We often speak to B2B organizations doing niche work in creative areas. These are organizations that have developed deep expertise in a specific field: UX/UI, Animation, Creative agencies, Media houses etc.

While talking about their B2B demand generation efforts & the sales funnel thereafter, there’s one thing that we hear repeatedly about.

“ We can add a lot of value to our prospective clients. But a lot of them don’t realise the value of good design ( good content, good UX etc.). In cases where they do appreciate design, our deals move fast and clients understand the premium we charge. If the client doesn’t appreciate good design, we don’t stand much of a chance “

How does one make B2B buyers care about great design?

Here’s the hard truth about B2B sales. In most organizations, the buying process is a tough one with multiple checkpoints and gatekeepers.

Your internal champion ( the person pushing for the purchase, usually the user) isn’t the only decision maker. She has to jump through multiple hoops justifying every incremental rupee ( or dollar) that she’s asking for. Good design, great UX by themselves are not going to help her push the deal through the buying committee.

A CFO or purchasing head approving budgets might as well appreciate good design personally ( He might even be using an iPhone). But when it comes to buying for the organization, he is duty bound to assess the true value of good design. Unless great design has a demonstrable and measurable business benefit, most financial buyers will go for a cheaper alternative to optimize their resources.

One needs to contextualize the value of good design for the business buyer. And this needs to happen throughout the buying journey and most importantly in your B2B demand generation communication.

If you are suggesting a new UX, you need to contextualize it in terms of what it could mean for user retention, conversion, customer satisfaction or any other other business metrics that it might impact. You might not be in a position to predict how these metrics would move. And that’s understandable. But you need to provide social proof by showcasing some previous work and indicate how the superior design has helped improve business metrics.

So coming back to : How does one make B2B buyers care about great design?

One can’t, at least not at scale. You need to start caring about how their problems & metrics can be improved by great design. Harping on just good design & aesthetics will only get you through a few early adopters. If you want to go further, improvement in business metrics has to be the most important slide in your deck.