2020 B2B Buying Disconnect Report: Buying Software In The New Decade
This is last year’s news. We’ve got new research for 2021.
Originally published on PRWeb on November 19th, 2019.
The average buyer, according to the newest survey by TrustRadius, consults 5.1 different sources of information to make an informed purchase decision
The 2020 B2B Buying Disconnect highlights the findings from the 4th annual report by TrustRadius. Designed to explore the evolving relationship between technology buyers and vendors. This year TrustRadius surveyed a total of 1.5K respondents. 1,036 technology buyers and 449 technology vendors took aligning surveys.
Simon Jones, Managing Partner at Destrier and author of Enterprise Peer Reviews: A Playbook for Vendors says: “Enterprise marketers must ‘mind the gap’ as there’s a clear difference between vendors’ perception and reality when it comes to enterprise procurement. This latest research from TrustRadius underlines how marketers are increasingly out of touch with how enterprise buyers are sourcing and procuring software and services. In particular, by under-estimating the impact of consensus decision-making and over-focusing on the divide and conquer strategy, many vendors are on the wrong track when it comes to developing strategies to manage their brands on peer review sites.”
The gap Jones is referring to as seen in the report is that 77% of buyers say that it is very important to understand the cons before making a purchase. While only 33% of vendors say they think it is very important for buyers to understand the cons before buying. This gap is increasing year over year.
Key findings and takeaways from the study include:
Vendors are now more likely to use reviews with prospects than not. 58% of vendors use user reviews as a tactic to educate and engage prospects. This is a 35% increase from last year.
The average buyer consults 5.1 different sources of information to make a purchase decision. 49% of buyers involved in purchase decisions do not engage with the vendor’s representatives themselves.
3 out of 5 buyers are now millennials. They consult more resources on average than older generations. Millennials are more likely to rely on reviews compared to older buyers and are less likely to rely on the analyst, the vendor’s website, or vendor reps.
The most important factor when evaluating a product on a review site is the review content (qualitative feedback). 39% of buyers say this is key to their evaluations. Only 16% of buyers say the product’s overall review score is the most important factor, a 27% drop from buyers focused on scores in 2017.
Buyers are spending much of their process doing anonymous research. Focusing on information they can get independent of vendors, without filling out a lead form.
Download the full report here.
If you’re interested in this, you’ll love the 2021 version.
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