When businesses want to purchase products or services, they engage in complex B2B buying processes. These processes are characterized by longer cycles, more touchpoints, and involve multiple stages and decision-makers. B2B decision-makers are often drawn from different seniority levels and departments. They are accountable to their respective leaders or heads in the organization.
During the B2B buyer journey, each decision-maker gathers four to five facts. The expanded buying team and the need to build consensus make it difficult for businesses to purchase efficiently. The B2B buying process is further complicated by the fact that increasingly, more people are working remotely than ever before.
These aren’t the only distinct aspects of the B2B purchase process. The amount of time that decision-makers spend in the B2B buying process also matters. Research by Gartner shows that 17% B2B buyers spend their time meeting potential suppliers and only 6% of the time comparing suppliers and engaging sales people.
On the contrary, B2B buyers spend at least 45% of their time researching offline and online sources prior to making a purchase decision. These aspects can slow down the sales process for businesses that target B2B companies.
However, understanding what B2B buyers consider when making purchase decisions can turn things around. With this knowledge, marketers can help B2B decision-makers to overcome the challenges they encounter in their purchase journey.
The Top 10 Things B2B Decision-Makers Consider
Whether they are hiring a service provider or buying a software, B2B decision-makers evaluate a range of factors to determine the suitability of the product or service for the business, including its impact on business operations and employee productivity.
In this article, we explore how each of the 10 factors below affects B2B buying decisions:
- Product Performance
- Product Pricing
- Expertise
- Customer Service
- Scalability
- After-Sale Services
- Integration Capabilities
- Data Security and Compliance
- Uptime and Reliability
- Customization and Flexibility
1. Product Performance
Product performance is a major factor in the B2B buying process. For decision-makers, this factor transcends knowing about a product or service features, and the benefits it offers the business. When evaluating product performance, B2B decision-makers want to know how a product or service works, and how it solves their problems.
B2B marketers can create better brand awareness and make information about performance of their products more visible and accessible to B2B decision-makers using:
- Product descriptions
- Whitepapers
- Product demos
- Product reviews
Other important content pieces that B2B marketers can use to provide product performance information in the B2B buying process are customer testimonials and case studies. This kind of content highlights experiences from other users and provides B2B decision-makers with social proof about different products or services. Such insights are crucial because 77% of B2B buyers rely on social proof to make purchase decisions.
Many companies find it challenging to effectively communicate product performance to their target audience. This undermines efforts to convert potential leads to customers. B2B marketers can leverage Unbound Promote to integrate data-driven advertising in their content distribution strategies. This allows them to strategically place product descriptions, demos, white papers and customer testimonials in front of their target audiences across various digital channels. By doing so, companies can make their brands more visible and enable decision-makers to access the product performance information they need to make informed decisions.
2. Product Pricing
When companies buy a product, they’re buying a collection of benefits that can broadly be categorized into functional, emotional, and economic benefits. To maximize these benefits, B2B decision-makers assess the value of a service or product before making purchase decisions. This assessment involves evaluating a range of factors including:
- Product efficiency – money and time it saves the business
- Long-term benefits for the business
- Product price relative to performance
- Psychological feelings the product evokes in users
Besides evaluating product prices against the value they offer, B2B decision-makers consider how competitive product prices are by comparing supplier prices. Other pricing aspects that influence purchase decisions in the B2B buying process include:
- Discounts
- Credits like free trials
- Allowances
- Transparency of the pricing model
A great way to influence the B2B buying process is to eliminate any hidden costs from your products and make prices transparent. This way decision-makers can trust your product fully knowing that they won’t have to pay more than what is already stipulated.
3. Expertise
Expertise is the other big factor B2B decision-makers consider when making purchase decisions. B2B buyers trust suppliers that demonstrate in-depth industry knowledge. They prefer brands that not only meet their needs, but also offer them unique insights.
B2B buyers are likely to buy from a company that educates them about their problems and pain points, and offers them solid expert advice throughout the purchase process. For B2B decision-makers, expertise shows that a brand is capable of understanding their needs and providing effective solutions to them.
B2B marketers can position their companies as experts in their industries by:
- Publishing thought leadership content on their websites or third party sites
- Publishing industry reports
- Hosting webinars with experts
- Publishing whitepapers online
- Speaking in industry events like conferences
Ensuring that thought leadership content pieces reach the intended audience is a big challenge for many marketers. Unbound Initiate’s targeted lead generation allows B2B marketers to disseminate thought leadership content to their target audiences. This ensures their expertise and industry insights reach audiences that match their ideal customer profiles and generate high-potential leads for their companies.
4. Customer Service
EB2B purchases are long-term and involve huge amounts of money. As such, B2B buyers value relationships and trust. Besides buying products, B2B buyers want assurance that they can get timely support when they need it.
Customer service shapes buyer experiences and has a huge impact on customer satisfaction. Statistics show that 86% of B2B buyers value experience more than they value product and pricing- they are willing to pay more for it. Most buyers are not willing to wait for days to have their problem resolved.
B2B decision makers evaluate customer service options that suppliers provide. Some of the things they consider include availability of:
- Personalized customer service
- Live chat option on supplier websites
- Self-service option
- Dedicated account manager
5. Scalability
Like any other business, B2B companies are always envisioning growth. When they’re buying new products, they don’t just want to take care of their immediate needs. They’re also looking to meet their future growth needs. To cater for their changing needs, decision-makers in the B2B industry consider the potential of products to scale and support their needs. These changes range from expanding production lines and increasing functionalities, to entering new markets, among others.
6. After-Sale Services
B2B buyers often consider availability of after-sale services when making purchase decisions, especially when they’re buying costly products. They want to be assured that they’ll be able to fully utilize the product in question. After-sale services may include maintenance, training, and upgrades.
For instance, when hiring a lead generation service agency or vendor, decision-makers will opt for a supplier who can train its staff and provide technical backstopping to ensure they’re comfortable pursuing high-quality leads generated by the service.
7. Integration Capabilities
In today’s highly digital business landscape, integration is becoming critical for businesses as they seek to improve communication, streamline their processes, reduce operational costs, and grow revenue. Integration also enables businesses to scale their marketing operations easily as they grow.
As they make purchase decisions, businesses check how different products integrate with their current tech infrastructure. They prefer solutions that offer them seamless integration capabilities, flexibility, scalability, and robust security features. Decision-makers read product demos, case studies, product reviews, whitepapers, and product descriptions to understand product integration capabilities.
B2B marketers can target decision-makers in specific roles with personalized ads and emails that direct them to product demos, descriptions, reviews, and white papers. This way, they can determine buyer intent while demonstrating product integration capabilities to their target audiences.
8. Data Security and Compliance
With the changes in the global regulatory environment, data security and compliance has become critical for all businesses. Companies handle a wide range of critical information that is prone to data security and privacy risks.
This data ranges from customer data to financial records, and business strategies. Companies must protect their data from insider threats, data breaches, and external hacks. When making buying decisions, B2B buyers consider the robustness of data encryption in tech products to facilitate securing data storage and transmission across systems.
They also evaluate how the products enable them to comply with data privacy standards such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). They also check whether the product or service is trusted by their third-party data service providers.
9. Uptime and Reliability
B2B buyers look for reliable products or services that offer them value. Reliability and uptime are extremely important for businesses, particularly when the purchase involves acquiring mission critical systems or equipment like servers. This is because any delays or downtime can affect business operations and lead to significant losses.
When making purchase decisions, B2B decision-makers evaluate products for performance and track record for high uptime. They also seek to understand the various components that affect performance and evaluate them for quality. It is essential to showcase stability and reliability in your messaging, as decision-makers often read product descriptions, customer reviews, testimonials, and check product ratings to find trustworthy suppliers.
B2B sales and marketing teams can support buyers in the purchase process by making this content available and accessible across multiple digital platforms.
10. Customization and Flexibility
Customization and flexibility of invoicing and payment processes is the other factor B2B decision-makers consider when making purchase decisions. Statistics show that 78% of buyers want to control some aspects of the purchase experience. For instance, they want customized invoices that capture crucial details like serial numbers, PO numbers, and VINs for tracking purposes.
Buyers prefer more flexible payment options due to problems with credit cards in corporate setups that include high fees, transaction limits, surcharges, and strict payment policies. Trade credit is the most preferred payment option, particularly for large purchases.
Conclusion
The B2B buying process is long and complex. Multiple decision-makers participate in this process. This process involves accessing company needs and pain points and researching potential solutions. Decision makers then evaluate available options before settling on a product or service that aligns with their business goals. Understanding the B2B buying journey and the factors that drive purchase decisions enables sales marketing teams to customize their strategies and navigate the B2B buying process more effectively.
Now that you understand the key factors in the B2B buying journey, it’s time to take action. Whether you’re looking to build brand awareness, capture demand, or improve conversion rates, we’re here to help you succeed.
Sophia Westfiel
24 August 2024
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