All B2B Marketing is B2C. Here’s what it means for your pricing strategy
Emotional Triggers Often Matter more than ROI. You need to build your customer Emotional ROI as well as Financial ROI
TL:DR Takeaways:
B2B buyers make personal decisions, not just business ones
Risk aversion drives decisions 2x more than potential gains
Your champion's career concerns often trump your ROI calculations
Five practical ways to address both business and personal risk
A Quick History Lesson
Thirty years ago, P&G coined "First Moment of Truth" (FMOT) – that critical moment when a shopper decides at the shelf. It revolutionized retail marketing.
Today's FMOT happens in search results and AI responses. Smart move – get in front of buyers when they're actively looking, right? Self-discovery is increasingly important for B2B sales. Keep doing that.
But here's what hasn't changed: behind every enterprise decision is a person worried about their job.
The Two Things That Really Matter
1. You're convincing a person, not a company
The decision isn't purely rational. It rarely is. You need to appeal to your internal champion, user, or procurement manager as a human being.
2. Risk is everything in enterprise buying
That's why big companies have multiple stakeholders, approvals, and processes. They're managing risk.
Your buyer isn't making a financial decision. They're making a risk-reward calculation:
Will this make me look smart or stupid?
Does this make my life easier or harder?
Will this help me get promoted?
Can these guys get me tickets/dinners/goodies? (yes, this matters)
Are my peers using this? (belonging matters too)
It's a challenging time. The workforce is changing. AI threatens job security. Who wants more risk in their life?
What Risk Really Looks Like
According to Nobel Prize-winning Prospect Theory, the fear of a bad decision is twice as powerful as excitement about gains. Think about what that means for your sales process.
Five types of business risk you're creating:
Financial risk (what if we don't see ROI?)
Product risk (what if it doesn't work?)
Service risk (what if support disappears?)
Psychological risk (what if I regret this?)
Privacy risk (what if our data gets compromised?)
But those are just the business risks. The personal ones matter more.
What keeps your buyers up at night (personally):
Did I make a good decision?
Will this make me look good?
Are you a risk to me personally?
How will you help my career?
Do you make my life easier or harder?
Building Emotional ROI: Five Practical Tools
Here are some ways you can adjust your go to market and customer relationship to build Emotional ROI in parallel with Financial ROI.
1. Practice Empathy
Spend time understanding your customer personally. What are their pain points? What keeps them up at night? How can you reduce their stress?
2. Build Trust
Your brand matters. People need to like and trust you. This isn't fluffy – it's fundamental.
3. Create Belonging
Build a community. When champions see peers succeeding, their perceived risk drops significantly.
4. Enable Personal Success
Look beyond business KPIs. How can you help them hit personal goals? Career advancement? Work-life balance? Document and deliver on these.
5. Systematically Lower Risk
Smart companies are restructuring deals:
Usage-based pricing that scales with value
Money-back guarantees
Quick-win pilot programs
Protection for your champion
The Bottom Line
Your buyer's job security beats your ROI every time. In 2025, with AI reshaping everything and job security feeling fragile, asking someone to champion your solution means asking them to bet their career on you.
Success isn't about having the best product. It's about being the safest career choice.
What personal risks have you seen kill deals that looked perfect on paper? I'd love to hear your experiences.
We help B2B software and data companies grow faster by aligning pricing and go-to-market with measurable customer ROI. Email me: michael@hg-partners.com for a free value scan.