What makes a B2B brand impact your choice of whether or not to do business with a company?
According to Geoffrey Moore, "[brand value] has virtually no relevance to B2B complex systems enterprises." He also says, "Customer intimacy is achieved by face-to-face interactions between representatives of both companies, and buying decisions are made and reviewed by an array of people. By virtue of these differences the impact of brand is dramatically muted."
I agree that in a B2B sale, the brand may be muted, but I do not agree that brand has no relevance. Before you squawk at me, let me give you something to consider.
B2B buyers are looking to solve problems they cannot solve on their own or, usually, from within their organizations. The solution to the issues they are dealing with often have impact beyond the immediate boundaries of that problem. Additionally, B2B buyers are usually a group of people, not just one person. Each of these people has different wants/needs tied to solving the issue. By the very nature of a brand, it cannot be all things to all people.
So what is more effective to consider is your organization's contribution to strategic thinking, the experience the buyer(group) has with your organization and the quality of those interactions. These need to extend beyond the "solution" your company is offering to consider the points beyond the initial impact. That's what's going to close the deal-- Demonstrating your understanding of the client's unique situation and the roll-out effect of the solution. Showing, clearly, how the impact of the combination of the proposed solution and the thinking that goes to process and people will help them achieve the value/outcome they seek.
A B2B brand comes into play at the beginning and the end of this chain. In the beginning, awareness can help get your company onto the consideration list. In the end the reputation of your brand can be the final swaying factor that helps you beat your competitors. But, in the middle of the process, you need more than brand to pull it off. The complexity alone says that brand has to put its money where its logo is by providing the interactions that deliver on your brand's promise.
Here are some interesting related posts to help extend your thinking:
B2B Branding - Why Branding Matters in B2B Marketing is a post written by Jon Miller. This is part 1 of a series he'll be writing, and takes a good look at B2B buyers as people too. He talks about the avoidance of negative emotions involved and conscious/subconscious reactions. It is worth the read. (Thanks, Jon, for the link to Geoff Moore)
Another post that relates to the impact of strategic thinking is Adele Revella's post, Persona experts have focus, that's all, which talks about creating internal ad hoc personas within marketing in order to gain "deep insight into the motivations, preferences and influences that drive decisions within your target audiences." Which goes back to the importance of creating customer interactions with impact. If you've considered using personas to ramp the effectiveness of your marketing interactions, make sure to read her insights about taking the sales view as gospel.
To wrap it up, brand is an important component of the sale, but not on its own. A B2B complex sale will require much more than brand to close the deal. It's simply a tool in the marketing and sales arsenal that needs attention. But don't discount experiences that demonstrate the contribution your company makes through strategic thinking, interactions that deliver satisfying knowledge transfer or the benefit of personas.
In fact, those three things should be so well done and pervasive throughout your selling process that they, in fact, become part of your brand.