Why Buyer Enablement Matters in B2B Sales?
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If you’re in B2B sales, you’re not alone if you think your job is hard right now. You may even agree that selling is harder today than it’s ever been in the past. But have you tried putting yourself in your buyers’ shoes and looking at things from their point of view? Buying B2B solutions has also never been harder. Yet, when you understand the challenges your buyers face when they want to purchase a solution – and try to address them – you can make buying from you much simpler, differentiate yourself from your competitors, and ultimately, sell more.
That’s where buyer enablement comes in.
What is Buyer Enablement?
Buyer enablement is a strategic approach in B2B sales focused on helping buyers in their decision-making process.
It involves providing tailored insights, building consensus, and simplifying the purchasing journey to enhance the overall buyer experience. This approach prioritizes collaboration, proactive engagement, and the delivery of relevant content, steering away from traditional sales-centric methods. The goal is to connect with buyers, making the buying process seamless and effective.
The Changes in the B2B Buyers Journey
B2B sales has undergone a significant transformation, marked by an increase in the number of people involved in the consumer decision process. Unlike the past, where a salesperson could interact with one or two decision-makers, today's buying teams consist of 6-10 individuals from various business functions. Each team member brings different priorities and perspectives, making the purchasing journey more complex.
Gartner's research indicates that 77% of buyers find B2B purchases "very complex and difficult," with challenges arising from conflicting priorities and information overload.
Larger Buying Teams
The presence of larger buying teams has made the traditional step-by-step buying journey more intricate. While collaboration is essential, the complexity introduced by multiple decision-makers often leads to loops and duplications in the process. Navigating through this complexity becomes a challenge for buyers, affecting the efficiency of the buying journey.
Shift in Buyer Behavior
Buyers no longer want to be sold to in the traditional sense. Approximately 43% of buyers, according to Gartner, prefer a buying experience without direct contact with sales representatives. Independent research, accounting for 45% of the buying process, has become a dominant factor. Buyers seek information through digital channels and engage with sellers only at the final stages of decision-making.
Limitations of Traditional Sales-Centric Approaches
The conventional sales process, which relied on cold calls, meetings, pitches, and negotiations, faces limitations in the current B2B environment. Salespeople lack the same level of access to decision-makers, and by the time a buyer engages with them, substantial research has already taken place. The traditional sales-centric approach fails to address the challenges posed by larger buying teams and the preference for independent research.
Loss of Control Over Information
Sales teams employing traditional methodologies no longer have the same control over the information presented to buyers. While pitch decks and demos on company websites are still valuable, buyers also explore social media, review sites, and peer interactions. This diversification of information sources diminishes the influence sales teams can exert over the buyer's perception.
Changing Buyer Preferences
Buyers are increasingly averse to traditional sales techniques like BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) or MEDDIC (Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain or Problem). The dissatisfaction with the difficulty of the buying process calls for a reevaluation of sales strategies.
Enter Buyer Enablement
Buyer enablement represents a paradigm shift, focusing on aiding buyers in their decision-making rather than pushing sales. Effective buyer enablement involves a collaborative journey with the buyer, offering insights, building consensus, and simplifying the sales process. The goal is to connect with buyers through tailored content, making the buying experience seamless.
Best Strategies for effective buyer enablement
Journey Support: Engage with the buyer from initial contact to post-purchase, providing continuous support.
Insights at Every Stage: Deliver relevant insights throughout the buying process, addressing specific buyer needs.
Consensus Building: Facilitate consensus among buying team members, instilling confidence in their decision.
Connection, Not Selling: Focus on connecting buyers with tailored content that aids their decision-making.
Simplified Purchasing: Make it easy for buyers to complete the purchase through coaching, guidance, and support.
How to be more buyer-centric
The cornerstone of a buyer enablement strategy is delivering tailored, data-driven, and concise and easy to understand content. Understanding the target account's business and buying problems is crucial. A buyer-centric approach involves anticipating buyer needs, being proactive, and aligning sales and marketing teams for seamless collaboration.
Best practices in being more buyer-centric
Deep Understanding: Grasp the target account's business and buying problems to create compelling, relevant messaging.
Mapping the Buying Process: Work with the initial contact (champion) to understand the buying team and their priorities.
Tailored Content Delivery: Provide content tailored to the buyer's role and the specific stage of the buying journey.
Proactive and Responsive Engagement: Anticipate and meet buyer needs, being responsive to their preferred communication channels.
Alignment of Sales and Marketing: Ensure clear communication and collaboration between sales and marketing teams to deliver relevant content.
Introducing FORWARD: The Buyer Enablement Platform
Forward is a buyer enablement platform designed to streamline the B2B sales process. It provides a collaborative workspace where sales teams can engage with target accounts, share content, assign tasks, and set deadlines. Real-time notifications keep the sales cycle on track, ensuring a smooth deal closure. Forward enhances the buyer experience by offering a centralized platform for content access, making it easier for buying teams to collaborate.
Key Features of FORWARD
Dedicated Workspaces: Create a secure workspace for each target account, facilitating content sharing and collaboration.
Task Assignment and Deadlines: Efficiently manage the deal progression by assigning tasks and setting deadlines within the workspace.
Real-Time Notifications: Stay informed with real-time notifications, preventing any lapses in communication.
Analytics and Insights: Real-time analytics about sales process and the health of your pipeline can help you make decisions based on data.
Benefits for Sales Teams and Buyers
Sales teams benefit from a collaborative process, shorter sales cycles, and increased relevance in digital sales. Buyers appreciate the streamlined buying experience, allowing each team member to work efficiently with the right information.
To sum up;
In b2b sales that is always changing, buyer enablement is becoming a popular way to deal with the problems that come up with bigger buying teams and changing buyer habits. Rather than selling, buyer enablement includes delivering personalised content, being proactive, and the sales and marketing teams working together. Platforms like Forward make this method better by giving everyone a digital sales room to work together and share material easily. Businesses can change to the new way of selling by using buyer enablement. This will help them succeed in always changing B2B world.
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