Lean B2B

The more B2B and B2C winners got decided, the clearer it became that consumer plays were often winner takes all, while B2B was long tail and could often support multiple winners. In B2B, it's not uncommon for many companies to be addressing the same need for different types of customers or business models.

Evaluate the opportunities in terms of their impact on the stakeholders and their organizations, the availability of budget, the ur-gency, the alignment on value, the implementation potential, and the likelihood of you winning the market. You can use our template at leanb2b.co/opportunities for your analysis.

The strongest force in businesses is the inertia of the status quo. A company may be aware that something is broken, that it's under-performing, or that things could be much better with another solution, but they may not be willing to make a change. The value provided must significantly outweigh the risks and costs.

You can tell that a problem is painful when: • The same person repeats it frequently with passion during the interview. Repetition is a sign that the problem is current and top-of-mind. If a problem is painful enough, they will talk about it without being asked. • The company is actively trying to solve the problem or has assigned a budget to solve the problem. • Different stakeholders (e.g. a Job performer and a manager) are independently sharing the same problem. You're probably dealing with an important goal on the roadmap if several stakeholders have prioritized the same problem.

Bob Mosta defines a "time wall" as "the fabricated notion that a prospect must make a purchase by a certain time". Time walls are what we sometimes refer to as urgency. A time wall can be artificial (e.g. a deal, discount, etc), or driven by certain events (a change in regulations, the end of a budgeting period, a change of pri-orities, a recurring pain, a goal that's suddenly at risk, changes made by competitors, etc).