B2B buying is in turmoil. This according to the latest Forrester research revealing the sobering reality: almost 9 in 10 B2B purchases stall during the buying journey, and when a decision is made, more than 80% of buyers are dissatisfied with their chosen provider. With tight budgets, long decision cycles,and the increasing influence of generative AI (GenAI), both buyers and sellers are grappling with unprecedented complexity.
This parallels Gartner research and what we coined the Purchase Pessimism Pandemic.
Yet amidst this “buyer mayhem,” a clear solution emerges: Value Selling: prioritizing a buyer-centric approach and focusing on measurable outcomes, organizations can address the critical gaps in today’s broken buying process.
The Challenges: Buyer Frustration and Complexity
Forrester’s research underscores the challenges buyers face:
- Stalled decisions: 86% of purchases stall, often due to internal complexities like competing priorities and convoluted approval processes.
- Buying group dynamics: With an average of 14 decision-makers involved, and 89% of purchases involving two or more departments.purchases require cross-functional alignment, which can drag out the process.
- Autonomy vs. collaboration: While buyers crave self-service options, they also want meaningful, expert-led interactions to sort through the information overload and guide complex decisions.
- Rampant dissatisfaction: 87% of buyers express disappointment with their chosen provider, citing issues like poor domain expertise, lack of flexibility, and inadequate technology alignment.
This environment leaves buyers disillusioned and sellers struggling to get high quality deals done. The question is, how can providers cut through the morass and prevent buyer remorse?
The Pitfalls of Product-Led Approaches
While product-led growth strategies, such as free trials and demos, can generate initial interest, they often fail to address the root causes of buyer dissatisfaction and deal stalling. Similarly, the growing trend of conducting Proof of Concepts (POCs) without establishing solid business goals and ROI cases exacerbates these issues.
- Free Trials and Demos Lack Strategic Alignment: Trials and demos offer buyers a surface-level understanding of a product’s features, but they often fail to connect these features to the buyer’s specific business goals. Without a clear link to measurable outcomes, buyers may engage with the product but fail to see how it solves their larger challenges. This disconnect can lead to stalled decisions and buyer dissatisfaction, even if the trial itself appears successful.
- POCs Without a Business Case Lead to Stalls: Proof of Concepts are often initiated as a technical validation exercise, but without a clearly defined business case, they risk becoming another step in an already cumbersome buying process. Buyers may complete a POC, but if key stakeholders are not aligned on the value and ROI of the solution, the deal often stalls post-POC. Forrester’s research supports this, with budget constraints and internal purchasing processes cited as leading causes of deal delays.
- Lack of Executive Buy-In: Product-led approaches often engage technical teams but fail to address the strategic priorities of executive stakeholders. Without buy-in from decision-makers who control budgets and prioritize business outcomes, deals struggle to progress beyond exploratory stages.
Why Value Selling can Quell Mayhem
Value Selling shifts the focus from transactional selling to a buyer-first approach, emphasizing measurable outcomes and co-creation of value. This method is uniquely positioned to quell the mayhem outlined in Forrester’s research, helping to:
- Driving Business Alignment: Value Selling ensures that every engagement, including POCs and trials, is anchored in a clear understanding of the buyer’s business goals and alignment on priority challenges. By aligning technical validation with strategic outcomes, providers can move beyond feature demonstrations to show tangible impact.
- Engaging Decision-Makers: By focusing on ROI and measurable value, Value Selling engages not only technical stakeholders but also the executive decision-makers who are critical to deal progression. This ensures that solutions address both operational needs and strategic priorities.
- Reducing Deal Stalls: With a clear business case and stakeholder alignment and consensus across the large decision-making team, Value Selling eliminates the ambiguity that often leads to stalled decisions. By demonstrating the financial and operational benefits of the solution for each major stakeholder, providers can build momentum and confidence within buying groups.
- Creating Buyer Confidence: Value Selling fosters trust by prioritizing buyer outcomes. This approach directly addresses the dissatisfaction buyers feel when providers fail to demonstrate domain expertise or flexibility, as cited in Forrester’s research.
Actionable Steps for Implementing Value Selling
To overcome buyer mayhem and the pitfalls of product-led approaches, providers should:
- Anchor POCs and Trials in Business Goals: Establish clear success criteria tied to business outcomes before initiating any POC or trial, creating a Proof of Value (PoV) along with your Proof of Concept.
- Build Strong Business Cases: Equip sales teams to articulate ROI and measurable value throughout the buying journey, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities.
- Engage Stakeholders Across Levels: Develop strategies to engage technical users and executive decision-makers, ensuring that all perspectives are addressed.
- Measure and Communicate Success: Use data and case studies to demonstrate the tangible impact of solutions, building trust, reinforcing confidence and accelerating deal progression.
- Integrate Value Selling into Go-To-Market Strategies: Shift from feature-focused campaigns to buyer-centric messaging that emphasizes outcomes and collaboration to get the buyer oriented to what matters most, right from the first engagement.
Turning Buyer Mayhem into Revenue Momentum
Forrester’s research reveals clear B2B buyer mayhem, but also highlights an amazing transformative opportunity for solution providers and GTM teams.
By adopting Value Selling, organizations can not only meet buyers’ evolving needs but also differentiate themselves in a crowded market.
We believe in empowering solution providers to embrace value-centric GTM strategies that prioritize buyer outcomes, foster trust, and deliver meaningful results. The road to overcoming buyer mayhem starts with putting buyers first—and Value Selling is the key.
To help overcome the B2B Mayhem challenge checkout our new Kickstart Program – How to more easily, quickly and cost effectively evolve from product-focused / PoC-led to a better Value Selling approach – https://geniusdrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Kickstart_Program_Flyer_11_27_24.pdf
Source: https://www.forrester.com/press-newsroom/forrester-the-state-of-business-buying-2024/
