When B2B marketers set out to develop marketing content, they often focus on the benefits or results their customers can achieve by using their solution. Hopefully, more than they focus on the product itself. With longer, complex buying cycles you need lots of different content to answer the wide variety of informational needs for both decision makers and influencers.

One type of content often overlooked is content focused on past experiences that have become "anchors" that color your buyers assumptions about solving their problem. Those "anchors" of past experience are often subconscious for the buyer and related to gut instinct.

Past experiences internalized to the extent of gut instinct are usually the bad ones. You know, the ones where you make deals with the devil if the project will just work out. In exchange, you promise to NEVER, EVER make that same choice again. Those are the kinds of things that stick with you.

What gets internalized as the "anchor" for a specific gut instinct can be either emotional or rational. In order to address past experience with your content you need to look to potential points of failure almost experienced by your customers.

Think about this as the flip side of customer success stories for just a minute and stick with me.

Complex sales have a variety of obstacles to overcome. Some of them include:

  • Complexity (got you on that one, I know)
  • Risk - both professionally and personally
  • Change - usually pretty major

The result of these can stall the buying process in its tracks. And you can say over, and over, again how successful you are in implementing your solutions or tout your customers' successes until the cows come home, but these buyers' gut instincts will win.

To get beyond that gut instinct, you need to address it head on. In order to do this you'll need to do some research and learn about all the potential points of failure your customers were worried they'd experience during their projects.

  • Start by looking closely at the objections your salespeople are hearing. Try to deduce what's behind them—emotional or rational concerns.

  • Talk to your project/account managers and find out what kinds of fires they've had to put out during implementations.

  • Ask your customers what concerns they had during their projects.

  • Don't forget to include your customer service reps. They likely deal with problem resolution more than anyone else in your company.

Once you've gathered all your potential points-of-failure intelligence, take a good hard look at your buyer personas and create stories that address their concerns as personally as possible. Make sure you do this thoughtfully.

Pay appropriate attention to the concern and be humble about addressing how you help your customers' avoid it. But also let your expertise shine through. This can also serve to increase the buyers' perception of the value add choosing your company can bring.

The purpose of addressing your buyers' gut instinct is to restore their confidence in their ability to choose wisely. [Obviously with your company as that choice.]

Purchasing a complex product is risky. Despite best intentions, implementations can be time intensive and messy. Companies have high expectations about the outcomes they'll be able to achieve with that large capital outlay. Your buyer has to make sure their choice lives up to those expectations. If they've been burned before, making sure you quell their gut instinct  is critical to getting them to take the next step in the buying process.

This type of content is best used later in the buying process. Depending on your buyers, it could be best employed by salespeople in one-on-one situations. Work closely with your sales team to discover where in the buying process gut instinct content will help pull the buyer forward.

And do not overlook that the person with the gut instinct that can hold up a purchase decision could be an influencer. This is why it's important to know and engage as many members of the buying committee as possible.

By taking the time to address issues that could be anchors for your buyers' gut instincts, you have a better shot at enticing your buyer to move beyond them. And you'll garner a lot more respect than competitors who only present the rose-colored glasses view of solving the problem.

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