My Original 8 B2B Marketing Laws for CEOs.

As a founder and/or CEO, you are exposed to too much marketing 'advice'.

I wrote this as a superior foundation for b2b marketing grounded in pure logic.

In physics, there are laws and theories, named after people you’d of course recognize, Newton, Einstein, Kepler, and so forth, where everything is exacting.

In economics, we have these weird things called humans, making the science subject to all the complexities and anomalies of ridiculous human thoughts and behaviors, which are not as easily isolated nor observed as a group of atoms under a microscope.

Those who’ve worked to formalized much of this field, including…

Alfred Marshall (Principles of Economics)
John Adams (The Wealth of Nations).
Frank Knight (Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit).

… all argued that the rules in economics are… less exact.

In marketing? Laws?!

Out of the question.

Well, how about theories?

Even common marketing theories are perpetually disputed.

Yet, you will find significantly more authors, with the very strong incentive to self promote for their own financial gain, who’ve produced significantly more concepts and theories and frameworks and the like, all of which get glorified by newbies, ridiculed by 'experts', renamed into catchier names, proclaimed as their own, overwritten with other anecdotes, and so on.

In marketing, even the more loosely defined bucket of 'theories' are inexact.

So, I thought I'd try to build them with first principles reasoning, and ignore the foundations I'd been taught.

Pure Reasoning, No Anecdotes or Survivorship Bias.

For marketing authors to make all of their self promotions worthwhile (whether their theories are in a formal book format or a daily social posting extravaganza), they must appear as if what they’re doing is phenomenal, which encourages everything in the spectrum from slightly juicing up numbers to claiming unachieved achievements of which never happened.

Worst of all, due to survivorship bias, there are tons of anecdotal success stories which are reliant on a wide array of variables, none of which will match yours, leading you to attempt replications of their success, nearly all of which will not work.

So, it is after a decade or so of…

Firsthand experience running b2b marketing programs.
Executing many successful campaigns, and many that did literally nothing.
Obsessing over the industry, wherever any b2b brand skyrockets or tanks.
Combing through 1000’s of detailed strategies and granular case studies.
A heavy interest in first-principles thinking.

… that I believe I’ve arrived at 8 'laws' of b2b marketing that have yet to be meaningfully broken in my observation.

They’re not quite physics-level laws, as noted above due to the human nuances and the chaos theory that comes with it as described in Jurassic Park, but in the world of social sciences, they’re about as close to gravity as I can find.

Below are these 8 laws, which in order:

Where b2b sales originate from.
Why most potential b2b sales sit in a dormant state.
The force needed for potential sales to be knocked out of dormancy.
How to best guide prospects to your brand, assuming it's not the incumbent.

1. A Problem Must Be Identified.

All b2b sales stem from identifying a problem. If your buyer (or their leadership) doesn’t even register that they have a problem, there’s no quest for a solution.

In fact, trying to sell to someone a solution who doesn’t see the problem in the first place is a bit like telling someone who feels perfectly fine that they need urgent surgery.

Problems most commonly come up organically inside an organization, with little early outside indication that it has been recognized (there’s no 'signal', despite what intent vendors might tell you). You can, however, artificially spark that initial problem awareness with demand creation campaigning to avoid relying solely on catching the demand in their uncontrollable solutions search session later (which, in itself, has very capped potential for challenger brands as opposed to coupling it with demand creation campaigning).

2. The Problem Must Be Prioritized.

Once a problem is recognized, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything will be done about it.

In b2b, decision-makers juggle an absurd number of concurrent problems, all competing for limited budget, resources, and bandwidth. Therefore, a problem typically sits DORMANT, like a 'to do' sticky note, lost in a clutter of other sticky notes, until something catalyzes it to be bumped ahead of other priorities.

So, what is it exactly that bumps a problem to the top of the list?

I believe I’ve found the answer:

If a decision maker is success-driven, then all of their b2b problems are prioritized in an order and magnitude relative to the amount in which he or she believes that its solving will impact their career and career fulfillment positively.
If a decision maker is fear-driven, then conversely, all of their b2b problems are prioritized in an order and magnitude relative to the inverse amount in which they would impact their career negatively. B2b solutions are prioritized in the same way.

The catalyst for prioritization can be potent, resulting in an immediate solution selection in which many steps in the 'funnel' are skipped, for instance, in the case that there is stress inflicted on the decision maker because of this specific problem, which burdens the decision maker day and night.

Alternatively the catalyst for prioritization can also be very weak, with a disbelief in the seriousness of the problem, and therefore little perceived value in a solution.

So, is the problem your product solves important enough to get strongly prioritized?

Is your marketing pressing on the pain points well enough to warrant serious consideration?

3. The Problem Must Not Be Solved Internally.

One of the biggest killers of potential b2b deals is a good ole 'we can do this in-house' mentality. If the problem can be duct-taped over internally, especially in a way that leadership finds 'good enough', they may not feel compelled to look outside or open their wallet.

External solutions have to be so clearly addressing the problematic pain point in a way that is so perfect, cost-effective, or time-saving that they outperform a do-it-ourselves approach, by a VERY large margin, justifying that their internal time is probably best spent on something else.

But for that to work, your product (and the marketing) need to really emphasize the level of hands-off trust they can have with you.

4. The Decision Maker’s Bosses Must Not Override.

A perfectly primed buyer might be ready to pick your product, until their boss swoops in with a heavy insinuation that they really ought to buy Competitor X. Internal politics or hierarchy can override any decision.

This calls into question the idea of decision maker versus key influencer. It’s long been taught that there are key influences on a decision maker, but in some cases, the lines blur, in which the true decision maker can be the person responsible for a given solution or 'job to be done', whereas in other cases, there is some boss, or bosses boss, who can override the decision maker, rendering them as the actual decision maker. Taken to the extreme, the CEO is the decision maker in all cases, but in reality they will be happy with many of the decisions being delegated to head staff, which is often delegated down from there. You just need to be aware of the caveat that the decision can sometimes be reabsorbed by anyone higher up the ladder.

Fact is, you can’t know who the true decision maker is from the outside. Even when a sales person asks, they may lie, or not know that it’s not them, or a number of other possibilities.

From a marketing perspective, this is a good case to target your ICP and up.

5. Past Competitive Solutions Must Not Solve It Well.

It’s extremely common that decision-makers rely on brands they already know or have had positive past experiences with. If they’re already comfortable with some legacy vendor, maybe they had a great run with them at a prior job,they’re going to be biased toward 'the devil they know.'

If someone’s had success with your competitor or has a longstanding relationship, you need a truly compelling reason to switch. This includes not just official 'incumbent' providers but also any competitor with a proven track record in the buyer’s mind.

Otherwise, past experience and brand familiarity wins out.

6. Your Value Proposition Must Outway Risk Aversion.

Incumbent brands or known entities get the lion’s share of the market.

They aren’t just about comfort; they also represent the 'safe bet' that protects the decision-maker if something goes wrong…

'Hey, no one will blame me for choosing the tried-and-true vendor.'
'If I pick a lesser-known brand and it fails, that’s on me.'

Therefore, your value proposition must be significantly better than theirs.

That’s hard. The incumbents have more resources.

This is why many b2b challenger brands corner niches they can cater to more effectively and expand from there, but it’s not enough for substantial growth, you’ll need stronger products and substantial marketing efficiencies that make you far better than the incumbents.

7. You Must Be Found in the Alternatives.

Even if you’ve nailed the first six laws in your favor, if your buyer never encounters your brand, you stand no chance. You have to be found, you have to be in front of them when they’re consciously looking for solutions, or better yet, to have already planted seeds so that your name is top of mind to be recalled when they’ve reached this stage.

This comes down to what’s currently referred to as:

Demand generation: Early problem, brand, and solution awareness.
Demand capture: Visible in channels when buyer is in search mode.

8. You Must Emerge as the Best-Fit Alternative.

Remember, as a non-incumbent brand, you’re already getting scraps from the smaller chunk of buyers willing to take a risk. Now, you have to battle it out for those crumbs against a ton of other competitors.

That doesn’t automatically mean the cheapest. 'Best-fit' can be some combo of features, ROI, user experience, ease of implementation, or simply intangible trust signals that push them over the edge. But you do need to show up as the top contender in the mind of the actual decision-maker signing the contract.

B2B CEO Takeaways.

Solve Painful, Hard-to-Solve Problems: The bigger and more unique the pain point your product addresses, the easier time your marketing will have demonstrating that external solutions beat in-house fixes. If your product is nice-to-have rather than must-have, you’ll be stuck chasing lesser returns.
Demand Creation Is Critical: If you’re only hovering around 'problem-aware' buyers waiting for them to search you out, you’ll typically be in bad shape. Proactively bringing problems to the forefront, showing why they should be tackled now, and why internal solutions aren’t enough, is critical.
Fight for Visibility: You must continuously ensure that when that buyer is in 'solution-selecting' mode, they see your brand and remember it. Because if they’re even slightly aware of your competitor more than you, you lose the memory game.
Avoid Spreading Thin: When you’re not the incumbent, the battle is way tougher, so allocate your marketing resources toward campaigns that show real promise. Spreading yourself across too many half-measure efforts won’t move the needle.
Aim to Become the Incumbent: Being the known, 'safe bet' brand drastically lowers the friction in your sales process. But until you’re there, expect to fight for scraps with other challenger brands, and plan accordingly.
Recognize the Sequence: Each of these eight laws can be a showstopper. If your prospects stall out at #2 (problem isn’t prioritized) or #3 (internal solution is just as good), or get short-circuited at #4 (boss override), it’s not a sales or marketing 'failure', it’s just how b2b decisions actually happen. Align your strategy and resources around these hurdles, and you’ll avoid the false assumptions that plague so many marketing programs.

That’s it.

Those are my 8 original 'almost laws' of b2b marketing. Are they as rock-solid as Newton’s laws? No, because humans are silly and unpredictable. But if anything is going to get close to 'gravity' in b2b sales, these 8 are it.