Understanding the Framework of Differentiate, Defensible and Translatable in B2B Buyer Journeys

The vast majority of vendor selection analysis in B2B SaaS or technology is done well before the buyer makes contact. This is true of a company with one seller or one thousand sellers. It is just the nature of technical decision makers.

Want evidence? In a recent survey, 74% of business buyers told Forrester they conduct more than half of their research online before making an offline purchase.

B2B buyers follow a consistent pattern when making purchase decisions. They spend 70% of their buying journey doing their own research before talking to vendors. 

It doesn’t matter how important the purchase is, how expensive, what industry they’re in, the seniority of the people on the buying team … None of it makes much difference.

Some research suggests an even greater % of research is done prior to vendor discussions. LinkedIn estimates 90 percent of the B2B buyer journey is complete before a buyer reaches out to a salesperson. This journey is happening mostly in digital channels—but not entirely.

There is a simple framework to deal with this phenomena and that is the differentiate, defensible, translatable framework. Here is how it works:

1. Differentiation - Simply put, what makes you different? Really makes you different. Not what you THINK makes you different, what the buyer will UNDERSTAND as different. This difference can be price, performance, technical superiority, support, philosophy (open source, software-defined etc), ease of use (think Wiz). Spend time on this. Challenge your thinking. Ask others to challenge your thinking. Test your ideas (if you aren’t using Wynter, you need to be). You really have to stand alone here. Why? Because you are going to have to defend it.
   

2. Defensibility - Differentiation without defensibility is simply a claim. Buyers, even unsophisticated ones, will see right through it and will keep moving. You claim to be the fastest in the market. Prove it. You claim to be the most cost effective? Prove it. Have the best support? Prove it. In order that would require a. repeatable benchmarks b. pricing calculator(s) c. customer testimonials. If your differentiation is not provably defensible it is not a differentiation. Here again, test your proof points against your actual buyers. This is why you have customer councils. This is why you have tools like Wynter. Your opinion is just that, your opinion. Don’t fall victim to ego-centric distribution error. Don’t fall victim to founder bias.
   

3. Translatable - Your defensible differentiation needs to be broad enough and consumable enough to reach the largest possible audience. If your differentiation is so narrow, so difficult to grasp that only a fraction of a fraction of the buyer pool can understand it, then that is a problem. Conversely, something that is too broad is also a problem. Find the middle ground.

Now put it into play. You can start small and validate further with some quick A/B testing. The goal, however, should be to build confidence and then put wood behind the arrow. 

The next challenge is to think about the next level of distinction. We will talk about that concept, climbing the ladder, in the next post.

By following this simple approach with the appropriate rigor, B2B buyers will engage more deeply and have, you guessed it, easily translatable takeaways from their research. This ensures they grasp exactly what you need them to.