Survey: B2B Buyers are Changing How They Assess Marketing Solutions

With the wide array of marketing solutions available to them, B2B decision-makers are now refining the purchasing process and buyer journey.

The “B2B Buyer’s Survey” from Demand Gen Report recently shed light on how B2B marketers are changing the way they purchase products and services. About 59 percent say they now have formal buying groups or committees to review purchases. In addition, 52 percent claim that their number of buying group members has increased significantly.

“While B2B buying has always been noted as a “considered” purchase, the emphasis on consideration continues to climb as survey participants provided direct commentary on how added attention to risk mitigation is adding checkpoints and new criteria at different stages of the buying cycle,” explain the authors of the report.

During the decision-making process, 72 percent of respondents stated that they go with vendors that respond promptly to their inquiries. B2B buyers also prefer vendors that show a strong knowledge of the solution area (70 percent).

Above all else, the majority of respondents (89 percent) claim that they opt for vendors who provide content that makes it easy to show ROI and/or build a business case for the purchase.

B2B Buyer Preferences in 2016

In last year’s “B2B Buyer’s Survey” from Demand Gen Report, B2B buyers showed a similar preference toward vendors who could demonstrate the value of their solutions.

According to the “2016 B2B Buyer’s Survey,” about 84 percent of respondents said that it was critical for a vendor to show that it could solve a pain point. Approximately 83 percent considered deployment time/ease of use to be critical.

In terms of research, the majority of B2B buyers (69 percent) claimed that the single most influential aspect of a vendor’s website was the content that spoke directly to their company.