Cracking the B2B Code: Using UX Methods to Understand Your Buyer Experience

When it comes to crafting the perfect product, there’s a key distinction that can make or break your success: understanding the difference between buyers and users.

Sometimes, these roles overlap and the same person buys and uses your product. But often, especially in more complex environments, buyers are the folks making the purchasing decisions, driven by budget constraints, organizational needs, or strategic goals.

‍Users are the ones who interact with the product daily, forming opinions through hands-on experience. This dynamic can lead to a mismatch in expectations and satisfaction if not carefully managed.

This is how you can use UX methods to bridge that gap, helping you create a product that users want to use and buyers want to buy.‍

As a human-centered product design studio, we’re always thinking of our users, but we also know that buyers are equally important; they make decisions about your product at their company, they have problems that your product can solve, and they are the ones that drive revenue to your organization. 

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Understanding your buyer improves:

Target Marketing

‍When you know what makes your buyers tick, you can craft messages that hit all the right notes with your value props and messaging, surfaced in places where your ideal buyer is spending time.

The result: Improved marketing ROI by investing in the right channels, with the right messaging. You know where your buyers spend their time (online and IRL!) so you can target accordingly.

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Sales Strategies

‍Insight into your buyers' needs and pain points means you can tailor your sales pitch to be more compelling.

The result: A simplified sales cycle to improve deal control and conversion rates. Know exactly what resonates with each of your buyers: what their pains and motivations are, what their buying process is like, who within the organization is involved in the decision-making process, and how they view your product in relation to the competition. 

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Enhanced Product Development

‍In a lot of cases, product features aren't important to buyers—the results your product drives are what buyers care about.

When you align your product to the KPIs that matter most to them, you can create a product that sells itself AND marries buyer needs with user goals.

The result: Inform your product strategy and roadmap prioritization by folding in the buyer's perspective. Know how your product drives the buyers’ company goals and how it contributes to their organization's strategy. Know what problem your product solves for buyers and how it could solve even more. 

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Three UX methods to understand your buyers.

How do you apply UX methods to get to know these buyers? We recommend 3 key methods:

1. Buyer Personas + Messaging via Research

Just like user personas, but with a twist. Buyer personas should capture the buyers’ motivations, challenges, and goals. Ask your buyers why they choose your product over others, what problems they’re trying to solve, and what their dream solution looks like.

From these personas, you can start to build messaging frameworks to attract and retain your ideal buyers.

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2. Customer Buyer Journey Mapping

‍Map out the entire buying process from your buyer's perspective. Identify the touchpoints where they interact with you, see where you can make their journey smoother, and remove unnecessary friction to make buying from you as easy as possible.

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3. Analytics and Feedback

Use sales analytics to spot trends and feedback to understand what your buyers love or loathe, and what’s working (or not) with your sales process. Use data to augment other research so you're armed with the insights needed to make informed strategic decisions, like  where to invest in your sales or marketing efforts. 

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Making the connection.

When you understand your buyers as deeply as your users, you create a harmonious blend that drives business So, put on your UX hat (maybe even a detective’s hat if that helps), and start getting to know your buyers!

Looking for support? ZoCo is always here to help! Contact us to learn more.

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What's next?

Have a project you’re working on and need some support? Reach out to us.

Do you just want to chat about product, UX, research, process, and methodologies? We’re down for that too. Let's chat.

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