You've built an incredible API, a game-changing SaaS platform, or a robust open-source library. The code is clean, the architecture is solid, and the performance is fire. So why aren't users flocking to it? Why is your CAC climbing while your conversion rates flatline?
In the B2B tech world, a killer product is just the entry fee. Your online presence is the real arena where you win or lose. But it's an arena littered with the carcasses of companies that made critical, yet common, mistakes.
We were tired of seeing great tech fail due to bad strategy. So we went on a bug hunt. We asked 10 industry experts—from VCs and SaaS founders to DevRel leads—to identify the single biggest mistake B2B companies make online. Here's what they said.
The Expert Roundup: 10 Critical B2B Mistakes
1. Forgetting Who You're Talking To (Hint: It's Developers)
Anya Sharma, Head of Developer Relations @ API-First Inc.
"The biggest mistake is applying generic B2B marketing tactics to a developer audience. We hate salesy fluff, pop-ups, and gated whitepapers that could have been a blog post. We value authenticity, clear documentation, and a direct path to trying the product. Your 'marketing' should feel more like a helpful technical resource. If your landing page reads like a LinkedIn ad, you've already lost."
2. The 'Wizard of Oz' Onboarding
Ben Carter, Principal UX Researcher @ ScaleUp Analytics
"Companies boast about 'Product-Led Growth' but deliver a high-friction, human-powered onboarding experience. They promise a self-serve trial, but the moment you sign up, you're hit with 'A sales rep will contact you to configure your account.' That's not PLG; it's a lead-gen form in disguise. If a developer can't get to a 'hello world' moment in under 5 minutes, they'll churn and never look back."
3. Crippling Your Site with MarTech Bloat
Maria Rodriguez, Founder @ Perf-Metrics
"I see this constantly. The marketing team gets excited and bolts on every analytics script, heatmap tool, and chatbot imaginable without considering the performance cost. Your Core Web Vitals tank, and the site feels sluggish. Developers are uniquely sensitive to slow-loading sites. Before you add another third-party script, ask if the value outweighs the performance hit."
// Don't let your <head> look like this:
<head>
<title>My Awesome B2B SaaS</title>
<!-- ... 15 other meta tags ... -->
<script src=".../jquery-3.x.x.min.js"></script> <!-- Do you even need this? -->
<script src=".../some-old-bootstrap.js"></script>
<script async src=".../google-analytics.js"></script>
<script async src=".../hubspot.js"></script>
<script async src=".../hotjar.js"></script>
<script async src=".../segment.js"></script>
<script async src=".../drift-chatbot.js"></script>
<script async src=".../some-other-tracker.js"></script>
<!-- PageSpeed score: 23. User patience: 0. -->
</head>
4. Selling Features, Not Filesystems
David Chen, CEO & Co-Founder @ StorifyDB
"Early-stage technical founders fall in love with their tech stack. We plaster our homepage with 'Built on Rust!', 'Kubernetes-native!', 'Uses a CRDT-based architecture!'. Your fellow engineers might think that's cool, but the economic buyer—the CTO or VP of Engineering—cares about the outcome. They don't want a 'CRDT-based architecture'; they want 'a database that guarantees zero-downtime writes and simplifies multi-region replication.' Translate your features into business benefits."
5. Treating Documentation as a Chore
Sarah Jenkins, Head of Content @ DocuWrite
"Your documentation is your marketing. For a technical product, it's often the first thing a developer will evaluate. Companies that treat it as a post-launch afterthought are shooting themselves in the foot. Docs should be comprehensive, easy to navigate, and full of executable code examples. A beautiful landing page can't save you from a terrible docs experience. It’s a red flag about the quality of the product and the company's culture."
6. The Impenetrable Content Fortress
Michael Brown, Partner @ Velocity Ventures
"Gating everything. Want to read a case study? Give me your email. Want our API pricing? Email. Want to see a 5-page 'Ultimate Guide'? Email, phone number, and blood type. This creates immense friction. Savvy buyers will just find an alternative. Leave your content open. Use your product itself as the lead magnet. If your content is truly valuable, people will seek you out."
7. Misunderstanding the Real User vs. the Buyer
Emily White, VP of Growth @ DevTools Collective
"B2B tech sales are complex. You might be selling to a Director of Engineering, but it's the individual contributors on their team who will live and breathe your tool every day. If you ignore the needs and workflows of these end-users, they will veto the purchase. The best B2B companies create a groundswell of support from developers who then champion the tool to their managers. This bottom-up adoption is incredibly powerful."
8. A Murky Path from Open Source to Enterprise
Kenji Tanaka, Creator of 'GridJS'
"Many companies build a business around an open-source project, which is great. The mistake is having a confusing or user-hostile monetization strategy. They might cripple the open-source version to push users to a paid tier or have opaque enterprise pricing. Be transparent. Clearly define what's in the free/OSS version and what value the paid version adds (e.g., SSO, dedicated support, advanced security features). Don't bait and switch your community."
9. No Clear 'Why' on the Homepage
Olivia Green, Director of Product Marketing @ LaunchPad AI
"The classic 'What vs. Why' problem. A visitor lands on your page, and within 5 seconds, they should be able to answer: 1. What is this? 2. Who is it for? and 3. Why should I care? Too many B2B sites are a jumble of jargon and feature lists. They fail to articulate a clear value proposition. If I have to click through three pages to understand what your product actually does, you've failed."
10. Drowning in Data, Thirsting for Insight
Leo Kim, Lead Data Scientist @ Convertly
"They meticulously set up Segment, GA4, and a dozen other tools. They track every click, scroll, and hover. They have dashboards full of vanity metrics. But they don't act on it. The biggest mistake is collecting data for the sake of it. Pick one or two key metrics that truly reflect user activation—like 'Time to First API Call' or 'New Project Created'—and relentlessly focus your entire team on improving them."
// Instead of just tracking 'page_view' or 'button_click',
// track a meaningful activation event.
function onApiCallSuccess(response) {
// ... your app logic
// Fire an event that actually matters to your business
if (analytics && user.isFirstTime) {
analytics.track('First API Call Succeeded', {
plan: user.plan,
endpoint: '/v1/process',
latency_ms: response.latency
});
}
}
The Common Thread: A Lack of Empathy
If you look closely, all these mistakes boil down to one thing: a failure to empathize with the user, who is often a time-poor, skeptical, and highly intelligent developer.
They don't want to be 'marketed to.' They want to solve a problem. Your job isn't to sell them a product; it's to help them solve their problem faster and more efficiently. Remove friction, provide value generously, be transparent, and respect their time and intelligence.
What's the biggest B2B blunder you've encountered online? Share your horror stories in the comments below!
Originally published at https://getmichaelai.com/blog/we-asked-10-industry-experts-whats-the-biggest-mistake-b2b-c
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