Gartner Says B2B Buyers Want More Simplicity in Accessing the Right Information, With or Without a Sales Rep

Today’s customers spend around two-thirds of any B2B buying journey gathering, processing and de-conflicting information, according to new research from Gartner, Inc. However, much of this learning happens without direct sales rep involvement. In today’s increasingly complex B2B sales environment, what customers truly value are suppliers that provide them with the right information, through the right channels, to make the purchase process easier.

“Today’s buying journey isn’t just hard — it has reached a tipping point where it’s become nearly unnavigable without a significant amount of help,” said Brent Adamson, principal executive advisor at Gartner. “However, customers today don’t really care where that help comes from. A conversation with a sales rep isn’t an end in itself, it’s simply a means to gathering the information necessary to complete specific buying ‘jobs.’ But, what matters isn’t the conversation, it’s the information provided.”

Mr. Adamson, who will be a featured keynote speaker at the Gartner Sales & Marketing Conference, said supplying customers with the right kind of information — specifically designed to enable the easy completion of buying jobs — gives customers a playbook to anticipate and overcome buying obstacles they might otherwise fail to address. This specific kind of support, in turn, significantly decreases the kind of purchase regret known to reduce customer loyalty and advocacy. At the same time, it dramatically increases a supplier’s likelihood of winning a larger deal at a better price.

“Much like sales enablement, sales organizations must focus on what we call ‘buyer enablement,'” added Mr. Adamson. “Sales teams need to harness empathy, and their deep industry and customer knowledge to develop and deploy information to help buyers buy — just as they do to enable sellers to sell more easily.”

To get started and better position sales teams for success, sales leaders must:

• Identify Customer Pain Points — Uncover the hurdles/challenges customers must overcome along the purchase process.
• Create “Buyer Enablement” Tools — Develop specific information and resources to help customers anticipate and overcome challenges throughout the buying journey.
• Be Consistent Across Channels — Ensure buyer enablement is available to all customers consistently across both digital and seller channels.

Additional details on buyer enablement and how sales organizations can simplify the buying journey for customers are available to Gartner for Sales Leaders clients in the report “Elevating the Value of Sales Interactions: Winning Deals by Enabling Buyers.” This topic and others like it will be discussed at the Gartner Sales & Marketing Conference in Las Vegas, NV, October 9-11, 2018.

About the Gartner Sales & Marketing Conference

Sales and marketing leaders face unprecedented changes in customer expectations, technology and the talent needed to drive results. At the Gartner Sales & Marketing Conference 2018, taking place October 9-11 in Las Vegas, sales and marketing leaders will learn from the latest research, Gartner experts and esteemed peers, to guide them through this time of change. Follow news and updates from the event on Twitter at #GartnerSMC.