Less Pain, More Gain. Understanding the BuyerSphere Project, Part 1.
Since the publication a few months ago of “The BuyerSphere Project” by Enquiro’s CEO, Gord Hotchkiss, we’ve been working hard to integrate the concepts from the book into everything we do. For example, see Charlotte Bourne’s article on using BuyerSphere insights to inform your content development strategy. As we learn from this experience, I’ll share the journey in this blog, and I look forward to hearing your ideas and experience with applying the ideas.
If you haven’t read the book yet, The BuyerSphere Project investigates how business buys from business in a digital marketplace. Maybe that doesn’t sound like a big deal, and you’re immediately thinking of buzzwords like B2B, funnel, long cycle, enterprise procurement and so on. Well, to make a long story short, after all the research we put into the BuyerSphere Project we found a few things about B2B buying that, frankly, went against the common wisdom.
If there’s only one thing you get from the book it’s summed up in one word: risk. B2B buying behavior, from paper clips to heavy machinery, is influenced by the risk factor. And not just the institutional risk, but also the personal risk factors of all the individuals involved in the purchase process. As we dive deeper into this territory, things get complicated fast.
Chapter One introduces the important concept of mapping the BuyerSphere for your company. The reason you need to create a map is so that you can get a clear external picture of how the buyer views risk as it relates to your business. Once you have a clear map of the terrain between you and the buyer, you’re in a stronger position to plan your sales and marketing approach effectively.
The BuyerSphere has three dimensions: the product, the market, and the buyer. There are questions you need to explore in each of these dimensions that will help your map take shape. In the book, the three dimensions are shown as overlapping circles:
The intersection of the three circles (or spheres) defines your marketplace. But how do you map your company’s BuyerSphere? I have some ideas about that I’ll share with you next time. Until then, you might want to catch up on some of our BuyerSphere webinars and more.
[...] In my previous post about The BuyerSphere Project, I mentioned three overlapping dimensions to consider – the product, the market and the buyer. Let’s focus on two of these , the product and the market. If your company buys the same photocopy paper from the same supplier month after month without a problem, that is an example of a low risk purchase. You know what to expect, you know what it will cost, and no one is going to be putting their personal reputation on the line for picking up the phone and placing a routine order for more paper. [...]