Let me guess. Your website has a page called “Features.” It has a grid of little icons. Each icon has two words under it, like “Real-Time Analytics” or “Seamless Integration” or “Enterprise-Grade Security.” Somebody spent a week picking those icons.
Nobody reads that page. Okay, your competitors read it. Your investors skimmed it once. Your actual buyers? They scroll past it like it’s the terms and conditions.
It’s not because features don’t matter. It’s because features are your language, not theirs. You built the thing, so you’re proud of every button. Your buyer just wants to know if their life gets better.
What buyers actually care about
After a lot of years in B2B marketing, I’m convinced almost every buyer is asking themselves three questions. Not out loud, but they’re asking.
1. “Will this fix my problem?” Not “is this impressive.” Will it fix the specific thing keeping them up at night? If you don’t name that problem in their words, they don’t believe you understand it.
2. “Will this make me look good?” This one’s huge and nobody talks about it. In B2B, somebody has to champion your product inside their company. If it works, they’re a hero. If it flops, it’s their name on the purchase order. They’re buying career safety as much as software.
3. “Is this going to be a pain?” How long to set up? Will my team actually use it? Am I going to be on the phone with support every week? Every buyer has been burned before. They’re looking for reasons you’ll be easy.
Now look at your features grid again. How many of those icons answer one of those three questions? Yeah. I thought so.
Turn features into something people care about
You don’t have to delete your features. You have to translate them. Take every feature and finish this sentence: “…which means you…”
- “Real-time analytics” which means you catch a problem on Tuesday instead of finding out at the end of the month.
- “Seamless integration” which means you don’t have to beg IT for three months to get it running.
- “Enterprise-grade security” which means you don’t get the blame when the security team reviews it.
The part after “which means you” is your marketing. The part before it is the proof.
The 5-question customer interview
Here’s the catch: you can’t guess your way to this. You have to ask. And no, asking your team doesn’t count. (Neither do your friends. We’ve covered that.)
Pick five recent customers, ideally ones who bought in the last six months while they still remember why. Get 20 minutes on the phone. Ask these, then shut up and listen:
- What was going on that made you start looking for something like us? (This is the real problem, in their words.)
- What else did you look at, including doing nothing? (This is your real competition. It’s often a spreadsheet.)
- What almost stopped you from buying? (These are the objections your marketing should be answering.)
- How did you explain us to your boss? (This is your best one-sentence pitch, and they already wrote it for you.)
- What’s different now that you’re using it? (This is your outcome. Put it on your homepage.)
Record the calls (with permission) and write down the exact phrases people use. When three out of five customers use the same words, those words go on your website. Not your words. Theirs.
Your customers don’t care about your features, the same way they don’t care about your logo. They care about themselves. The good news? That’s the easiest thing in the world to market, once you finally ask.
