As technology providers navigate Frugalnomics in the New Year, Gartner has identified critical trends that demand continued attention into 2025. These trends emphasize the urgent need for transformation in go-to-market (GTM) strategies to counteract emerging challenges and capitalize on opportunities. Ignoring these insights could result in significant setbacks for businesses.
Let’s explore two high-priority trends that Gartner has highlighted over this past year, and their implications into 2025.
Priority 1: Addressing Persistent Buyer Pessimism
Buyer indecision, purchase regret, and channel friction is creating substantial obstacles for technology providers. Over the past three years, shifting buyer behaviors have disrupted traditional sales pipelines, leading to decreased conversion rates, declining renewals and heightened challenges for GTM operations. And although there are some indications that these trends are bottoming, the sentiment remain at all time lows.
In fact, there remains:
- Extensive Purchase Regret: Gartner research has revealed that two-thirds of buyers regret their decisions even before the “ink is dry” on the contracts.
- Persistent Deal Quality Concerns: Only 17% of deals are currently considered high-quality, leaving 83% of buyers viewing their purchases as mediocre or poor. These trends underscore a critical gap between buyer expectations and the perceived value of solutions.
Key Drivers of Buyer Pessimism
- Overwhelmed Decision-Making: Larger buying groups with an abundance of choices and information overload often paralyze buying teams..
- Misaligned Solutions: Poor alignment of offerings with buyer needs fosters dissatisfaction and regret post-purchase.
- Channel Friction: Disjointed sales channel experiences disrupt buyer journeys and erode trust.
Failing to address buyer pessimism could lead to:
- Internal Decline: Revenue inefficiencies, stalled deals, and declining renewals that stifle growth potential.
- External Disconnect: Erosion of buyer trust and relevance in the market.
Potential Solutions
To rebuild buyer confidence, technology providers must:
- Evolve Sales and Marketing Tactics: Adopt personalized, empathetic engagement strategies to restore trust.
- Leverage Buyer Signals: Use data-driven insights to identify hesitation and proactively address concerns.
- Foster Transparency: Clearly articulate value propositions, benefits, and risks to mitigate regret and reinforce confidence.
Value selling could help deliver with:
- Empathetic Engagement: Value selling emphasizes understanding buyer pain points and personalizing solutions, fostering trust and reducing buyer indecision.
- ROI-Driven Conversations: By showcasing measurable outcomes and aligning solutions with buyer goals, value selling addresses misaligned solutions and minimizes post-purchase regret.
- Clear Value Articulation: Through storytelling and quantified business cases, value selling enables sellers to communicate the benefits and risks transparently, countering buyer overwhelm and skepticism.
Priority 2: PLG and Value Convergence for Hybrid GTM
The rise of product-led growth (PLG) has reshaped GTM strategies, emphasizing hands-on product experiences like free trials and proofs of concept (POCs). While PLG tactics successfully attract buyers, they often fall short in complex decision-making processes or high-value sales where decision economics and tangible business outcomes take precedence.
The two important growth strategies include:
- Product-Led Growth (PLG): Centers on showcasing product value through direct experiences such as freemium models, free trials, and demos.
- Value-Led Growth (VLG): Focuses on delivering measurable business outcomes, ensuring buyers achieve their goals throughout the customer journey.
The Need for Hybrid GTM Approaches
Modern buyers demand more than functionality; they require assurance of business outcomes. To meet these expectations, technology providers must integrate PLG and VLG into a cohesive, hybrid GTM strategy. This includes:
- Enhanced Product Experiences: Continue leveraging PLG tactics to capture buyer interest and demonstrate product usability.
- Value Management Integration: Build frameworks to quantify and communicate value at every stage of the buyer journey, especially implementing Proof of Value (PoV) alongside POCs.
- Strategic Sales Engagement: Introduce value engineers / experts at key moments to discovery and address complex needs, foster relationships, and drive business value conversions.
This matters because of:
- Higher Buyer Expectations: Buyers increasingly prioritize solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes, not just features.
- Accelerated Deal Velocity and Greater Size: Hybrid strategies enable a seamless transition from self-serve exploration to collaborative sales, boosting both deal speed and value.
A hybrid GTM approach ensures a smoother buyer journey, reducing purchase regret and fostering confidence in decision-making. By combining the strengths of PLG and VLG, technology providers can build stronger relationships and achieve higher conversion rates.
Value Selling can help deliver, with:
- Evolution Beyond Features: Value selling aligns with the shift toward business outcome-focused selling, helping buyers connect product functionality with tangible benefits.
- Strategic Sales Touch points: Value selling integrates with PLG by empowering sales professionals to engage at critical moments, addressing complex buyer needs and driving larger, high-quality deals.
- Quantifiable Impacts: A focus on value realization ensures buyers see how the solution directly contributes to achieving their goals, complementing product-led tactics.
The Bottom-Line
Gartner’s insights underscore the urgency for technology providers to adapt. Addressing buyer pessimism and evolving GTM strategies to merge PLG with value marketing, selling and realization are no longer optional—they are essential for sustaining growth and maintaining relevance in a competitive market.
By prioritizing these trends, technology providers can craft Hybrid PLG+VLG GTM strategies that:
- Enhance Buyer Confidence: Mitigate regret and foster trust through clear value alignment.
- Drive Business Growth: Achieve higher conversion rates and larger deal sizes.
- Build Lasting Relationships: Foster long-term loyalty by consistently delivering outcomes that matter.
The future belongs to those who align with buyer needs, overcome challenges, and deliver measurable value. Technology providers who embrace these shifts will not only survive but thrive in 2025 and beyond.
How Genius Drive Can Help
Genius Drive can help you address the Hybrid PLG+VLG approach, accelerating your efforts more cost effectively than you could on your own:
- Value Management Frameworks: Genius Drive develops tools and processes to quantify and communicate measurable value throughout the hybrid GTM journey, aligning with buyer expectations.
- Strategic Sales and Channel Optimization: Genius Drive’s playbooks guide sellers on effectively transitioning between self-service and consultative selling while ensuring seamless, friction-free sales channel experiences.
- Value Enablement Training: Genius Drive equips GTM teams with the skills to craft compelling ROI cases, tell persuasive value stories, and address buyer concerns with confidence.
- Pipeline and Opportunity Optimization: Leveraging Genius Drive’s expertise, sellers can identify high-value opportunities, accelerate deal velocity, and maximize deal sizes through tailored approaches.
- Post-Sale Success and Outcome Assurance: Genius Drive’s frameworks help track, prove, and deliver value post-sale, ensuring buyer satisfaction, minimizing churn, and fostering long-term loyalty.
Checkout our Value Enablement Kickstart Program here, for the quickest way to get started and accelerate a Hybrid PLG+VLG GTM strategy for 2025.
Source: https://www.gartner.com/en/industries/high-tech/trends/top-trends-for-tech-providers
