B2B Buyer Behavior has Radically Changed

Here’s what it means for your reps.

How the B2B Buy has Changed

Buyer behavior has been changing for the last 15 years ever since digital technologies became common place.

There are two big themes that impact the approach that B2B Sales & Marketing has to take according to a study by Gartner.

First, Rep face time continues to plummet. There’s lots of quality information out there on your solutions and your competitors. When I was a Market Manager we were down to 40% of the buying process was spent with reps. Today, it’s more like 17%. As a result reps are brought in later and later in the buy cycle.

Second, you would think that being better educated would make customers more decisive, right? You’d be wrong. In fact, customers are so overwhelmed without that information that they struggle with decision confidence. Research suggests that “no decision” is more likely outcome, which means your competition isn’t winning, the status quo is.

The Source of Advantage in Sales has Shifted

What do these themes means for the winning approach for Sales & Marketing?

The Reps who come in with "last decade’s tactics," to make customers aware of their products, and their product benefits and features and value; they’re not advantaged over other reps, and they’re not delivering what customers need. Customers likely already know about you and your products.

Customers need help making sense of the information they have, and help figuring out how to think about their problems first. Helping customers frame up their problems isn’t the same thing as informing them about your solutions.

That skill is advantaged in today’s B2B sell...

And traditional sales methods don’t even know what it is.

What do B2B Buyers need from their Reps?

“Last decades” rep’s - they know their products better than their customer’s problems. It's just the nature of things. Yet it shows, and that feels self-serving to customers.

Customer are focused on more complex issues:

• figuring out their problem
• weighing options
• assessing risks
• evaluating partners

Reps who can help customers think about those issues, become trusted advisors. And when the time is right, trusted advisors are more likely to close sales. Data shows up to 10x more likely.

Actioning the Insight

It's hard to shift the sales methods we grew up with. I know. I was a long time advocate of value selling. I taught it, I practiced it, I believe it. But reality shifts, and old approaches don't work as well. There's still wisdom in them, but not enough for today's reality. 

The first step is a leadership step. We find that commercial leaders who research what's new in sales approaches often expand their thinking and options that prepares them better to lead their teams to growth.

Until next week,

Kendall -

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