Recent Revelations

The Fallacy of Logic

There is a statement that I’ve heard a zillion times in my career about how technical buyers choose one supplier over another.

“All our prospects care about is specifications. We don’t need brochures, branding and all of that other touchy-feely stuff.”

These B2B marketing and sales people assume that people make wise, rational decisions based on objective analysis of costs and benefits. But seemingly sophisticated prospects for complex products do not behave this way. In fact, there are several things wrong with this line of thinking.

Specifications Are a Given
Specifications are an important part of selling complex products but in a competitive selling environment, the competition will meet you blow by blow on specifications. Some will even have better specs. In many cases the people making the final buying decisions don’t really understand these specifications anyway. If you are presenting only specs, you end up offering a solution that looks identical to competing interests forcing the prospect to decide only on price.

The Missed Opportunity
It is a given in business that your products and services will meet the client’s technical requirements. To not present your firm in the best light possible is a costly mistake. Your prospects feel like the jurors in case after case. Befuddled by the facts and often mistrustful of the parties offering those facts, these jurors look beyond the facts to things like the shine of the defendant’s shoes, the quality of the presentation, the professionalism of the sales team and a dozen other seemingly irrelevant details.

Effective planning, strong branding, professional sales materials and targeted marketing give prospects the information they need to make the “right” decision - to choose your solution over your competition’s.