Hey, B2B Client, your customer isn’t a person, it’s an interdependent network!

When you understand how the various roles that make up your customer's ecosystem relate to each other, you can create marketing strategies that have higher return potential.

In Part 1 of our Intro to Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) series, we learned that JTBD isn’t all that concerned about demographic customer data. Instead, JTBD is focused on what your customers are trying to accomplish, what “job” they need to get done. 

Here in Part 2, we learn that your “customer” is:

• Highly shaped by their business environment
• Often comprised of two roles, not just one

We’ll discuss what that environment is made of and what two roles define the customer that you need to win over.

Your Customer’s World is Made of 3 Groups

Now, stay with us on this. At first, it seems overly complicated, but when you consider your two-part objective, “Who exactly is the customer, and what exactly are they trying to achieve,” it all makes sense.
We encourage you to map out your Customer World. Your “map” will certainly differ from this example, but when you’re done, you’ll find it enlightening. Why? Because it’ll help you identify the most important roles and their transactions, leading to insights to drive your marketing and innovation efforts.

1: The Market

In the center of it all is The Market, made up of the roles you must first convince and then sell to. In most B2B marketing situations, The Market has 2 roles that may or may not be fulfilled by the same person:

• The Tactical Buyer is usually the person responsible for finding a solution to a specific problem but who lacks the authority to make the purchase. 

• The Decision Maker is empowered to approve the Tactical Buyer’s recommendation.

Your organization might refer to this Tactical Buyer as a “gatekeeper” or a “first-line contact.” This role conducts searches, responds to initial sales calls, etc. Your frustration is often, “How can I get past this person and go directly to the Decision Maker?” In many instances, you can’t. If you don’t win with the Tactical Buyer, your “market” is closed.

How do you more consistently win with the Tactical Buyer? You need to understand their Domain.

2: The Market Domain

The Market Domain includes our previously-defined Market, plus one more group, the Product Lifecycle Support Team. 

Consider your customer’s product or service. Now consider the professional roles that provide “service after the sale.” Which roles in your customer’s world perform the following:

• Set up or prepare the product or service to be implemented
• Install the product or train others how to use it
• Maintain or repair the product
• Store or archive the product or the output of the product
• Dispose or recycle the product or the output of the product

When you understand how your Market engages with their Domain, you understand what pressures they’re under, what they want to avoid, and how it colors what they want to achieve.

3: The Ecosystem

The outer layer of roles that define your customer’s world is The Ecosystem. These are supplementary or support roles without which your Market couldn’t exist. They fulfill such functions as: 

• Providing raw materials for manufacturing
• Supplying equipment
• Supplying parts
• Manufacturing 
• Distributing the finished product
• Maintaining the product or administering the service
• And finally — the End User

Your Market has a transactional relationship with each of the roles in the Ecosystem that shape their “job to be done.” Your research task is to learn how your Market views and values these interactions. (Hint: Map it out visually!)

About the Author:

Sam Lowe conducts research to help build full-featured road maps and strategies for BS LLC clients ranging from hospitality to healthcare and manufacturing to high tech. He’s also delightfully addicted to 2-wheeled vehicles, classical music, and fine teas.