders and the dynamics / politics between them.

When you target the consumer market, in a lot of situations your prospective customer may be invisible (as Dean Jackson would put it). In the case of B2B customers at the industry, company and even to a certain extent on the person level, you may be able to identify the people but you may find it difficult to reach them to verify if they are actually the right people for your offering.

In case of the consumer market, if you have given an incentive or a cookie (again as Dean Jackson calls it) to make her identify herself, in case of the B2B market, a lot of times I have seen that the people just take the white paper or any other cookie just to gain knowledge whether its part of their job profile or not.

So while the B2B buyer is partially visible, getting her to qualify herself is a lot tougher in my opinion. That’s why identifying the Single Target Market makes the work a little easier.

But identifying the Single Target Market is a massive amount of work. It may require a lot of iterations to get to the exact definition with the right set of constraints defined including going down to the set of people you intend to target, their roles, hierarchies and the challenges at each level of the hierarchy. Here the concept of the Ideal customer profile goes down to the individual role. That’s critical.

Till next time then….happy identifying

Carpe Diem!!!

B2B – Single target market – deep analysis

B2B, Marketing, Methodologies, single target market, Value

I keep writing about the Single Target Market on a consistent basis. For any new marketing initiatives this has to be your starting point. As I have mentioned in my posts earlier also, if you’re in the B2B space then this becomes a lot more complex.

The decision making is much more challenging in the B2B space. Depending on the size of the company, the research would be done maybe 2 layers below the actual decision makers.

Now when you think of a Single Target Market in case of B2B, you then need to go deep, to analyze the revenue ranges, the industry, the use cases, the actual people whom you will need to talk to etc.

Once you have mapped the people, roles, you will need to figure out a way to reach them. This is critical because there are both technology gate keepers (like spam filters) and human gate keepers as well. In addition these people already have incumbents who are providing them with similar products or services. So they won’t change their supplier in a hurry.

Which means you will need to have a clear methodology to ensure that you figure out a way to identify the dissonance with the incumbent and then provide value much larger than the incumbent.

By focusing on the Single Target Market you will soon understand the challenges all the customers could be facing with all the incumbents. This will help you get customers faster.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Doing a deep dive for Single Target Market

B2B, Marketing, Product Management, segmentation, single target market

I keep writing about the Single Target Market in many of my posts. I recently also wrote about how you can do a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) if your product is not doing as per expectations.

When you do a RCA, I have noticed most of the times in my case, the challenge has always been in identifying the Single Target Market and defining it clearly.

Since I deal primarily in B2B , its not just about the geography that I need to focus on. Its not just an industry. You have to learn to go deeper to identify to even the level of person you intend to target.

In a recent exercise that I was doing I realized that the level of person my team had to contact was based on the size of company we were targeting. However our services were not good for companies below a certain level of revenue

When we hit the higher level of revenue the level of people we were targeting were not the people looking for a solution to the problem we solve. It was a very tight line for us to figure out. But what came out of this was an even higher appreciation of the advantage of going deep for the Single Target Market.

This concept is like an onion, each layer that you peel, makes you realize what else is beneath the surface.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!