What B2B Buyers Really Care About

Eric Almquist

Jamie Cleghorn

Lori Sherer

<article-ideainbrief class="article-ideainbrief">
 <h4 class="ideainbrief-title">In Brief</h4>
 <div class="ideainbrief-contents">
  <h5>The Challenge</h5>
  <p>As B2B offerings become ever more commoditized, the subjective, sometimes quite personal considerations that business customers bring to purchasing decisions are increasingly important.</p>
  <h5>The Critical Insight</h5>
  <p>Understanding the full range of rational and emotional factors in business purchases—and tailoring value propositions accordingly—can help firms avoid the commodity trap.</p>
  <h5>The New Approach</h5>
  <p>Evaluate how products and services stack up on 36 discrete sources of value that research has shown matter to B2B buyers. Thoughtfully incorporate the ones that determine loyalty into offerings.</p>
 </div>
</article-ideainbrief><p>It’s Saturday, and a chief operating officer who last week negotiated a multimillion-dollar deal for a fleet of vehicles for her company is feeling pretty good. To reward herself, she’s shopping for a convertible sports car to enjoy on weekends. Surely the price-value calculation she makes for a fun personal purchase is different from the one she made when negotiating at work, right?</p>

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<p>As B2B offerings become more commoditized, the subjective, sometimes quite personal considerations of business customers are increasingly important in purchases. To discover what matters most to B2B buyers, the consulting firm Bain analyzed scores of quantitative and qualitative customer studies. All told, it identified 40 discrete &#8220;elements of value,&#8221; which fall into five categories: table stakes, functional, ease of doing business, individual, and inspirational. The elements range from strictly objective&#8212;those related to pricing and specifications, for example&#8212;to more subjective ones, such as reducing the buyer&#8217;s anxiety and enhancing his or her reputation. Understanding this full range of rational and emotional considerations, and tailoring the value proposition to the ones customers prize most, is critical to avoiding the commodity trap.</p>

The B2B Elements of Value

As B2B offerings become more commoditized, the subjective, sometimes quite personal considerations of business customers are increasingly important in purchases. To discover what matters most to B2B buyers, the consulting firm Bain analyzed scores of quantitative and qualitative customer studies. All told, it identified 40 discrete “elements of value,” which fall into five categories: table stakes, functional, ease of doing business, individual, and inspirational. The elements range from strictly objective—those related to pricing and specifications, for example—to more subjective ones, such as reducing the buyer’s anxiety and enhancing his or her reputation. Understanding this full range of rational and emotional considerations, and tailoring the value proposition to the ones customers prize most, is critical to avoiding the commodity trap.

The B2B Elements of Value

Summary.

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