From Veneer to Value: Why B2B Buyers See Through Your Industry-Flavored Messaging

In B2B, relevance is everything. But too often, companies chasing growth in new industries fall into a familiar trap. They take a generic go-to-market message and give it a quick coat of industry paint. A “Healthcare” page here. A “Retail” case study there. A few buzzwords swapped into the sales deck. And voilà, instant industry expertise!

Except it’s not.

It’s what we call “industry veneer” i.e. a thin, surface-level attempt to appear vertically aligned without actually investing in the depth, nuance, or credibility that buyers are looking for. And the cracks show quickly.

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The rise of the industry veneer approach

Let’s be honest, sometimes you don’t have a fully verticalized product suite. Maybe your platform is largely horizontal, or your vertical strategy is still on the roadmap. You’ve got some functionality for finance or manufacturing and you’re looking to expand into healthcare or logistics. The temptation to fast-track market entry with light industry content is real and very understandable.

But that’s where the risk lies.

The industry veneer approach relies on:

• Reusing the same core messaging with minor cosmetic edits
• Creating one-pagers with industry logos and photos, but little unique insight
• Training sales to pitch “as if” they understand the industry, without enabling true expertise

It feels like progress. But it rarely performs.

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Why it doesn’t work anymore

B2B buyers are sophisticated. They live the complexity of their industry every day. They’re reading analyst reports, following regulatory shifts, and responding to sector-specific disruption. So, when your outreach shows only a vague grasp of what matters in their world, they notice.

And they disengage.

• 81% of B2B buyers say they want vendors who truly understand their business and pain points.
• Only 19% of prospects feel that vendors actually do.
• More than 50% of lost deals are attributed to missteps that could have been fixed, like lack of relevance.
• There’s a 54.5% misalignment between what buyers believe their problem is and what sellers think it is.

This isn’t necessarily a messaging problem. It’s a depth and empathy problem.

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Even the experts are overstretched

Now, some companies are lucky enough to have true industry experts on their GTM teams. Former CIOs, operators, consultants, or strategists who’ve lived the industry from the inside. However, those people are almost always massively overstretched.

They’re brought into pitch calls at the last minute. They’re asked to review every campaign or whitepaper. Their knowledge sits in siloed decks or email threads. And their deep expertise, the very thing that should be fueling your entire GTM engine, remains inaccessible to the broader team.

The result? A bottleneck. And a missed opportunity to democratize vertical insight across marketing, sales, product, and enablement.

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Meet the alternative: Industry expert & advisor GTM

The antidote to veneer is value. Specifically, the value that comes from showing up as an industry-informed guide, not just a vendor with a vertical tab on your website.

This approach doesn’t require your product to be 100% verticalized. It requires your go-to-market motion to be built on:

• Real understanding of industry trends, regulatory pressures, and innovation cycles
• Thought leadership that leads with insight, not features
• Sales enablement that gives your team the confidence to “talk shop” and challenge assumptions
• Engagement that feels relevant, intentional, and strategic

It’s about showing buyers you understand where their industry is heading, not just what your product does.

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But what if my product isn’t fully vertical yet?

This is a common reality. You’re building out your industry capabilities, but you're not there yet. So how do you show up with credibility?

Start by shifting your mindset and narrative, even before your roadmap catches up:

• Partner with advisors and industry influencers to shape messaging
• Build content around sector-specific challenges and transformation themes
• Use real-world use cases, even if the product isn’t industry-native yet
• Train sales to connect to industry outcomes, not just product functionality
• Leverage AI and tools like PangeaGTM to surface vertical insights and signal intent

Your buyers will respect you far more for showing an informed, humble point of view than for pretending to be something you’re not.

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What good looks like

Companies that win the trust of vertical buyers don’t just translate, they immerse. They create content that addresses:

• The regulatory headaches keeping decision-makers up at night
• The market disrupters forcing industry-wide change
• The technology trends reshaping workflows and cost structures

Think of how Salesforce slowly built its Industry Clouds, not just by building features, but by building authority. Or how ServiceNow positioned itself in healthcare by hiring former CMOs and CIOs from provider organizations. These weren’t veneer plays. They were value-led, advisor-led, and ultimately, growth-led.

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“True GTM differentiation comes from industry fluency and compliance‑ready execution. PangeaGTM equips teams to scale vertical relevance with AI‑powered personalization, regulatory alignment, and pre‑approved, industry‑specific messaging, so they can move with confidence, not caution.”

— Gerald Poncet, Co-founder and Managing Director, Pangea Summit

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From surface-level to substance: How to make the shift

1. Audit your content: How much of your GTM content actually reflects deep industry knowledge?
2. Invest in one or two beachhead verticals: Focus, go deep, and build credibility.
3. Partner with vertical experts: If you don’t have the insights internally, bring them in and scale their expertise.
4. Enable your sales team: Give them playbooks, not just scripts. Train them to speak the language.
5. Connect messaging to momentum: Tie your value proposition to where the industry is going, not just where it is now.

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Buyers want preferred partners

B2B companies that scale with substance will always outperform those who scale with shortcuts. Buyers are looking for strategic collaborators and partners who understand their context, not just their contract size.

The choice is clear:

• Keep layering on the veneer and hoping it sticks.
• Or start showing up as an advisor who adds insight, not a paint-thin layer of value.

At Pangea Summit and Real Growth Collective, we help B2B companies evolve their GTM systems from generic to industry-intelligent, bridging AI-powered execution with real vertical relevance.

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Ready to go from veneer to value? Let’s talk. Visit www.realgrowthcollective.com to learn more.

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