Tom Walker

Ways to Get to Know Your Customer in Business-to-

Business (B2B)

Sales

We call it business-to-business, but at the

end of the day, there’s always a human being at the other end of every B2B sale.

That person—the human who is actually

going to be using the product or service

that you sell—is your customer.

While no entrepreneur or company has the resources to

get to know every single

customer personally, the best entrepreneurs roll up

their sleeves, pick up the phone, and figure out ways to

get to know some of them.

Imagine a prototype of the

ideal person to

use your

solution.

What jobs are they doing in

which companies?

What are their hours?

What kind of education do

they have?

Who do they report to? (Hint:

These people are not the C-

level managers of the

business.)

Figure out ways to

connect with six

or eight of these

individuals face-

to-face.

The goal of these conversations

is to make sure you understand

the problem. You can bet you

don’t have it even 70 percent

right.

Remember that you

came to ask

questions and listen to answers,

not to talk about

how wonderful

your solution is

going to be.

You can’t walk just walk into Boeing

and ask to meet with someone working

on the production line, but you likely

know people and have connections—

through business, school, sports, or

other social activities, or social media.

Consider a Facebook or LinkedIn post.

“Is there a design engineer out there

who will tell me first-hand how having a

stronger lighter material than steel

could improve her prototype?”

Seek out the people who are

doing the jobs today and that your solution will improve tomorrow—

not the jobs that

might disappear.

Companies implement new

products and services because

there are tangible benefits.

Innovation creates jobs in

startups. Innovation changes

the way work is done and

sometimes causes jobs to be

eliminated.

relationships.

Companies implement new

products and services because

there are tangible benefits.

Innovation creates jobs in

startups. Innovation changes

the way work is done and

sometimes causes jobs to be

eliminated.

People like to be on the ground floor

of something new. They like to help

“the little guy or gal” succeed. Your

company will need early adopters.

One or more of these early contacts

could become the champion that

helps you gain a foothold in a

department or a company. If you’ve

ever been anyone’s “first customer”

you know how enduring that

connection can be.

Companies aren’t customers. People are. Some of the most effective investor

presentations we’ve ever seen were

those where the entrepreneurs

described what they learned by talking to real people doing real work.