The evolution of the B2B buyer journey

Is it just me or are you being harrassed with sales calls and email spam day after day? It's relentless and in some cases even increasingly uncomfortable as desperate sales agents are aggressive if they get little response. It's a B2B problem mostly even if we experience it in the B2C space too - mostly from insurance companies. Imagine if Coca-Cola or McDonald's were to send out an army of telesales teams to remind you to commit to some dark cola and the regret of the old post-consumed Big Mac. It's time for B2B to understand buyer behaviour and adopt a new approach.

I was wondering why it's becoming more and more difficult for the sales representative to break through and that got me thinking about the B2B buying landscape:

• B2B deals are big - much bigger than B2C and as a result have much longer sales cycles. These are usually 12-18 months on average but some projects could take years to close. But, the C-Suite want immediate results as they report on their Quarterly results. In 2018, in the US, B2B sales totalled over 9 trillion USD.

"Playing the long game is key, particulalry in B2B"

• B2B is a sales department focussed first, marketing less so. Marketing has always had the ear at large consumer companies but in B2B it's a second thought. Sales want leads from marketing now and are less interested in the long-term value marketing brings. Finance also doesn't take the marketer too seriously. They believe buyers make 'rational' decisions based on things like price, functionality, engineering etc. Short-term sales matter because short-term outcomes are often seen as the measure of success/ failure. But as well all know, short-term outcome is not a true measure of success whether you're winning or losing - the long-term is.
• B2B buyers are withdrawing from the random reach out not only because of the spam but technology has given them access to doing their independent research in their own time. They are in control - not you. The B2B Institute are doing some important work in understanding the behaviour in this field and has tons of material to get you up to date.
• It is not a rational buy. With more complex buying committees and "collective confidence" groups being set up internally, B2B buyers are trying to avoid risk in making decisions. This has several drawbacks and implications alone. Rory Sutherland's white paper "The Objectivity Trap" refers to a few including the Abilene Paradox (JB Harvey) and the Correlated Error Box (J Surowiecki). Behavioural biases are more at play than you experience in normal consumer decisions.
• A safe buy is the best buy. Unfortunately in B2B, we experience "defensive decision-making". Rory Sutherland talks about it in the same paper above. Although decision-makers (especially in large companies) think they are making an optimal decision given the available information they are heavily influenced by a second consideration: not “What is the best decision I could make for my company?” but “What is the decision I could make which has the least worst-case consequences for me?” As a result brands with a market share position of 1 or 2 are set up to win and those sitting 3rd and beyond highly unlikely to be thought of.
• The market is 'thin'. Relevant to both B2B and B2C, the amount of buyers ready to buy now is fractional. John Dawes at the Ehrenburg Bass Institute has done a lot of work in this area but in general terms, 95% of your targetted buyers are not in the market to buy at any given stage. Read the paper here. Ironically in B2B, we seem to be only focussed on converting the 5% in the market forgetting that the 95% 'out of market' buyers are more important to be nudging and reminding. It's probably why the barrage of email and phone call spams might (and I mean might) only lure a tiny proportion of in-market buyers!

It may sound like a bit of doom and gloom but there are immediate remedies that can be implemented. Sure enough, it might be difficult to get buy-in from sales, finance and the C-suite but taking a feather from the CMO's cap, if we can communicate it we can help resonate it. Here are my 5 tips:

1. Build awareness of your brand in line with your sales cycle - follow the 'always on' communication approach focusing on channels where your buyer is investing their time. Nurture the potentials that know your brand and offer them the easiest way to reach out when they are ready to buy. Reach as many of them as your budget allows.
2. Focus on building credibility and trust. If you are brand 3 and beyond in market share it's going to be tough to be thought of given the "defensive decision-making" we face in B2B, so make sure your target audience knows you're not a risk!
3. Invest in better creativity. Even B2B buyers are human and irrational. Emotions play an important part in building brand salience with your target buyers. Build distinctive creative assets so that your buyers can recognise you quickly and don't associate you with a competitor. And because most of the B2B creative today stirs very little emotion and response there is a huge opportunity to step out of the mould. This work by Spotify was recognised at Cannes and was very clever! A Song for every CMO.
4. Understand the buying committee better. Also known as collective confidence, these groups are essential in slowly getting buy-in. They could cross multi-departments and cover various levels from junior researchers to senior execs. Since they are terrified of making a wrong call for their careers, understand how you can put their minds at risk.
5. Educate the sales and finance teams, and manage their expectations. Turn the marketing funnel on its side and explain that future buyers are essential for future cashflows and growth. If the future customers are being developed that means more leads, converted leads, revenues and a whopping bottom line! A good start would be to get into the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute to understand the science.