Summary
We all like to believe that we make business decisions on a reasoned basis – especially if those decisions involve hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds or more of our company’s money.
But in fact our personalities - or to be more precise, the emotional drivers which create our personalities - impact how we go about making those decisions, more than we realise. And the more senior the decision-maker in the business – the more likely that person is to display those personality characteristics in the way that they make their decisions.
There are broadly three different types of decision-making personality in the top end of business: the technician, the manager and the leader, all with different needs, wants and desires.
I will show that connecting better to these emotional drivers and personalities through b2b marketing will improve the quality of communications and service that get delivered to the critical b2b customers in the end.
The importance of soft factors in business decision-making
We have all been in the situation at work where we are among a group of people tasked with the responsibility of taking a decision together involving buying products or services for the business. When in that situation, you will notice how different individuals in that unit (or DMU to give it its proper marketing nomenclature) focus on different factors – the price, the people involved, product or service qualities – which influence their point of view.
And you will also be struck by how soft factors - for example, to do with liking the suppliers as individual people, of feeling that individuals’ opinions are recognised, of being confident in the listening abilities of the suppliers - are also important to some decision-makers more than others. Demonstrating the right personal chemistry between customer and supplier can often be a deciding factor in a sale.
This is usually the case in decisions made at the top end of the business chain, where an individual’s abilities to make good judgements is of critical importance to business success. This is especially true of business services. On the surface, the top 6 banks, management consultancies, law firms, accountancy practices etc all have similar credentials. It is in the softer arts of client advice and understanding that these contracts will often get assigned.
Most good b2b marketing practice these days takes into consideration the different business interests of the individuals in the DMU via smart segmentation. So the CFO gets to hear a message about ROI, the COO gets to hear about the benefits of the service or product to the smooth running of his business, the HR Director about the benefits to better motivation of the workforce etc.
But is this understanding sufficient to create the empathy needed to address the soft factors that matter to the sale and the continuing relationship with the customer in the end?
As every good salesperson knows, the client has to feel listened to and understood before s/he can open the door to get a hearing. Having the right proposition is critical. But having the right tone of voice and communication style are also important to creating a positive effect.
Understanding the personality style and mirroring it in the way you relate to the customer
There are two stages involved in getting the right empathetic tone of voice and communication style:
· Understanding what the personality style is of the decision-maker you want to connect with, what their needs, wants and desires are
· And then “mirroring” the way they think in the way that you connect with them, so that you can communicate with them in a way that deals with their concerns and issues and you can deliver your service to them in a way that meets their psychological as well as business needs.
Broadly speaking, you meet three types of personalities in business decision-making (there are many permutations of these, but many years of research experience have shown us that these 3 types predominate). They are the technician, the manager and the leader. They are described in detail below.
The presence of these types of personalities in your prospect audience or customer base can be established by research.
“Mirroring” is the strategy often used in salesmanship to create empathy, and it involves nothing more sophisticated than presenting your argument in a form that connects with the way that your customer thinks. Again, research will help you identify what the needs, wants and desires of these personality types are in your sector and advise in how you can adjust your communications and customer relationship strategies to create this mirroring effect. In this way you can deliver what the customer is looking for in a way that matches the way s/he thinks.
The three personality types
The first is the technician.
The technician possesses the core skills which are the engine of the business. He or she is the top lawyer in the law firm, the creative director in the ad agency, the chief programmer in the IT firm, the head stylist in the hairdresser salon, the dealer and trader in the City hedge fund.
These people are very self-motivated; their self-esteem is generated by being brilliant at what they do. Often perfectionists they can be very demanding and dismissive of others without their level of expertise. They have a store of knowledge and facts about their skill or craft and will only want a dialogue with those who a) respect their expertise and abilities and b) belong to the “club” of those with a similar status in the world.
When responding to communications they tend to idealise rationality or creativity depending on which drive is strongest in their skills repertoire. Cynical about “salesmanship” they will respond best if addressed at their level of expertise. They admire outstanding performance in others, because that’s what they believe they deliver.
The Fidelity ad below is a good example of a communication to a technician – knowing, clubby and not shy about its achievements.
The second type is the manager.
Managers are, in personality terms, followers with a sense of duty and responsibility towards the team. They tend towards consensus and tension reduction to deliver results. They are by nature problem-solvers and can be analytical in the way they think about problems.
Where the technician seeks perfection, the manager seeks consensus that will help the team meet business objectives; it is the manager’s responsibility to make sure the team performs. His or her self-esteem is generated from successfully meeting the targets that the whole team have been set.
In communications they respond to ideas in more abstract rather than personal terms. So they seek solutions that are about the business; they respond to methods or demonstrations of how a product or service will serve to enhance their business results. Unlike the technicians, they tend to respond negatively to communications ideas that appear to brag too much about the suppliers’ abilities and achievements. They want to know from the supplier how they will help them achieve their results.
The SAP ad below is a good example of a manager’s ad – it features their client – the Body Shop – and focuses on how SAP has helped the Body Shop to their objectives. The implication of course, is that SAP will do the same for businesses of a similar size. What appeals to the manager here are the implicit values of partnership and good teamwork.
The third type is the leader.
Leaders of large corporations are in their position because they possess an intelligence, vision and intuitiveness about themselves and their business that has helped them rise to the top of the pile. They have a charismatic ability to persuade others to follow them. Assertive and self-confident they are often egotists with controlling tendencies.
Professor Kets de Vries of Insead Business School even talks about stereotypical corporate leaders being narcissistic, emotionally difficult people who are constantly trying to prove themselves after damaging childhood experiences! (Harvard Business Review 2004). Whatever the reason, corporate leaders seek out risk and can even deliberately generate disorder in their own business in their drive to dominate and succeed.
They see achievement as an individual endeavour and see themselves as different from others. In communications, this idea of a man or woman apart, in control and leading the decisions that matter is what will appeal to their intrinsic narcissism.
The IBM ad features a classic representation of the “man in charge”.
The implications for b2b marketing
The challenge for marketing to senior-decision makers is to connect with the right tone of voice to an audience sceptical of your intentions:
· we know that segmentation is important for the individuals in the DMU in order to ensure relevance of the message;
· but we also know that tone of voice and communications style have to be addressed as well, in order to ensure an empathetic connection can take place.
Once the decision-maker appreciates that you understand him/her and you can connect in a way that mirrors their own psychological needs and wants then you can open a dialogue and begin to reduce that scepticism.
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