Welcome! 👋 The B2BFYI newsletter is for complex B2B marketers looking for a competitive edge. Covering brand, content, technology and lead generation, B2BFYI serves as a guide to building a more effective marketing strategy.
B2BFYI is written by industry veterans Chris Bennett (Strategy), Geoff Bretherick (Creative) and Philip Bennison (Tech), and published weekly. You can sign up here to get issues straight to your inbox.
In this newsletter:
The marketing myth we need to kill: Why are we obsessed over ‘why’?
When "WHY" goes wrong: 3 colossal corporate failures of ‘why’
The solution: customer-first success stories: Think problem + credibility
Templates & resources (for subscribers):
“Jobs to be done” interview script PDF: Download our PDF interview sheet and get booking some insight calls with customers!
The marketing myth we need to kill
Simon Sinek's "Start with WHY" has become somewhat of a gospel in business circles. But time and time again I see that in B2B marketing, starting with YOUR why isn’t always the unicorn approach it’s sold as. Your customers don't care about your mission statement when they've got a critical problem that needs a solve by next week.
But, like everything in B2B, it’s not that clear cut.
95% of your market are not in a buying cycle right now. You need to reach these folks and nurture them so that you’re top of mind when the cycle opens up. Pretty standard stuff. And, of course, you want to layer in your “why” messaging as part of that work to help differentiate you from your competition. Again, marketing 101.
Where it goes wrong, is when the “why” is:
Shit - it’s finely crafted corporate rubbish that means nothing
Disconnected - it’s too far removed from the problems you solve
Overshadowed - by an inherently poor product/service
Hidden - behind poor market fit
Irrelevant - when a buying decision is made to reduce pain
I generally agree with Simon Sinek on a lot of issues - particularly his approach to leadership. Where I disagree is around where you place your “why” in the customer journey. I don’t think pointing to Apple as an example helps either. They hang all their marketing around their “why”, as opposed to Dell who are all about “what”. It’s “1000 songs in your pocket” vs “3Ghz 250TB 32gb RAM”.
Apple has had fantastic success being a WHY company. But let’s be real here. You’re probably not Apple. You probably don’t have someone like Steve Jobs out there at conferences and in the media. You don’t have their budgets. Probably don’t have their talent, either - unless you can drop £250K+ on your best hires year round.
Also, I don’t recall the “why” helping much with the Lisa, Mac TV, Pippin, G4 Cube and iPod hi-fi, among many other Apple products that bombed. It’s almost like “why” only acts like rocket fuel when the underlying attributes are solid. Things like clearly addressing a buying trigger (“I need an audit now”, “we need help with out marketing now”), market-fit and some of the others mentioned above.
Perhaps, then, it’s not that helpful to point at one of the greatest examples of leading with “WHY” ever, and then expecting it to work for a 46-person management consultancy in Manchester.
Isn’t it interesting that folks point at the handful of companies doing “why” successfully as if it were only a matter of “doing the right things” and that it can be achieved by any company if only just had enough vision, and then ignore the 95% of other businesses that have failed trying this very approach.
So let’s jump into some examples gone wrong.
When "WHY" goes wrong
Case study #1: WeWork's mission misfire
Their WHY: "Elevate the world's consciousness"
Customer reality: Companies just needed flexible office space
Result: $47B valuation to near-bankruptcy because they marketed philosophy instead of solving workspace problems
🤔 Thoughts: The need for office space is practical. It’s not a particularly emotional decision. You need space for a growing headcount. Obviously you want a nice office, but let’s be real. The actual goal is to get the nicest office space FOR THE LOWEST PRICE. Because overheads matter for cashflow. People didn’t need a philosophy on consciousness raising - they needed somewhere to sit at a desk that wasn’t soul destroying.
Case study #2: Juicero's $400 purpose-driven failure
Their WHY: "Transform how people consume fresh produce"
Customer reality: Nobody needed a $400 wifi-connected juicer for pre-packaged juice that refuses to work with any non-branded pack
Result: $120M in funding evaporated when Bloomberg revealed you could squeeze packets by hand just as effectively
🤔 Thoughts: An actually good product. Good in terms of well-engineered. Over engineered, really. But absolutely terrible in terms of value for a customer. The product equivalent to paying £250 for a spoon. Garbage product decisions didn’t help - like forcing the product to only work with QR-scanned proprietary juice packets (yep, just like those shitty printers that do the same with ink to this day). “Transforming how people consume fresh produce” is a rubbish tagline when the transformation means “more expensive and worse”.
Case study #3: Quibi's billion-dollar assumption
Their WHY: "Revolutionise mobile entertainment"
Customer reality: Nobody asked for premium 10-minute shows exclusively on phones
Result: Shut down after 6 months, losing $1.75B
🤔 Thoughts: A victim of not doing enough homework and testing the market before commissioning…let me check my notes here…A BILLION DOLLARS OF CONTENT. Then it flopped. The launch marketing was even pretty good. Some of the shows were award-winning. But it just wasn’t a format people wanted to consume. Folks want flexibility in their media, to watch anywhere, on whatever device. The lesson? Your “WHY” counts for zip if you haven’t done your homework on the market.
The solution: customer-first success stories
Case study #1: Slack's pain-point pivot
Started with: Internal tool for game development
Customer insight: Teams desperately needed better communication than email
Result: $27.7B Salesforce acquisition
How they did it: Studied how teams actually communicated, not how they thought teams should
Case study #2: Zoom's simplicity win
Customer insight: Video conferencing was too complicated for non-technical users
Not their WHY: "Delivering happiness" (yep…their actual mission 🤨)
What worked: One-click joining, no downloads required
Result: Became a verb during COVID, $100B+ peak valuation
Source: CXToday / Zoom's Meteoric Rise
Case study #3: Advice Cloud’s client solutions
Customer insight: Doing your own procurement tenders is really hard
Action: Let a team of experts show you how to do it right
How they did it: More detailed case studies than you can shake a stick at
Result: More enquiries, more converted leads, new and bigger clients
Source: Fablr / Case Study
Getting real customer insights
It’s going to be tough building your messaging and content around client problems if you don’t have the right insights into what’s keeping them up at night. Here’s some tactics I use regularly to get what I need, fast.
1. The "day in the life" shadow sessions
Nothing beats seeing customer struggles emerge in real-time. This is a great tactics for when you or your colleagues can be onsite with them.
Spend 4 hours watching customers actually work
If you can’t watch them work, ask them to walk you through a typical day
Document every tool switch, every frustrated sigh
💡 Example: Superhuman discovered users checked email 30+ times daily by shadowing
2. The “jobs to be done" interview framework
You can’t beat speaking directly to customers for getting a feel of their challenges. Pay attention to how they say things, not just what they say. Their tone + body language reveal the real pain.
Ask: "Tell me about the last time you tried to [solve problem]"
Not: "What features would you like?", “What services should we offer?”
💡 Template: “jobs to be done” PDF interview script
See resources at bottom of post!
3. The "Reddit research" method
Reddit is great for hearing real humans talk about real problems. Find subreddits relevant to your niche and scour them for complaints.
Search: "[Your industry] + frustrating/annoying/hate"
Gold mine: r/sales, r/marketing, r/[yourniche]
💡 Tools: Some useful Reddit tools below:
Tool type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
Keyword tracking | The original Reddit keyword monitoring tool. It's pure keyword matching, no AI, free. | |
Lead gen | An AI-based lead monitoring service. | |
Lead gen | AI agent that scans Reddit for relevant conversations and promotes your product. | |
Pain point analysis | Analyse sentiment + common pain points from Reddit as well as a few other platforms. | |
Pain point analysis | Find customer pain points and validated business opportunities from Reddit. |
4. The "support analysis"
Export last 500 support tickets/support emails
Categorise by root cause, not symptom
Pattern recognition > individual requests (don’t offer a service to match a single user’s need)
5. The "competitor review mine"
Analyse 1-star reviews of competitors on G2/Capterra
Look for: "I wish it could...", "It doesn't...", “I hate…”
💡 Tool: ReviewTrackers for systematic analysis
6. The "win/loss interview program"
30min calls with deals won AND lost
Ask losers: "What made you choose [competitor]?"
Record everything with detailed annotations
The customer-centric marketing machine
Phase 1: Synthesis (Week 1-2)
Input: Raw customer insights
Process:
Group insights by frequency + severity
Map to customer journey stages
Identify top 3 "hair on fire" problems
Output: Customer problem priority matrix
Tools: Use AI to help the process (Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude etc)
Phase 2: Strategy Translation (Week 3-4)
Input: Priority matrix
Process:
Match each problem to your solution capability
Create messaging hierarchy (problem → agitation → solution)
Define success metrics tied to problem resolution
Output: Messaging framework document
Phase 3: Content/Campaign Creation (Week 5-8)
Input: Messaging framework
Process:
Create content that mirrors customer language (not your jargon)
Lead with problem recognition, not product features
Show transformation, not specifications
Output: Campaign assets addressing specific pain points
Phase 4: Distribution + testing (Week 9-12)
Input: Campaign assets
Process:
Deploy where customers already seek solutions
Test problem-focused vs. solution-focused messaging
Track engagement by pain point addressed
Output: Performance data by customer problem
Phase 5: Feedback loop (Ongoing)
Input: Performance data + new customer interactions
Process:
Weekly review: What problems resonated most?
Monthly update: New problems emerging?
Quarterly pivot: Adjust priority matrix
Output: Refined understanding → Better messaging → Higher conversion
The perpetual insight machine
Your new marketing rhythm:
Monday: Review customer support tickets/emails
Wednesday: One customer interview
Friday: Analyse engagement metrics by pain point
Monthly: Update your Customer Problem Priority Matrix
Quarterly: Full strategy review based on problem evolution
The bottom line
Your "why" might inspire your team at the company retreat. But your customer's "WHY THE HELL IS THIS SO HARD?" is what drives purchase decisions.
The shift:
❌ "We believe in transforming X industry"
✔️ "You're losing 3 hours daily to X. Here's how to get it back."
Remember: Your mission statement doesn't pay your bills. Solving customer problems does.
Action item for next week: Pick your top 3 competitors. Read their last 50 G2 reviews. Find the one problem mentioned most. That's your next campaign focus.
Further Reading:
Chris Bennett
Head of Strategy @ Fablr | Author @ B2BFYI™ | 16+ Years Helping B2B Marketers Build Better Brands | MCIM
When not writing about marketing or advising clients, you can find dad-of-one Chris reading history, playing the piano, writing a novel and keeping old age away in the gym.
Years in the trenches: 16
Favourite tool: Gemini
Common saying: “Move the needle.”
Favourite food: Chinese
Templates + resources
For subscribers only - links directly to these assets are available below the subscription break.
This month we have the following resource for you:
“Jobs to be done” client interview script: A PDF guide to running a full client or customer interview, including a script of exactly what and how to ask, as well as how to follow it up.
“Jobs to be done” customer insights interview PDF
Download our PDF interview sheet and get booking some calls with customers!