How have buying preferences changed in recent years?

Enterprise sales organizations need to be mindful of how today’s B2B customers want to buy. This can be tricky for sales teams who are under pressure from their sales leaders to close deals and therefore want as much interaction as possible with buyers in the early stages of their buying journeys. The problem is that buying preferences have changed significantly in recent years. Buyers only want to speak with sales people in the latter stages of their buying journey and, more often than not, prospects don’t need to (or want to) follow a seller- assisted buying journey that was common in the pre-digital era. Therefore, it is up to sales organizations to provide personalized buying experiences without imposing means of communication that customers simply don’t want.

To achieve this, organizations need to embrace the concept of human-assisted buying experiences that take place in the digital world. Firstly, this means empowering buyers to do their own research on your business and products or services, along with serving content on the platforms they regularly use and promoting content through people they already trust. It also means participating in, and sometimes even creating, relevant digital communities. The truth is that many buyers are having private conversations online without the seller even knowing, which is why it has become so crucial for organizations to provide educational content that can be easily accessed across their website and social media channels. The enterprise B2B sales journey is no longer transactional, it is about education and building partnerships with your customers.