Here’s some hard truth: Some B2B leaders teams think they know their buyer better than they actually do. In Bain & Company's recent study of 362 firms, 80% believed they delivered a superior customer experience. Only 8% of their customers agreed.
The fix is simple, and it isn't more internal debate. It's listening to customers and building positioning against their words, not yours.
Where does the gap come from?
The biggest gaps we see are when teams either work from outdated buyer profiles, or haven’t officially defined profiles at all. While I don’t want to undersell institutional knowledge, it’s critical to maintain up-to-date, accurate and objective buyer profiles so your assumptions don’t set your brand and product positioning on the wrong path. When your words replace your buyers' words. Sales tells one story, customer experience delivers another, and the product team loses the plot.
Why are assumptions so expensive?
Because everything downstream inherits them. Messaging, pricing, product roadmaps and hiring profiles all rest on a picture of the buyer. If that picture is years old or never came from customers, every one of those decisions is a guess. Guessing costs money.
What should we ask at the next leadership meeting?
Who owns the buyer profile?
When did we last update our buyer profiles?
Where are they documented?
When was the last time they were shared company-wide?
Your customers already know your Brand Truth. All you have to do is ask. See how The Offset Method builds on customer insight.
FAQ
How often should we talk to customers about positioning?
Leadership should hear directly from customers every quarter, and every time the business changes: a new product, a new market or a merger.
Isn't our sales team's feedback enough?
It's a start, but sales hears from buyers in the middle of a deal. Lost customers, churned accounts and buyers who never called give you the parts of the story sales doesn't hear.
What should customer research produce?
The exact words customers use to describe the problem you solve and why they chose you. Those words should end up in your positioning.
Sources: Bain & Company, "Closing the Delivery Gap" (2005) (362 firms).
