The internet has forever altered the leverage of business-to-business (and retail) decision-making for the customer. This article primarily focuses on the industrial buyer, which has a more complex relationship than the one-to-one purchasing relationship with retail prospects.

Purchasing decisions at the industrial corporation level are often a consensus among C-level executives, managers, purchasing, and employees on the shop floor. To further complicate matters, an administrator often does the research involved in identifying vendors for review.

To attract right fit customers, you need to consider your ideal customer persona:

• Where are they? (Geo)
• What need do they have that you can capably solve? (Need)
• What size company can you capably serve? (Right Fit)
• Who is in charge of purchasing decisions? (Targeting Titles)
• How would they benefit from your product or service? (Value)

Think in terms of long-term customers and recurring revenue as opposed to one-off projects. This provides the opportunity to learn about your clients and offer salient advice and products to help their business over time. All customers are not created equal. A single project isn’t nearly as valuable as recurring customers providing lifetime value (LTV).

Once this is done, use narrow messaging and content creation to focus on a specific customer. A simple way to do this is to create a brief, unique value proposition that is laser-focused on the ideal customer persona. No longer than three sentences, this statement should capture today’s short attention spans and compel the reader to action.

There is no shortage of prospects out there for any industry. The key is to attract them with a focus to serve, not simply to sell. By defining the best-fit companies for your unique service offering, you multiply your chance for success once you receive an inquiry. Furthermore, by the time they contact you, the prospect has already traveled along the purchasing curve, nudged closer to buying after reviewing your website and published content.

For more industrial marketing tips and tactics, visit IndustrialMarketingExperts.com.

Written by Woody Stoudemire

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