Mimi Turner and Jann Martin Schwarz share research on ‘hidden buyers’ within Enterprise buying groups. These are the process experts within an organization, such as those in purchasing, finance, and legal. The research reveals that these hidden buyers hold nearly equal decision-making power as the product expert (or target buyer) on the buying committee. However, unlike the product expert, hidden buyers don’t engage in research and have little interest in the product itself. What do they care about? Brand familiarity and risk. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/real-job-b2b-marketing-give-buyer-group-permission-agree-schwarz-idyke/?trackingId=xXY5cgvTQY%2B3sd%2BFRfjG1w%3D%3D 𝗠𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲: There are two key takeaways for CEOs from this research: - Ensure your marketing team is building brand familiarity. - When involved in the sales process, the CEO doesn't need to be the product expert but should be prepared to assuage concerns around risk. Joe Daniels ✌️ highlights a concept he calls Difference Degradation, which suggests that over time, external pressures cause all SaaS companies to lose differentiation, leading to a scenario where all companies are competing in the same space. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/uptojoegood_b2b-saas-paradox-activity-7231608424520667136-UZ-J?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop 𝗠𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲: When companies lack differentiation, the largest company with the most resources and awareness will ultimately win. We often see our challenger brand clients trying to catch up by reaching feature parity. However, a smarter strategy is to focus on being the best in a specific area. 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆: - If you just reach feature parity, you are now competing directly with a larger competitor who has more resources and awareness. You will lose. - Because they have more resources, your larger competitor likely has better functionality, even if you offer the same features. - The exit strategy for challenger brands is often acquisition by the market leader. Superior functionality in a specific area is much more attractive than subpar functionality across all areas.