--- title: What If Your Customers Are Aiming at a Different Target? description: Is your B2B messaging aimed at the wrong target? Discover why understanding the progress customers want to make is essential to messaging that resonates. image: https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/hubfs/Blindfolded%20Archer%20Taking%20Aim.png --- [Skip to content](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/blog/the-wrong-target#main-content) [![](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/hs-fs/hubfs/W-S%20Brand%20Icon-1.png?width=300&height=150&name=W-S%20Brand%20Icon-1.png)Homepage](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com) - [Home](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com) - [Blog](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/blog) [Get your story adopted](https://2gzlk6.share-eu1.hsforms.com/2ZYhKJn7MSHOSkfCdicfDaQ) - [Home](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com) - [Blog](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/blog) [Get your story adopted](https://2gzlk6.share-eu1.hsforms.com/2ZYhKJn7MSHOSkfCdicfDaQ) ![blindfolded archer](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blindfolded%20Archer%20Taking%20Aim.png?width=1536&height=1024&name=Blindfolded%20Archer%20Taking%20Aim.png) # What If Your Customers Are Aiming at a Different Target? ![Mark Gibson](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/hs-fs/hubfs/mg%20head.361.jpg?width=48&height=48&name=mg%20head.361.jpg) Mark Gibson October 25, 2026 *Your company knows what it wants to sell. But how well does it understand the progress its customers are trying to make?* Imagine an archer being asked to hit a bullseye while wearing a blindfold. You can have the finest bow in the world. You can spend hours perfecting your technique. But you still don't know where to aim. That's how an awful lot of B2B companies develop their messaging. The executives agree on what makes the business special. Marketing writes the website. Sales gets a new presentation. Everyone admires the result. **Nobody has asked the customers where the bloody target is.** ## The bullseye is the buyer's problem The closer your message gets to the centre of the target, the more clearly a buyer should recognise their own circumstances. At the bullseye, the company understands what was happening when customers started looking for something different. It knows what they were struggling with, why the problem became important and what made them willing to consider changing. That understanding shapes the language on the website and the conversations salespeople have. Further out, the messaging becomes more general. You get familiar industry problems, broad claims about improving performance and promises that could belong to almost any supplier. By the time you reach the outer rings, it's all about the company. Its products. Its capabilities. Its technology. The sort of language that makes perfect sense to the people who built the business and leaves buyers wondering whether anyone understands their problem. ## I've analysed more than 1,000 B2B websites Over the past year, I've analysed more than 1,000 B2B software and services websites. The sameness is striking. Different companies selling different things to different customers, using almost identical language. Innovative platforms. Seamless integration. End-to-end solutions. Trusted partners. Swap the logos and you'd struggle to tell many of them apart. The website is often where the problem becomes visible. But the same language can find its way into sales presentations and customer conversations. A buyer arrives with a particular problem. The salesperson arrives with the company's story about its products. And they can spend an hour talking without getting much closer to understanding each other. ## The people who bought can tell you where to aim Here's where I'd start. Speak to customers who recently chose your company. Ask them to take you back to what was happening before they started looking. What had become difficult enough to do something about? What had they tried? Why did they decide the time had come to change? What alternatives did they consider? And why did they choose you? Listen to the words they use. You may discover that something your marketing barely mentions was central to their decision. You may also find that a feature the company considers a major advantage wasn't particularly important. One interview gives you one buyer's account. Several interviews can help you identify patterns worth testing. Those findings give you a much better basis for deciding what your messaging should say. ## Then see whether your salespeople can use it A good message needs to survive contact with a real customer. Can your salesperson recognise the situation the buyer is describing? Can they ask questions that help the buyer explain what is happening and what it means for the business? Can they resist the temptation to open PowerPoint and start pitching before they've understood the problem? **The whiteboard provides a visual scaffold for a story that helps the buyer see themselves in it.** A good story captures the frustration of the current situation, the consequences of leaving things as they are and the possibility of making progress. It has an emotional dimension because buying decisions involve people. People who worry about getting it wrong, who have to persuade colleagues and who want to achieve something that matters to them. The drawing gives the story structure. It helps the salesperson build it in conversation with the buyer, rather than deliver a rehearsed pitch at them. And because the story is visual, the buyer has something they can remember, explain to colleagues and use to continue the conversation when the salesperson has left the room. But the story has to be grounded in what customers actually experience. **Give someone a whiteboard and a lousy product pitch, and they'll deliver a lousy product pitch with a marker pen.** ## Take another look at your target Open your homepage and read the first few lines. Would a recent customer recognise the circumstances that made them start looking for help? Would they hear something that resembles their own buying decision? Now ask one of your salespeople why your last five customers chose you. Then ask the customers. If the answers are different, you've got some useful work to do. **Before you spend more time polishing the message, find out where your customers are telling you to aim.** --- *At Whiteboard Storytelling, we use customer buying stories to help B2B salespeople have better conversations. If your team is still leading with the product pitch, let's talk about what your customers can teach them.* ## Share this post [mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiteboard-storytelling.com%2Fblog%2Fthe-wrong-target](mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiteboard-storytelling.com%2Fblog%2Fthe-wrong-target) ## Keep reading ### [![Whiteboard Storytelling brandmark](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/hs-fs/hubfs/W-S%20Brand%20Icon2.jpg?width=720&height=360&name=W-S%20Brand%20Icon2.jpg) SKO Your 2027 Sales Kickoff Has One Job: Change What Sellers Do](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/blog/your-2027-sales-kickoff) ### [![Mona Hristachi, Delivery Manager, mindit](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/hs-fs/hubfs/mona.jpg?width=576&height=382&name=mona.jpg) ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ฆ๐—ž๐—ข ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฑ ๐—ด๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐— ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜†](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/blog/sko-whiteboard) [![](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/hs-fs/hubfs/W-S%20Brand%20Icon-1.png?width=300&height=150&name=W-S%20Brand%20Icon-1.png)](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com) - [Home](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com) - [Blog](https://www.whiteboard-storytelling.com/blog) --- Privacy Policy ยท Legal ยท ยฉ 2026. 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