BUYING INTO A MYTH?

Marketing Myth #10: B2B sales are won on the ground

Today, a perception still lingers. B2B salespeople are the rainmakers. The ones who boldly step out and leverage their connections to create product demand where none existed before. The reality? Sales is typically on the sidelines for much of the buying process now, which puts more pressure on Marketing to prime the new business pump.

How things used to be
The salesperson-as-conquering-hero narrative dates back to before the Internet swallowed everything whole. 25 years ago, when most of today’s B2B leaders had already gotten their start, buyers relied primarily on vendors for information. Sales would initiate contact and shape how the battle for business would go down by influencing purchase requirements.

Marketing was really just sales enablement. And in some companies, it still is. That’s how ingrained these practices were.

The buyer/seller dynamic is changing
Today, B2B buying overall looks very different, a dynamic we first explored in an earlier Myth topic. In 80% of purchases now, the real role of Sales is to capture demand, not create it. Just consider how the buying process begins…

As revealing as who initiates contact is when the contact is initiated. Buyers today tend to be 70% of the way through the journey before they even contact a vendor! By that time, prior to any dialogue with sellers, they’ve already settled on a preferred vendor 81% of the time and established purchase requirements 85% of the time.

With all the advance legwork buyers are doing, this next finding shouldn’t be a surprise…

What does this all mean for Marketing?
With buyers today resisting direct engagement until they’ve got a go-to vendor in mind, B2B marketers need to do more to drive awareness and preference to be that vendor.

How? According to martech company 6Sense, “Traditional demand generation tactics must give way to integrated strategies that create awareness, build affinity, and secure favorable competitive positioning, leveraging all available buying signals to identify potential buyers and optimize marketing spend.”

In other words, organizations must invest in people, systems and processes to detect in-market activity in the earliest stages, before preferences become solidified – then engage buying groups with compelling content, thought leadership and experiences that go beyond mere table stakes.

Make your presence felt – even if you’re not there
With B2B buying happening largely behind the scenes today, brands need to figure out how to be top of mind with much less face time. If you want to ensure you’re figuring prominently in the buying conversation right from the start, let’s talk ›

Source: 6sense, The 2024 B2B Buyer Experience Report

Marketing Myth #10: B2B sales are won on the ground

Marketing Myth #10: B2B sales are won on the ground

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