Fear: The hidden motivator in B2B buying decisions

Are your B2B customers hungry for new and innovative products and services? Or are they driven by the desire to minimize risk?

A survey of 3,600 B2B buyers by Mediative (formerly Enquiro) sheds some light on these compelling questions. The study found that during one quarter of sales, 78% of the purchases were either repeat purchasers, or repeat purchases that were modified. Only 22% were made with new vendors. These findings confirm our suspicions that many B2B buying decisions are motivated by fear. It is clear that a primary B2B purchasing goal is reducing or eliminating risk – both organizational and personal. Buying from known entities always seems safer than changing to new ones.

This bias has profound implications for new customer acquisition campaigns. Attempting to eliminate this powerful emotion should play an important role in both the positioning of your brand and in the content that drives demand creation programs.

Highlight the proven nature of your offering in marketing content. Feature reference customers and clients in case studies and on Web sites. And use PR tactics to publicly announce new contracts and orders. Social media channels can be particularly effective in enabling prospects to verify and validate the effectiveness of your products and services.

Creating relationships with new B2B customers is a difficult task. Recognizing how to remove risk from the purchase is an important marketing strategy that will pay valuable dividends in new customer acquisition.