Buyer 3.0 - The New Era

Startups are hard. I mean really hard. You have visionary Founders who are running a company for the first time. And many Founders seem confused. They seem focused so singularly on funding that they lose the real goal of any company: to fill a void by solving a problem that folks will pay you to solve.?

In the past, forgetting that the focus of a company should be the Customer didn’t hamstring tech companies completely because there were such high barriers to entry that tech companies could get away with it. That slack is gone now and the market demands much higher levels of focus and efficiency than in past decades.

So where are we in 2024? Why is there so much talk about sales engines in startups being unpredictable, about outbound channels being dead? It is because there is always lots of noise when a new era begins in buyer behavior.? We are in the third phase of the Buyer now and this phase absolutely requires Customer-centricity. Yes, it is a big moment when the first contract is signed, but that is only the beginning of all the hard work.? And all the value delivery.? And reselling.? And expansion selling.?

Customer-centricity is one of the easiest things to talk about but hardest things to actually develop and maintain in a company. So let’s talk about that here in this series of seven articles.        

The era of Buyer power translates into Customers who will demand - as they should - to be the main character in the contractual relationship. Buyer 3.0 is ushering in true Customer-centricity to tech. Those who do not keep up will wither in the face of their Customer-centric competition.

Wayback machine: I joined my first startup in 1999. I’ve worked at total smoke-and-mirrors dumpster fires where I joined a “high growth startup hitting the hockey stick” only to be told on day seven that I had to lay off half my staff.? I’ve worked at really well known tech companies like GitHub where our lobby was a life-size replica of the Oval Office and my team nagged me if I didn’t go to pilates with them three times a week… because in the era of in-person work, office fun was a massive recruiting tool. Most of my option grants were worthless, but some have been total windfalls. Between all the startups my husband and I have worked for, we’ve been far luckier than most. I’ve seen a lot of evolution, have a lot of stories I shall never tell, and hope that this moment where Buyer 3.0 is standing tall is the moment when actual organizational Customer-centricity can be put in place. Never before has it been so obvious that the startups who center the Customer will win.

And for me, personally, I deeply care about the Customer. My career has focused on making Customers into heroes, so I have an obvious bias that Customer-centricity is important.? But it doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Just like I deeply care about the diverse teams I build.? I am wired to care for the success of others, it is my deepest joy, whether that other is a Customer or a colleague.? Another Bay Area quirk my entire friends group shares: we all went to Landmark Forum. Anyone who attended knows the adage: I choose chocolate because I choose chocolate.? It is just how I am.? And that part of me has to shout from these LinkedIn rooftops that we are now in a glorious age of Customer-centricity.? Join us or fail!

As software has eaten the world, there have been trends in how to sell that become religion. And then that religion is usurped by new gospel. In parallel, the recurring revenue structure of subscription software sales means that there is a universal truth in software: retaining customers is the foundation of staying solvent. The classic metaphor about the leaky bucket has never been more true. Whatever Customer revenue churns out has to be replaced with new business sales just to stay steady state, just to get to a point where you can grow revenue. The difference between 120% NRR and 90% NRR is life or death to a startup.

So, let’s spend seven weeks every Tuesday thinking about this.? The remaining topics I’ll publish about are:

• Buyer 1.0 v 2.0 v 3.0
• Customer-Centricity - Why It Is Crucial
• Team Structure & Execution
• Process, Systems & Standards
• Product Development
• The First Steps

Next time, we will walk through the three distinct phases of Buyers in tech.? Hope to see you back here!

In the meantime, consider…

• What does Customer-centricity mean to you?
• In what ways have you felt a shift in the marketplace over the last few years?
• What previously reliable methods of working with Buyers and Customers have crashed and burned?
• Have you changed your content strategy over the last 18 months?