JTBD: B2B specifics

  • personal goals go first
  • new product new challenges
    • teach, train, hire, fire
    • explore internal kitchen
    • showing useful to the potential customer information in advance 3x increases probability of success
  • personal contact is more important than a product. people perceive familiar people as more reliable so more likely to provide support in the future and so secure the position of a decision maker who buys the product
  • personal jobs is a sales driver - 90% personal goal of a decision maker (promotion, status, job security) and only 10% business goal
    • for decision makes who has higher personal connection to the business goals, like CEOs, the distribution is 50/50 between personal and business goals.
    • Personal goal of decision makers
      • job security - personal contact, remember?
      • status - “I’m better at something”, “Look how cool I’m”
      • fun - “I really like that thing”
      • support in the future and risk mitigation - related to job security
    • insight -an expensive product can be 8x likely to be bought if it is aligned with the decision maker personal goals
  • you need to understand that is the decision making process and who is involved in the process so you know who else you need to talk to.
    • also try to understand that are the decision making criteria so you can focus on meeting those criteria
  • types of people in B2B
    • Decision makers - talk to them first the rest are less important or sometimes irrelevant
    • Budget holders - they can block the decision
      • don’t hesitate to ask about the budget and make sure you understand the process
    • Influencers - people inside (or outside) the company who can influence the decision one way or another. Work with then if you can
    • Recommenders - people who can be asked for their opinion about your product
    • Saboteurs - people who can be strongly against your product - like a decision maker who bought previous solution
  • talk to decision makers first

What to take out of a B2B interview

  • jobs and goals both business and personal
  • problems
  • decision making process, people involved and their roles, evaluation criteria
  • budget - first establish contact with your respondent before asking this question - mid or end of an interview can be a good point to ask

How to find an decision maker

  • work as a team
  • send some that personalized email like “you were recommended to us by …”
    • recommendations from real people work the best
  • ask for people you can talk to
  • bring some value with you
  • LinkedIn is a good place to start