Every year (for the past 7 years) TrustRadius has produced a Buyer Disconnect Report that is absolutely brilliant and full of insight.
"Buyer Disconnect" is the gap between?buyers and vendors?refers to the?gap between what?buyers are looking?for and how vendors?are trying to?influence their?decisions. This?disconnect can?lead to misaligned expectations, ineffective?marketing strategies, and ultimately, lost sales opportunities.
These are my notes from the TrustRadius 2023 Buyer Disconnect Report. (Link to full report at the bottom of the post.)
- Seventh edition of this study.
- Surveys both vendors and buyers
- Looks to compare what buyers say influences their buying decision to what marketers believe influences those decisions
- There is a big gap between these perspectives; this is called the B2B Buyer Disconnect. Examples:
- Over 70% of buyers stated user reviews were very important to their buying decision; Only 35% of marketers believed user reviews were influential to buyers.
- Only 20% of marketers believe a prospect’s prior experience and re-engaging previous customers is influential in the buying decision; 70% of buyers stated they would rely on prior experience and re-engagement with a company.
- Old sales playbook is no longer applicable; the buyer’s journey is more self-serve. This is a big change. It means ungating content, building transparent pricing pages and offering interactive demos and free trials.
- Buying groups are getting larger and are going up to the C-suite
- Most traditional B2B go-to-market motions are not aligned with buyer expectations
Today’s Buyers are Digital Natives
- Majority of buyers are millennials, making up over 68% of the buying committee. Gen Z is growing steadily.
- These buyers are digitally native. They are accustomed to self-serve and using social media.
Today’s Buyers Want to Self-Serve
- They prefer to do their own research during the buying process.
- They want to self-serve and validate the claims of the seller.
- Most purchases in the B2C world are made without interacting with anyone; this trend of self-service buying is now prevalent in B2B space.
- Self-serve behaviors have become second nature and are significantly impacting the B2B sector.
- The role of the salesperson is evolving in the self-serve economy, becoming more consultative and less transactional
- Outbound motions are becoming more challenging, requiring high levels of proficiency.
- All buyers want to self-serve and will generally avoid talking to sales representatives.
- By the time they speak to sales, they've either shortlisted or chosen a product.
- 56% of buyers have already made a purchase decision before speaking to a sales rep, indicating a higher likelihood of a sale
- Buyers usually talk to sales reps to understand details or negotiate pricing
- By giving buyers self-serve product information, you accelerate your deals and increase the quality of leads reaching out to sales.
- This can actually ease the sales team's job, allowing them to focus on consultation rather than spending time with less qualified prospects?
Prior Experience Weighs Heavily
- Buyers are increasingly relying on their own prior experience when choosing technology.
- This trend was not previously recognized but has now become the third most influential resource for buyers.
- People tend to choose technology they have had success with before.
- Re-engaging with prior customers is important, as well as turning existing clients into advocates —?if they move to another company, they will continue to buy the same technology.
- People prefer to rely on their own past experience.
- When a person assumes a role at a new company, a significant portion of their initial budget is spent remediating?the tech stack they've inherited.
- They assess the current tech stack, renewal dates, and overall performance.
- They often revamp the tech stack based on their previous experience.
- It’s important to build?a relationship with such individuals, so if they move to a different company, they can be reengaged
- The buying committee is growing in size; decisions are no longer delegated to the practitioner level
- Internal champion has to pitch a business case to the C-Suite, especially the CFO
- Businesses must prove their value to buyers and customers upfront
- Economic uncertainty and risk aversion is changing the buying cycle.
- Buyers still use traditional resources such as user reviews and interactive product demos.
- But they are also looking for free trials and upfront pricing.
- The reflexive action used to be to build a Return on Investment (ROI) calculator, but they are hard to make and hard to believe.
- The term ROI has become a broad term and everyone has changed their messaging around it.
- It's important to get specific about the type of ROI and what buyers care about, such as time savings, cost savings, and impact on revenue.
- Understanding what the audience values is crucial; the study showed a disconnect between what buyers and vendors think of ROI.
- Buyers are thinking about time savings and cost savings due to tightened budgets and reduced headcount; they want to do more with less.
- Buyers evaluate whether a product will save them time and integrate into their systems, essentially assessing the time to value and whether it's good value for money.
- Vendors, on the other hand, often focus on the impact on revenue
- The concept of "increased revenue" is too abstract and far-reaching for buyers, who then struggle to explain its impact to their CFOs.
- Vendors' ROI calculations often include pipeline, revenue, or retention, which can be hard for buyers to conceptualize and prove in a credible way.
- People are increasingly valuing time savings, particularly when starting new projects or implementations.
- This includes time to implementation and time to value; The ability to get up and running quickly is highly prized.
- In the SaaS industry, for example, if a piece of software takes 90 days to become operational, the buyer can feel like most of the contract period has been wasted.
Interactive Demos & Free Trials
- Customers want interactive demos and trials; they don’t want to have to talk to sales to explore
- Interactive demos are important to the buyer.
- Today’s buyers want to see a pricing page. They do not want it to be “Contact Sales”
Review and Consolidation of Tech Stacks
- People are beginning to assess their tech stack.
- They are considering what technology they have but are not fully utilizing.
- They are exploring unused integrations that their current tech stack offers, which could prevent the need to purchase additional systems for data integration.
- Individuals are conducting audits of their own systems.
- They are seeking more integrations, ease of use, and time savings from their tech stack.
- Buyers increasingly value authenticity in business interactions
- Buyers don’t trust what vendors say
- The traditional marketing approach, which is filled with jargon and offers a company-centric view, is turning off potential buyers
- Buyers prefer the voice of the customer over the voice of the company
- Competitors can match features and they can outspend you. The unique aspect of your company that cannot be replicated by competitors is the voice of the customer.
- Look incorporate the customer's voice into channels where potential buyers are present
- Credibility is essential. You build credibility with thought leadership
