The potential growth rate of martech is exponentially high as compared to the actual growth. Despite the steady rise in B2B business transactions, it seems that the marketers are not too trusting of the vendor information.
The trust of B2B buyers on vendor information is reducing at a rapid rate. As per a report, more than 36% of B2B tech buyers surveyed say that vendors had low or no influence when it came to them choosing a product, while 44% said vendors were somewhat influential. But, vendors do need to win over the skeptical buyers as well.
In most cases, buyers view vendor-provided information as inherently biased or deceitful, and in some cases, the details provided fail to adequately address some of the specific issues that a particular buyer may be concerned about. All B2B buyers do want to see the product in action.
Free trials and product demos rank as the top preferred option for accurate sources of information. They are more trusted than analyst rankings. Transparency about limitations, timelines, and product capabilities is a must for the ease of B2B buying decisions. In this context, being upfront and candid seems to be one of the keys to success.
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Another smart way is to simply talk business benefits by focusing on the ROI, which is the central metric to justify the purchase. About 50% of the buyers confirmed faster decision-making process with vendors sharing customer experiences and authentic reviews. Buyers are also expected to engage in more research before finalizing the budget.
The buying process seems cumbersome due to many factors like – difficulty in finding specific information, too much follow up outreach, lack of ease in comparing products simultaneously, forced registration before relevant information is visible.
These factors either push the buyers to purchase having incomplete knowledge or make them reluctant to buy altogether. The difficulty of comparison is since there are multiple options with all vouching for something different.
B2B buyers stress the importance of understanding the cons before buying any product. The majority 71% of buyer’s press on knowing the cons of a product or service before purchasing it, is a pre-requisite. But, shockingly only 4 in 10 vendors consider it as a prerequisite.
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The internal competition among the vendors gets the comparison matrix unwieldy–with buyers lacking sufficient knowledge to figure out. The gap between the B2B buyers and vendors need to be eradicated with vendors being more thoughtful about what and how they share, and how they approach the follow-up discussions. Vendors need to relentlessly adapt their approach to customer expectation from case to case basis.