B2B Buyers Invest in Solutions To Generate a Competitive Advantage

B2B marketers use a wide array of tactics to reach out to their target audience, but what are buyers specifically looking for in products and services?

To learn more about B2B buyer preferences, Aberdeen Group recently conducted the “What Do B2B Buyers Want?” report with PJA Advertising and Marketing. They surveyed 250 B2B buyers to assess what they look for from marketers. The majority of respondents (42.3 percent) said they have paid for a B2B product or solution because they believed it would generate a competitive advantage.

Other reasons for investing in a B2B solution were because it was the only one that solved a problem (21.2 percent), they needed it immediately (18.8 percent) and they typically do not pay top-dollar (12 percent).

Some of the factors B2B buyers weigh when it comes to working with B2B solution providers are whether the vendor can support their company goals (77.1 percent) and sharpen competitive differentiation (68.2 percent).

In terms of turn-offs, most B2B buyers (27.5 percent) claim they do not like vendors who talk too much about themselves or try to get to know their company. They also try to steer away from those who act more like vendors than partners (19.6 percent).

B2B Buyers and Marketing Content Preferences

Previous research suggests that B2B buyers also have preferences when it comes to the type of content they want to see during the buying process.

The “2017 Content Preferences Survey Report” from DemandGen discovered that 46 percent of B2B buyers are moving toward shorter formats of content. Researchers believe this could be because one-third of buyers now have less time to devote to research than they did in the past.

The majority of buyers (78 percent) have turned to case studies while making B2B purchasing decisions over the past 12 months.