The latest report from 6sense Research is a bombshell: Sales reps have surprisingly little influence over which deals they win or lose.
Why?
Because during the B2B buyer journey, buyers are making key decisions long before they ever pick up the phone or respond to outreach. The importance of effective marketing cannot be overstated.
The 2024 Buyer Experience Report, which surveyed 2,509 recent B2B buyers, reveals that a staggering 81% of buyers have already picked a winner before they even talk to a sales rep.
This isn’t just a shift; it’s a tectonic upheaval. And if businesses don’t adapt to influence accounts earlier in their B2B buyer journeys, they’re going to get left in the dust.
In the full report, researchers Kerry Cunningham and Sara Boostani reveal:
- How buyers are making decisions
- When they are making key decisions
- Just how thoroughly they are avoiding sales conversations until they’ve already established a favorite
- Mistakes B2B companies make when trying to improve sales numbers
Most importantly, the analysis reveals how sellers can regain influence by adjusting to how buyers actually buy.
Let’s take a look at some of the juiciest tidbits from the report. Want more of these insights? Check out the full thing here.
Buyers Are in the Driver’s Seat
Today, nearly 70% of the purchase process happens before buyers even engage with sellers. They’re doing their own research, setting their own criteria, and making decisions on their own terms.
Traditionally, B2B teams have talked about buying stages in terms of awareness, consideration, decision, and purchase. While those stages are still valid, the report argues that the B2B buyer journey can be simplified into just two phases: Selection and Validation.
The Selection Phase, which makes up the first 70%, is where most deals are won or lost. Buyers are gathering info, creating a shortlist, and picking their favorite.
The Validation Phase, the last 30% of the buyer journey, finds that accounts have nearly always made up their mind. You can still lose the deal, sure, but you’re very unlikely to win it unless you were already the top choice. Buyers reaching out to you in this stage are often just checking the due diligence box.
Sales Teams Are Frozen Out
Many sales processes are woefully outdated. They’re geared towards convincing buyers post-contact, but that’s too little, too late. Sellers are losing deals before they even have a chance to win them.
One of the processes that comes up short is engaging with form-fill leads. Early-stage buyers might fill out forms for content access, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to engage. Often, the buyers are still gathering information. The most motivated buying groups will give up their contact info and proceed to ignore unwanted outreach. Many more will simply click away from the form — and the content — in favor of staying anonymous.
Two unfortunate consequences of this conundrum:
- Most lead quality issues are really lead timing issues. The buyer may be ready to buy eventually, but they’re months from that point when they fill in the form.
- Gated content could be influencing buyers to put you at the top of their consideration list — if they could read it without giving up their contact info.
Cutting Marketing Budgets to Boost Health Might as Well be Bloodletting
In tough economic times, companies often slash marketing budgets and expect sales teams to pick up the slack. But that’s like cutting off your own oxygen. With buyers making decisions earlier and more independently, sales simply cannot pick up the slack. Cut marketing budgets now will just reduce pipeline in future quarters.
It’s Time to Realign Your Approach to Winning Deals
The study is a wake-up call. Businesses need to uncover anonymous buyer research and start influencing the Selection Phase. Sales outreach still matters but it has to be more focused and prioritize the right accounts.Predictive analytics can help reveal when buyers are going into market, so both marketing and sales can enable them effectively.
This isn’t about tweaking your sales strategy; it’s about fundamentally rethinking how you approach B2B buying. It’s about understanding that buyers are in control now, and it’s your job to meet them where they are.
Read the full 2024 Buyer Experience Report to understand the new reality, drill down into deeper insights, and reposition yourself to win.
