So can we assume that the buyer is always right?    Has a state of buying nirvana been reached?

If the buyer is always right, then the buyer seemingly operates in a perfect world:

• The buyer is able to identify a business problem and articulate pain points.
• The buyer easily finds online information using precise keywords.
• The buyer’s social network consists of similar and comparable organizations with unbiased opinions.
• The buyer is aware of all solutions that are available and relevant.
• The buyer clearly understands the benefits and drawbacks to each solution and can easily compare one solution to another.
• The pricing of all solutions is transparent and easily compared, even if the solution is  delivered in different flavors by the vendor.
• The buyer makes a decision in the best interest of her/his organization.

If you are a believer in efficient financial markets and that buyers are rational, then you might find the above scenario to be mostly true.

Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at MIT and author of the book “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.” states:  “I became engrossed with the idea that we repeatedly and predictably make the wrong decisions in many aspects of our lives and that research could help change some of these patterns.”

Although Dan focuses his research on consumers, the point is that people bring irrational behavior to buying.

Ask any seasoned sales or marketing professional and their observations on this irrational behavior will include:

• Buyers who are unaware of issues or cannot articulate their needs.    Unable to ask the right question, this buyer finds online information searches to be futile.
• Buyers whose networks provide biased or inappropriate recommendations.
• Buyers who are confused by complex pricing analysis on total cost of ownership that could include services & products, rent vs. own and lease vs. buy.
• Buyers who compromise the buying process due to internal obstacles such as politics, the definition of their role and inadequate time to conduct an evaluation.
• Buyers who make buying decisions based on minimizing their personal risk or to enhance their corporate status.

Despite the boon that the internet has brought to buying, the nature of human behavior results in an imperfect world.

Taking a passive approach will lead to missed opportunities with the buyer who doesn’t know your solution, may have misconceptions or inertia.     We can’t afford to assume that the buyer will find us and be appropriately informed.

Outbound marketing is an integral part of the marketing mix designed to create opportunities with irrational buyers or to find more suitable buyers within an organization.   As much as everyone would like interruption marketing to go away, the irrational buyer needs to be stimulated to consider alternative options.

Related Links

• Use Outbound Marketing to Target these 5 Buyer Types

Photo Credit:  Joetelling

I had met Greg Verdino twice prior to his presentation on leveraging new technology. I was suitably impressed with his choice of T-shirts and flip flops and wondered what thought leaders like Greg would wear for their presentation.

Greg`s choice of basic black worked well with his dry wit. A super presenter, Greg smoothly presented complex technologies in easy-to-understand choice phrases.

With a generation reared on social networks and online gaming, there are a host of technologies that businesses should explore to collaborate, communicate and build their business.

There were some interesting examples of B2B companies that were using new media. CDW, a reseller of technology products, offers a social network to its clients and uses this as an advisory board.

IBM engages prospects with a call, chat or should the prospect wish, a meeting in a virtual world.

Deloitte offers a deep selection of content through blogs and podcasts. In pursuing a thought leadership strategy, Deloitte has `greased the skids` by giving away valuable information.

Greg gave an example of how he leveraged his social networks including LinkedIn to prepare a presentation for Cisco. Senior marketers from IBM, Forrester and SAP came forth with suggestions.

Greg believes that knowledge is a commodity and connections are the differentiators. New ideas are often created when linked two existing ideas.

Unlocking Customer Behavior…How to Understand and Profit from Predictably Irrational Customers

The keynote was given by Dan Ariely, Alfred P. Sloan Profession of Behavioral Economics at MIT, Author of best-selling book Predictably Irrational.

Dan delivered a slam-dunk of a keynote drawing numerous examples of how we make irrational decisions.

Dan`s research indicates that we are susceptible to irrational behaviour and that our intuitions on behaviors are often wrong.

Dan made a very strong case for marketers to test. Marketers must conduct experiments rather than rely on our intuition. He added that it is only natural for a marketer to give an offer to everybody if the original offer worked.