Bringing Value to the B2B Buyer Through Internal Collaboration
September 9, 2020
Written and shared by Cheryl Ader-Dunne, Employee Experience Practice Lead, Ogilvy
In the business-to-business (B2B) buying environment, digital channels have become a primary source for researching, interacting with and often purchasing solutions. With COVID-19, their use has only accelerated as organizations decreased, if not completely eliminated, in-person meetings with salespeople.
Because of this shift, a misperception exists that the role of the salesperson has decreased in importance. This is not true. Salespeople still play a critical but shifting role in this evolving buying environment.
Buyers still look to salespeople for insights and interaction. They expect the exchange to deliver value at the moment of engagement. And that value must go beyond what can be found on a website.
According to Forrester:
57 percent [of buyers] still make their initial technology purchase with a salesperson. (1)
In 2018, the number of business buyers who say they find interacting with a rep superior to gathering information on their own increased by 5 percent. (2)
Buyers want choice
Today’s buyers decide how and when to interact with a company—whether downloading a case study or connecting with sales via Zoom to understand the unique benefits of a solution. The engagement choice is theirs, and companies must be ready to deliver value at every interaction.
The financial impact of COVID-19 has also placed greater scrutiny on every purchase a company makes, so a new set of stakeholders may be part of the buying committee. Now, more interactions are necessary to address the priorities and requirements of all involved in the purchasing decision, further lengthening the buying process. It will require a joint effort between sales and marketing teams to effectively nurture and demonstrate value to a more complex buying group.
The best experience comes from a unified approach
To provide the ideal buying experience, marketing and sales teams must be unified in objectives and approach. A coordinated effort is required to map buyer interaction points by channel and to clearly define roles for digital marketing and sales throughout the journey.
It will require significant internal collaboration to deliver the seamless experience buyers expect, across digital and human channels that drive engagement and deliver the value necessary to move all stakeholders toward a purchase decision.
In the new B2B buying world, there is a role for every channel, including sales. A thoughtful, coordinated approach among marketing and sales is the only way companies will be able to deliver the experience buyers expect.
Written and shared by Cheryl Ader-Dunne, Employee Experience Practice Lead, Ogilvy
To learn more about this topic from Cheryl and other key partners of The Marketing Alliance, register to join our webinar on September 24th on how marketers can support B2B sales teams during tough times.
Sources:
1 Forrester Analytics, Global Business Technographics® Priorities And Journey Survey, 2019.
2 Forrester Research, Predictions 2020: B2B Marketing And Sales, updated January 24, 2020.
