Why Specificity Trumps General Experience

Your buyers want to know that you deeply understand their application. While three or four competing vendors might all have experience in a specific sector, the vendor that demonstrates knowledge of the client’s precise application has a distinct advantage.

Technical credibility, in the eyes of your buyer, is directly related to confidence. Showing that you have solved similar problems provides confidence that the project can be successful across all considerations.

To illustrate this power, consider a product that is often viewed as a commodity: industrial casters. A company that manufactures casters needs to market the same core technology across distinctly different environments. The customer challenges and benefits vary wildly depending on where that caster is used:

1. Hospitals: Hospital administrators are concerned about HCap scores (reviews by patients that include level of noise at the hospital), which directly impact the hospital’s performance and financials. Therefore, they need casters that are quiet, especially those used for food and medication carts that enter patient rooms late at night.
2. Distribution Centers: Quietness is not a key performance indicator in most distribution centers. Instead, these customers care that the casters don’t de-laminate the flooring or put grooves into the floor. They also care about ergonomics and ease of movement, ensuring that their workers do not injure themselves when pushing and pulling heavy carts.

For the caster supplier, application expertise is critical because. Even though the technology is the same (the casters in each case are as good as identical), the customer benefit and customer challenges are distinctly different across these markets. A hospital administrator doesn’t care about a distribution center’s floor integrity, and vice versa. Your marketing must reflect this nuance.

Click here to read the complete Caster Connection Case Study.

Leveraging Your Engineers: The Subject Matter Experts

As we reveal in our latest B2B Manufacturing Buyer Journey Study, buyers place significantly more importance on a vendor’s demonstrable expertise in specific application areas than on relevant regulatory expertise (see the table above). Buyers also care more about a vendor’s reputation for delivering excellent customer service and technical support than on the vendor’s reputation for thought leadership or technical certifications.

This is why your buyers want to hear boots-in-the-field problems, stories and issues that you’ve solved or avoided with your products, services and solutions. This communication should be in a narrative, first-person format. The buyer should feel like they are having a coffee with the person who has done the work.

Marketers are tasked with demonstrating application benefits, but the true source of credibility lies with your internal subject matter experts (SMEs)—your engineers. The best SMEs are those who are so detailed and articulate that they leave no doubt about their experience. One SME we work with can recall a project from years ago, remembering the customer challenge, scope of work, design specs, bottlenecks, how they overcame the challenges, and even how many iterations it took. This SME even remember projects that didn’t go anywhere. This level of minute detail, paired with the ability to zoom in from 20,000 feet, gives your buyers comfort that your SME is anexpert. You must leverage your SMEs in your content generation as much as possible.

Actionable Steps for Application-Specific Marketing

To effectively market your application expertise, you must focus on the following execution strategies:

1. Create Granular Marketing Content

• All marketing content should be application-specific
• Develop application-specific web pages
• Utilize case studies to demonstrate expertise
• Get as specific and granular as you can to help demonstrate your depth of knowledge

2. Anticipate and Address Risks

Your SME must be knowledgeable about your customer’s challenges and how your solution uniquely solves them. They should anticipate the questions or risks that customers have, and address them proactively in marketing materials.

For example, a chemical pump manufacturer focusing on harsh liquids and environments must ensure that all communication is squarely focused on harsh environments only. The company must demonstrate how their product addresses and solves these unique harsh-environment challenges.

3. Develop Sales Enablement Tools

Remember that marketing’s responsibility extends beyond external content creation. It includes preparing internal staff for application-specific sales conversations. Do this by creating internal sales tips-and-tactics documentation for engineers and subject matter experts. This documentation ensures that your sales teams are prepared for the types of questions customers raise, and know the most-complete way of answering them.

By focusing your marketing efforts on deeply understanding and communicating your application-specific expertise, you build the highest level of technical credibility and bridge the gap between your technology and your customer’s unique success.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What does application-specific expertise mean in manufacturing marketing?

Application-specific expertise means demonstrating a deep understanding of how your product or solution performs in a customer’s specific use case. It shows that you’ve solved problems in real-world environments—not just that you know the industry in general.

2. Why is application-specific expertise more valuable than general industry experience?

Because buyers don’t just want vendors who know their sector—they want partners who understand their exact application. Application expertise gives buyers confidence that your team has encountered and solved similar challenges before.

3. How does application-specific marketing improve technical credibility?

Technical credibility comes from evidence, not claims. When marketers and engineers communicate application-specific stories, data, and outcomes, buyers perceive the brand as more competent, trustworthy, and lower risk.

4. How can sales and application engineers contribute to marketing content?

Engineers can share first-hand stories about customer challenges, design adjustments, and lessons learned. These stories can be transformed into case studies, blog posts, and social content that resonate with technically minded buyers.

5. What types of content help demonstrate application-specific expertise?

Examples include detailed case studies, project snapshots, application notes, and “how we solved it” videos. These formats help prospects visualize your expertise and understand how it applies to their situation.

6. Why do buyers prioritize application expertise over certifications or awards?

Research from RH Blake’s B2B Manufacturing Buyer Journey Study shows that buyers view application expertise as more predictive of project success than credentials or certifications. It’s proof that you can solve their problem—not just meet standards.

7. How can marketers collaborate effectively with subject matter experts (SMEs)?

Marketers should interview engineers, document application stories, and create repeatable templates for capturing field experience. The goal is to make it easy for SMEs to share their knowledge without extra burden.

8. How can companies train engineers to communicate their expertise better?

Through internal coaching, storytelling workshops, or guided content interviews. Teaching engineers how to connect technical outcomes with customer benefits improves clarity and impact in every sales conversation.

9. What role does application-specific messaging play in B2B sales enablement?

It gives sales teams context-rich proof points they can use in conversations. When a buyer asks, “Have you solved this before?”, sales can immediately share a real example from a similar application, building trust and accelerating deals.

10. How can a manufacturer start building an application-specific marketing strategy?

Start by mapping your top customer applications, identifying the SMEs tied to each, and developing content around those use cases. Each piece should connect technical expertise to measurable customer value.