Personality Science: The Next Evolution in Committee Selling
As a team of marketers who have spent years crafting B2B marketing strategies, we've observed how sophisticated marketers have become at targeting buying committees. We understand that the CFO needs different benefits messaging than the CTO, and the end-user needs different reassurance than the procurement team. But there's a deeper layer of personalisation that the marketing sector is missing.
The Evolution of Committee Selling
Today's B2B buying committees are larger and more complex than ever. Gartner's research shows we're now dealing with an average of 11 stakeholders per purchase decision – up from 7 in 2017. Other reports suggest that figure could be higher, especially for higher ticket purchases. This makes the challenge of relevance exponentially more difficult.
Beyond Traditional Persona Marketing
While we've mastered delivering different benefits to different functions, we're often overlooking a crucial element: the way we communicate those benefits. It's not just what we say, but how we say it that drives engagement.
The Personality Factor
This is where the OCEAN (Open, Conscientious, Extrovert, Agreeable, Neurotic) personality model offers fascinating insights. While it might be tempting to assume all finance professionals are highly conscientious or all innovation officers are high in openness, the reality is more nuanced. These personality traits cut across functional roles in surprising ways.
Through our work with various buying committees, we've seen how the same role can be filled by people with vastly different personality profiles. A CFO might be highly open to innovation, while a technology leader might be primarily driven by security and stability.
The Double-Layer Approach
The most effective B2B marketing strategies now operate on two layers:
Traditional role-based benefit messaging
Personality-optimised communication styles
For instance, when sharing ROI data to finance stakeholders, we might create multiple versions:
A detailed, methodical analysis for conscientious personalities
A big-picture, opportunity-focused narrative for those high in openness
A relationship and consensus-based approach for agreeable personalities
The Impact on Decision-Making
McKinsey reports that 70% of B2B decision-makers are now open to making fully self-serve purchases over $50,000. This shift makes personality-aware content even more crucial, as we're not just supporting sales conversations – we're often driving decisions directly.
Implementation in Practice
The key is to avoid rigid assumptions. While we can make educated guesses about personality types based on roles, the most effective approach is to create content that speaks to different personality types within each functional area. This allows stakeholders to naturally gravitate toward the communication style that resonates with them.
Moving Forward
As B2B buying committees continue to evolve, our approach to engaging them must keep pace. By layering personality-based communication strategies over traditional role-based messaging, we can create content that not only addresses the right benefits but delivers them in the most compelling way for each stakeholder.
The future of B2B marketing lies not just in what we say to each committee member, but in how we say it.