Get Inside The Mind of the New Business-to-Business Buyer
The advent of the internet changed how consumers purchased items. Recently, new research by DemandGen Report on Business-to-Business buyers reveals dramatic changes in their purchasing patterns, influences, media channels and social behaviours. This is changing the rules of engagement for sales and marketing professionals.
The sellers have less influence on the buying process, and are more dependent on peer input. Solution providers will need to connect with prospects outside of their traditional sales funnel and start connecting through an ongoing dialog built on relevant content and real-time responses.
The traditional Business-to-Business sales funnel formula has worked pretty well over the past two decades. In it, solution providers contacted prospects and guided them through the typical buying phases of awareness, interest, consideration and assessment, then soon enough they were ready to make a purchase.
More recently, buying behaviours have changed as social media has fostered an ongoing dialog among peers, and Web 2.0 tools have enabled Business-to-Business buyers to be well versed on features, functionality and pricing long before they have their first conversation with a solution provider.
In this new inbound sales and marketing world, the Business-to-Business buying process has been transformed and therefore the rules of engagement for solution providers are being re-written. In the past where the sales and marketing teams traditionally controlled the conversation and the education process, buyers are now dictating how and when they want to be contacted.
In this new inbound world, traditional outbound sales and marketing methods, such as cold calling, are virtually disappearing as the next generation Business-to-Business buyer often starts the journey by tuning to social media and peer connections to learn how other companies have handled similar business challenges. Then, once they have mapped those experiences to their own needs, the 2.0 buyer spends time researching the websites of targeted solution providers and controls the conversation by reaching out directly or arranging to be contacted at their preferred time and format.
The New Rules of Engagement
In the past, if a sales team was in danger of coming up short on its monthly or quarterly quota they typically would ratchet up their tele-prospecting spend to uncover a few live leads that could close quickly. That scenario of pumping new blood into the pipeline with quick outbound campaigns has become the exception to the rule in dealing with the next generation Business-to-Business buyer.
The now more educated, next generation buyer is increasingly biased against cold-scripted sales pitches, with the latest research confirming the 2.0 buyer migrates towards consultative sales approaches and expects a flow of relevant content from the solution provider they select.
The DemandGen Report, "Buyer Transformation Survey" revealed that less than 10% of recent buyers were contacted cold by the solution provider. More than 80% said they either called the solution provider directly or were contacted after they requested further information on the vendor's website.
Reaffirming the importance of the inbound consultative sale for new generation Business-to-Business buyers, almost 95% of the recent purchasers said the solution provider they chose "provided them with ample content to help navigate through each stage of the buying process." Consistent with other industry research, case studies, best practices data, white papers, ROI tools and vendor comparison analysis was cited as the most helpful content sources.
The new rules of engagement dictate that solution providers can no longer just rely on a blitz of email campaigns, webinar invitations or other outbound media to drive a flood of prospects into the top of the funnel. To successfully engage the 2.0 buyer, expertise in both outbound and inbound marketing is a requirement.
In addition, Business-to-Business organizations need tools and processes that enable them to share the intelligence gathered from outbound and inbound marketing and respond to quickly to the needs of the buyer. Illustrating the importance of agility, nearly 80% of respondents in the DemandGen Report indicated "timeliness of response" was an influential factor in selecting their vendor.
The survey also showed the need for alignment of the sales and marketing teams. Nearly 70% of respondents indicated the "consistent and relevant communication provided by both the sales and marketing organizations" was a key influence in choosing that company as their solution provider.
The New Blueprint for Business-to-Business Buying
The classic path for a Business-to-Business buyer has traditionally been built around "BANT" criteria, with Budget, Authority, Need and Timing all identified before a prospect is considered a qualified sales lead. However, according to the results of a different DemandGen Report survey, the Business-to-Business buying process is changing dramatically because of social media and the need to clearly demonstrate ROI. This survey found only 2 in 10 Business-to-Business executives who were involved in the purchase of a solution during the past 12 months indicated budget for the project was approved and allocated during the beginning of the year. More than 8 in 10 respondents said the buying process did not follow a traditional path where a budget was established, criteria outlined and then an RFP distributed to a pre-set list of solution providers.
Nearly 4 in 10 respondents indicated they determined "the potential impact through other adopters and built a business case for immediate adoption," then received approval although the project was unbudgeted. Contrary to the traditional image of the funnel, where the engagement process involves a controlled dialog between the buyer and seller, the survey revealed the selection process is now influenced by factors outside of the funnel. For example:
- 78% of buyers started with informal information gathering around a business challenge;
- 59% engaged with peers who had addressed the challenge;
- 48% followed industry conversations on the topic
- 44% conducted anonymous research of a select group of vendors
- 41% researched papers/postings from thought leaders
Also demonstrating a more flexible and nimble buying process, 25% of respondents indicated budget for the solution was allocated as part of a larger line item once the need was established and the ROI was clearly demonstrated. More than 10% said budget was determined after multiple bids were collected and 7% indicated budget was taken from another line item based on the clear ROI for the project.
While the budgeting process has become more nimble in many regards, buyers are also taking a more careful and calculated approach to the purchase process. For sales executives frustrated that deals are not moving through the funnel faster, the reality is most buyers have a different checklist for firming up a purchase decision. For example, recent buyers said they:
- Utilized a wider variety of sources to research their options (48%)
- Took more time research and consider solutions (48%)
- Did more detailed analysis of costs/ROI (36%)
- Had more internal members providing input (30%)
- Relied more on live or direct customer feedback (27%)
The Growing Peer to Peer Influence
The survey also showed the growing influence social media, blogs and other Web 2.0 tools are having on the Business-to-Business buying process. More than 40% of social media users said they followed discussions threads to learn more about the topic they were researching, and 37% said they posted specific questions on social networking sites looking for feedback on how others solved the specific business challenge. A significant number (21%) said they connected directly with potential solution providers via social networking channels.
The majority of social media users reported Twitter and LinkedIn influenced their decisions during the "Solution Analysis" and "Problem Identification" phases. Nearly 90% indicated that blogs influenced their research during the "Solution Analysis" phase and 3 in 4 respondents said social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Delicious were utilized during the early Analysis phases.
Business-to-Business buyers are also increasingly interested in sharing their experiences after they have completed a purchase, with more than 60% of respondents indicating they shared the learnings from their research and buying process with others after the fact. One-on-one discussions were the most common platform for sharing insights, but blog postings and participating in discussion forums on LinkedIn and other social sites represented a growing area.
The New Influences
To summarize, the Business-to-Business buying process has changed:
- 78% started with informal info gathering
- 59% engaged with peers who addressed the challenge
- 48% followed industry conversation on topic
- 44% conducted anonymous research of a select group of vendors
- 41% followed discussions to learn more about topic
- 37% posted questions on social networking sites looking for suggestions/feedback
- More than 20% connected directly with potential solution providers via social networking channels
Conclusion
Buyers now control the engagement process and they are expecting and demanding solution providers to respond to their information needs in a timely manner and through a variety of channels and mediums.
Rather than relying on outbound campaigns to drive engagement, progressive Business-to-Business organizations are succeeding in today's new paradigm by listening and responding to the conversations buyers are having in the social media sphere.
Agility and alignment become even more critical for solution providers to connect with next generation Business-to-Business buyer. Because more purchases are starting with informal information gathering, buyers are posting questions and following discussions on social media channels.
In this environment, sales and marketing teams are frequently functioning outside the traditional funnel to educate and nurture buyers with content that is directly relevant to each stage of the buying process. Engagements are now starting via platforms like RSS feeds, Twitter and LinkedIn and are being won by the providers that position themselves as a resource by providing relevant content and developing relationships with personalized messages.
Since the majority of next generation buyers are conducting anonymous research, it has become a competitive necessity to monitor and be present in the social media sphere as well to track online behaviour and use that intelligence to provide relevant follow up. To gain a competitive edge, Business-to-Business firms need the ability to see when a prospect demonstrates buying behaviour no matter where it is and quickly alert the appropriate sales rep, in real-time, when any of their prospects take a qualifying action.
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