The Single Buyer Model: A Dangerous Road Towards Competitive B2B Marketing and Sales

The Single Buyer Model
A Dangerous Road Towards
Competitive B2B Marketing and Sales

by Tony Zambito
Chief Buyerologist
© 2012 Buyerology, All Rights Reserved 1
Buyerology

Copyright Notices
The Single Buyer Model: A Dangerous Road Towards Competitive B2B Marketing
and Sales

Copyright 2012 by Buyerology and Goal Centric Management, Inc., All rights
reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
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any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher. Requests for permission or further information should be
addressed to Tony Zambito at: tzambito@goalcentric.com.


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Copyright 2012 Buyerology and Goal Centric Management, Inc. All rights
reserved.

http://buyerology.com | 1-888-972-8937


Many B2B Marketers today are faced with the daunting tasks of
connecting with buyers in new ways and using new mediums that are still
in infancy. New tactical approaches have been introduced at a rapid rate
and some old ideas repurposed with new labels – all in an effort to find
the ever flowing fountain of gaining buyer attention. The shelf-life
expectancy of some of the new approaches is yet to be known; making
investment and resource decisions for leaders in B2B Marketing a road
filled with risks. For many of these new approaches, the foundation of
thinking is still directed towards the single buyer model that has been the
standard way of thinking for several decades.

Evidence is building that the standardized focus on a single buyer model
has major disadvantages: depictions have lacked in the reality of the real
world today, they are narrowly focused on messaging to one buyer or
role, it is an over simplification of marketing and selling to a buyer, they
are created with little research, and are routinely ignored by selling
teams today. These disadvantages are overshadowing the higher-cost
and dangers of the single buyer model used in ways where missteps are
being made in overall buyer strategy. These missteps resulting in
significant loss of marketing dollars and waste of valuable yet limited
resources.

How Did We Get Here?

The single buyer model had worked well right up to the advent of the
Internet and email. That’s when the barriers started falling down like the
Berlin Wall at the end of the cold war. Up until then, all the power of
information was held in the hands of the supplier. And in most cases,
there was a single buyer target that needed the closely held information.


Complex buying was an arduous task assigned to one decision-maker and
sellers did all they could to target that one most important buyer –
including bringing coffee and donuts. Marketing played the role of
supplying information in literature form and focused on advertising.
Sales role was to target the single buyer. Sales training was all geared to
train sellers how to persuade the single buyer and in the 1980’s we
started to see models of how to determine the psyche of the single buyer
– was he or she an amiable or an analytical?


The single buyer model is still the major face of the buyer in many B2B
organizations. Evidence suggests that this singular picture of the buyer is
cracking like an old oil painting found in an attic:

 It made sense for many years. After all we are talking about the buyer
and that is the focus of marketing and sales. On the surface, the profiling
of a buyer target seems like an easy fix. In this new age of social and
newly emerging forms of networks – it is no longer an easy fix.


 Emerging is buyer networks extending beyond our traditional views of
the buyer. New technologies, social and Enterprise 2.0 as examples, have
completely erased the barrier to information and allow buyer networks
to operate as one and to weigh-in on purchase decisions.

 Buying has become more complex since a key factor in buyer
networks and the ecosystems they support are interdependent. Meaning
more parties participating and more validation is occurring in the
purchase decision-making.


 The tools of the single buyer model are no longer effective. Sales in
particular at the frontline routinely discard sales enablement tools given
to them by marketing according to recent IDC research.


What Are The Dangers?
Continuing a narrow focus on the single buyer model is a dangerous path
for B2B Marketing. Evidence points to major disadvantages occurring.

First, with a focus only on the single buyer model, businesses risk finding
their organization being excluded from a buyer’s network and not seen as
an integral part of the buyer’s ecosystem. This is a heavy price to pay if
you are indeed outside of the network and not an ecosystem player.

Second, the use of the single buyer model has proven to be fraught with
shortcomings. They can best be characterized as only helpful today but
not revealing. Several executives I interviewed in the last six months of
2011 are saying it best:

“What we’ve learned is that buyer personas, building tools for sales,
creating lots of content, and etc. don’t meet the mark in today’s
competitive market we are in – we need to know more.”


“Our marketing department created marketing material that
targeted a specific role in our industry and they rolled out it out with
all the fanfare you would expect. Let me just say everybody had a
piece a cake and the party was over that quickly.”

Third, the research connection has been lost in the conversation. While
we are seeing a rise in predictive analytics, companies are yet lacking
profoundly in qualitative buyer behavior modeling. This is important due
to the evidence which suggests that the introduction of new technologies
and networks are changing buying behaviors rapidly.

Fourth, companies are experiencing missed opportunities. When
marketing and sales operations have a singular focus on one buyer, it is
like having horse blinders on. There is much swirling around the buyer
and their buyer network. If the company doesn’t seem to “get it” in
terms of what is going on from a network standpoint, then they are
unlikely to be privy to other opportunities. More from the voice of a
senior director of global marketing:


More from the voice of a senior director of global marketing:

“We did this whole campaign around the CFO. Yes, we even did a
buyer persona. Only to find out we could never talk to a CFO and
that they were not the right buyer!”


Fifth, the use of a single buyer model has misdirected focus towards
targets that have always been there and has even backfired. They are
problematic in today’s world as they are fraught with many built-in
assumptions that were developed over the years. The risk here is that
buyer requirements and the very nature of the buyer have changed.
Here’s the voice of a senior level sales executive articulating this point:


“After the first year of joining this company, I began to realize there
was a disconnect between sales and our customers. What occurred
to me is that our customers have become highly educated folks and
were of a different background of let’s say fifteen years ago. The
disconnect is that our sales force hasn’t kept pace with this change.”


Is There A Better Way?

For many executives today in B2B leadership positions, there are three
constant clouds twirling around their heads: the lack of insight about
buyers, they are faced with tremendous uncertainty about the direction
to steer their organization, and they lack the ability to predict as well as
forecast into the near as well as far future.


The better way points towards providing clues to disperse these clouds
before the rain extinguishes any hope they had. There are several ways
that I believe can give businesses the insight they need to respond to the
ever changing buyer of today:

 Engage in predictive buyer modeling that models the behavioral
trends of buyers – a need that aligns with the fast pace of change


 Connect predictive buyer modeling to predictive analytics to
illuminate a 360 degree view of buyers

 Balance market and buyer research investments to include qualitative
research along with quantitative research

 Utilize target buyer modeling as a gateway to understand and model
fast emerging buyer networks and buyer ecosystem dynamics


 Develop robust B2B oriented Business Buyergraphics based on
purchasing behavior that extend beyond buyer personas, demographics,
and firmographics and serves as the triborough bridge between
marketing, sales, and strategy

 Develop a renewed focus on descriptive buyer segmentation based on
purchase behaviors


The single buyer target model no longer works in this new complex
world. We are confronted with a world where buyers no longer act
independent of others in decision-making and are dependent upon
networks and ecosystems. The imperative for senior B2B executives is to
adapt to change and make the tough decisions that come with change.


Modeling the behaviors, decisions, and buying scenarios of buyers and
their networks give leaders what they seem to be asking for: deeper
understanding of buyer behavior, how to attract more buyers, know
which direction to lead their organization, and keep the ship floating
upright while at the same time plugging the leaks.


About Tony Zambito
Tony is the originator of buyer persona research and creation. Today,
Tony is breaking new ground in establishing Buyerology℠ as the new
qualitative research means of understanding buyer behaviors and
choices to make better informed decisions.

A seasoned corporate senior executive with Fortune 100 firms and now
entrepreneur since founding Goal Centric in 2002, Tony offers the rare
combination of both executive experience and unique buyer insight
approaches. He is the author of his widely read blog Buyerology Now
Contact: and keynote speaker on the topic of how changing buyer behaviors are
impacting business today. Tony has helped Fortune 100 companies
tzambito@buyerology.com
such as FedEx, HP, and Reed Elsevier to make informed decisions using
Twitter: @tonyzambito buyer personas, buyer insight, and Business Buyergraphics™. He holds
a B.S. in Business and an M.B.A. in Marketing.
LinkedIn: Tony Zambito
Tony and his wife Cindy with their two daughters returned to the east
Blog: Buyerology Now coast after nearly a dozen years living through the boom and bust of
Silicon Valley. He is an avid jazz fan as well as jazz percussionist and you
Web: www.buyerology.com
just may catch Tony playing with his band My Cousin Tone’ somewhere
on the east coast.

© 2012 Buyerology, All Rights Reserved. 24

The Single Buyer Model: A Dangerous Road Towards Competitive B2B Marketing and Sales

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The Single Buyer Model: A Dangerous Road Towards Competitive B2B Marketing and Sales