Paul’s Perspective:
Most mid-market B2B teams still market to an abstract “account” while the actual decision is made by a handful of individuals optimizing for career risk, time, and certainty. The business-to-person lens forces a more realistic view of how deals move: people buy, committees compromise.
The tradeoff is focus. You can’t personalize everything for everyone, so leaders need to choose which roles and scenarios matter most, then operationalize a repeatable playbook across channels.
Done well, this approach improves conversion rates and sales velocity because it reduces the hidden friction that comes from generic messaging: unclear outcomes, missing proof, and content that doesn’t match the buyer’s moment.
Key Points in Article:
- Shift from “company-level targeting” to “person-level relevance”: focus on individual jobs-to-be-done, internal incentives, and perceived risk, not just firmographics.
- Map content and outreach to the buying committee by role (economic buyer, champion, technical evaluator, procurement) with distinct objections, success metrics, and proof.
- Use specific credibility assets per persona—ROI models for finance, implementation plans for ops/IT, and customer stories for champions—to reduce decision friction.
- Tighten sales–marketing handoffs with shared definitions for MQL/SQL and a role-based nurture sequence to prevent leads from stalling after initial interest.
Strategic Actions:
- Identify the key roles involved in your typical purchase (not just the target account).
- Document each role’s goals, anxieties, and decision criteria in plain language.
- Define role-specific value propositions and proof points (metrics, case studies, references, demos).
- Build a simple journey map by role and buying stage to match messages to moments.
- Standardize persona-based offers and CTAs across web, email, ads, and sales outreach.
- Align marketing and sales on lead definitions, routing rules, and follow-up SLAs.
- Measure performance by persona and stage, then refine messaging and assets based on conversion gaps.
Dive deeper > Full Story:
The Bottom Line:
- B2B buyers expect the same relevance and empathy they get as consumers, so generic messaging is now a growth constraint.
- Align campaigns to real roles and moments by standardizing persona-based offers, proof points, and follow-up across sales and marketing.
Ready to Explore More?
If you want to make your B2B marketing feel more relevant without making it chaotic, we can help you tighten personas, offers, and sales follow-up into a simple, repeatable system. Reply if you’d like to talk through where leads stall and what to standardize first.