Most business-to-business companies suffer from a delusion, and it's this: that buyers always make decisions in a rational, logical, and economic way. The result is a constant slew of features-driven B2B products, services, and communications that few people really care about. In recent years the tectonic plates of B2B have shifted and its customers have evolved. These customers don't just want to buy from businesses anymore, they want to buy into them. A series of landmark research pieces prove that B2B audiences buy on emotion and justify with fact.

The problem is that too few B2B companies realize this. They continue with the same sterile, product-centric marketing that increases revenue by a percentage point here and there. It seems safe but it's dangerously short-sighted, because it doesn't deliver the transformational and long-term growth that makes businesses category leaders.

It's even more important to address this issue at such a critical and...