Vickie Sullivan

Market Strategy for Thought Leaders

Resources  >> How B2B Buyers Decide Who to Work With

Written by: Vickie Sullivan  |  June 04, 2024

How B2B Buyers Decide Who to Work With

B2B buying committee deciding on a purchase
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Confession: I buried the lead in my March 28 post about buyer needs (How to Adjust Your Sales Approach for Today’s Informed Buyer). What I should have done is focused on the most important findings from the 6sense study: how B2B buyers choose who to work with.

Let’s do that now.

In the good ol’ days, sales conversations were a numbers game. If we wanted more clients, we’d just talk to more buyers. Not anymore. The following two stats are eye-opening and explain why many sales conversations fall on deaf ears.

• Sales conversations have little influence over the timeline and buying process. Eighty-three percent of buyers initiate first contact with the buyers when they are 70% through the buying process. (This is why those pitches on LinkedIn are met with silence.) Either we’re on the list or we’re not.

• By the time the buyers reach out, they know who they want. When buyers are ready, they contact four vendors. And 84% of the time, the first vendor contacted gets the deal. It’s our job to figure out where we are in that pecking order and if we can change that.

Quality over quantity is the new sales game. Being the front runner is how opportunities turn into deals. Now is the time to figure out where we can be the go-to resource and ramp up efforts from that position of power.


Listen: How B2B Buyers Rank Vendors  

 


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