You know who gives me the best business advice without trying? My two-and-a-half-year old daughter. Lately, I can’t help but be struck at how similar she is to a typical B2B buyer.

They’re independent.
My daughter’s favorite sentence is, “I do it myself.” No longer does she want my help . . . unless she wants my help NOW!

Sounds like your B2B buyers, doesn’t it? Most buyers find you, not vice versa. According to ITSMA, almost two-thirds of buyers conduct their own research and then contact the vendor, not vice versa. But, when buyers want your help, you better be there. A study from IDG indicates that buyers only find relevant content 42% of the time, and this lack of relevant content as perceived by buyers is responsible for reducing the vendor's chance of closing the sale by 45%.

Approach:
It should go without saying that you need to be present where your audience is looking. In addition to focusing on SEO, think about optimizing for digital-assets, social-media and micromedia. Lee Odden and the TopRank team are favorite source for SEO info.

You also need to be  are accessible when buyers need you. Check out these five suggestions from a post I wrote on Savvy B2B Marketing.

They’re easily distracted.
My daughter can jump between activities so fast. She wants bubbles, then her bike. Oh, wait, “my pink ball!”

As much as her short attention span frustrates me, I understand. (I’m easily distracted, too). Your B2B prospects have 10 things on their mind and are moving from thing to thing so quickly---it’s really tough for them to focus. (One of my favorites views into how easily distracted the B2B buyer is this SlideShare from Ardath Albee.)

Approach:
Accept that people have short attention spans, and make your content as engaging as possible:

• Make the topic ultra-relevant to your prospects.



• Keep things short when you can. (I often think about this quote attributed to Mark Twain: “ I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.” Edit whenever you can!)



• Design your content so it’s easy to skim, writing descriptive headlines, using bulleted lists, including infographics and bolding key points.



• Have a clear call to action.

They’re unpredictable.
As a parent, I’m all about structure and routine, but even with lots of planning, things go awry every day. Something always happens.

You probably experience the same thing: You have this great plan, and if you are at the top of your game you have content that laid out by audience and by buying cycle, so you can simply lead buyers to the path to purchase. Does this typically happen like that? Not so much.

Approach:
While you need to have a framework in place to move prospects through the buying process, this isn't as simple or straightforward as it seems; things usually don't work quite as well in practice as in theory. One solution is to think about what Doug Kessler calls Library Marketing in which your organize your content so you can provide the right content at the right time to the right people.

Another key is to build feedback into your process, and really make a commitment to listen to and use that feedback to make improvements. (You don't need to act on all feedback; that's just as bad as not listening at all.)

No one has all of the answers about B2B marketing (or parenting!) in this ever-changing space—and that’s OK! It can be easy to get frustrated because when dealing with buyers who are as unpredictable as a two year old.

What others suggestions do you have to deal with this? Share them in the comments below!