Selling: it’s an emotional business!

Natasha Askaroff | January 29, 2015

In the second of his short series of articles about components of marketing and business development strategy, CHRIS WHITE looks at the importance of creating strong brand connection.

Feelings and emotions. We all have them. And marketers do their best to appeal to them when developing consumer campaigns. Just think of all those twee TV ads for John Lewis, M&S and the like leading up to Christmas.

But what part do they play in the typical business-to-business (B2B) buying decision? Surely hard-headed commercial types are far more likely to be persuaded by more tangible and practical factors than raw emotions?

Wrong! Recent research by Google and The Conference Board, shows that a business purchaser’s emotions are, in fact, twice as important as more rational features and benefits in a B2B sales cycle.

It’s all about creating ‘brand connection’ – something that applies as much to how the average SME communicates its offering to clients as it does to large corporates.

And here’s why. The research reveals that if a B2B buyer has a high brand connection they are:

5 times more likely to consider buying from the company;
13 times more likely to purchase from them;
30 times more likely to pay premium prices for their services.

‘High brand connection’ customers are defined as those who give brands top scores for trust, image and industry leadership. The Google researchers tested ‘brand connected-ness’ by dividing the perceived benefits of B2B brands into two distinct categories – business value and personal value.

Business value included the traditional appeals to logic and reason that we are familiar with regarding a product’s functional benefits in areas such as performance, comparative data, structure and order, as well as business outcomes.

Personal value included more nuanced areas such as how the brand or product could impact on buyers professionally, socially and emotionally.

Researchers analyzed the impact of both values on 14 commercial outcomes including consideration, propensity to purchase, pay a premium, and advocacy.

Personal value was shown to have twice as much impact as business value. So not only do emotions matter in B2B buying, they actually matter more than the rational aspects of business value.

This clarifies what many marketers have always suspected – that business purchase decisions are, like consumer ones, largely based on emotions.

Business value is still important as a qualifier – something to establish you in a buyer’s consideration – but it won’t make you stand out against your competitors. When there is no clear difference, most buyers will simply select the supplier that is willing to drop their price.

How then do you appeal to the personal emotional triggers that will create a difference?

Personal value triggers	Practical strategies
Professional benefits – how will choosing your brand enhance the buyers career? His professional kudos? What will make the purchaser look good to his boss?	– Can you create and publish a case study or press article featuring the client?
Social benefit – how will it enhance the purchasers popularity amongst their peer group, sector, colleagues?	– Are you associated with sector forums or networking events that you can invite your client to?
Emotional benefits – There is often a huge amount of personal risk at stake in the purchase decision how can you give the purchaser more confidence? (No one ever got fired for hiring IBM?)	– Can you structure success based pricing? Can you underwrite product performance? Can you introduce him/her to clients that have faced similar risks?
Self-Image benefits – How will a choice for brand create pride in the buyer? Have Apple achieved this through iPad in the work environment?	– Are the products that you are supplying best in class? Aspirational? – What is the CSR or social business aspect to your strategy? Can you involve the client in some way?

Achieving the above will set you apart, appeal to the buyer’s fears, emotions and prejudices, and provide a route to differentiation and greater margins.

Part of the answer must lie in your brand positioning and messaging, as well as at a more tactical and relationship level. For example, in complex, high value sales processes it might be possible to weave subtle messaging into conversations, correspondence and meetings.

To sum up then:

Can you easily and clearly articulate the functional and performance benefits (business value) of your product or service?
Are these benefits quantifiable and do they have third party endorsement? Are they unique?
Can they be customised to the needs of the client or sector you are targeting?
Don’t forget that these benefits merely qualify you to play.
Think carefully about what you can do to appeal to more emotional personal benefits. This will become easier the more you know about your clients.
Can you make the client look good to his colleagues? Can you involve the client in some philanthropic exercise in the course of your business? Can you raise the profile/boost the ego of your client through PR?

There are many of ways of tackling this critical aspect of business development strategy that will play at different volumes and at different times. I suspect that after some examination, getting emotional about your brand won’t seem quite as barmy as you might have first thought.

If you would like to discuss or have help with your business development strategy, call Chris White on 07970 710543 or email chris.white@emcltd.co.uk