When you are in a personal relationship, you care about what the other party thinks and feels. You know what’s important to them, and you communicate with them about those things. You speak to them in a way that they understand and you work to improve your communication and how it is received. You spend time with the other person, and you care about their basic needs as well as their emotional well-being. The relationship between your organization and your buyer should be treated the same way. So what steps can B2B brands take to go beyond “business to business” and focus more on building a “brand to buyer” relationship? 

To know you is to love (and purchase) you
Research shows that people usually use mental shortcuts that behavioral economists have called ‘heuristics’ rather than applying logic and analysis when deciding what to purchase. According to Jenni Romaniuk, Research Professor at Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, for the “vast majority of buying situations, consumers want to finish as quickly as possible, and mental availability is about making your brand known and easily thought of in those situations.” This remains true with buyers in B2B. In fact, according to Romaniuk’s research, lack of mental availability is a bigger blocker in B2B purchasing than outright rejection of a brand. Staying top of mind with customers is a top priority.

Create budget zen between brand and salesA recent LinkedIn B2B Institute found that B2B budget allocation skews more heavily toward sales activation (54%) than brand (45%), whereas in B2C this is flipped (38% and 62% respectively). In the same report, it was found that “brands that set their share of voice (SOV) above their share of the market (SOM) tend to grow, all other factors being equal, and those that set their SOV below SOM tend to shrink.” Brands are well-served to shift more investment towards being in market consistently, engaging with their audiences, creating dialogue, increasing mental availability, and building connection.

Get'm right in the feels
The majority of B2B brands continue to drive rational conversations leading with the facts. The reality is that most purchase decisions are rooted in our instincts and gut. By not allowing time and space for an emotional connection, enterprises are missing a significant ability to influence and persuade current and prospective buyers.