What is Buyer Enablement?

Today's buyers have small budgets and no time to waste solving their problems.

As a result, solutions only accessible after lengthy sales cycles or behind "contact sales" buttons on a website are often non-starters compared to self-service options. In addition:

• Buyers are only giving reps 5% of their time in the buying process. (Gartner)
• 43% of B2B buyers would prefer a rep-free buying experience (HBR)
• B2B buyers are 57% - 70% through their buying research before contacting sales. (WBR)
  

Ready for the hard truth? If B2B sales doesn't change, it will become obsolete. So, If you want to give your sales team a fighting chance, it's time for buyer enablement.‍

What is Buyer Enablement?

Buyer Enablement is the strategic focus of providing buyers with the information, interactions, and processes required to successfully decide, execute, and implement a solution as efficiently as possible.

In other words, buyer enablement is about making it really is for a prospect to buy. It helps sales compete with the speed of self-service options while amplifying the value working with sales can bring to a prospect's buying journey.‍

The Disconnect Between Sales Teams and Buyers‍

The exponential rise in self-service options is due in part to the huge disconnect between what experience buyers want and the experience sales is providing.

Let’s examine the “first call” as an example.

According to Hubspot, the highest priorities to discuss for a buyer is information on pricing and product demo. However, these are the two LEAST likely things the seller plans to discuss.

Instead, the majority of sellers list their top discussion priorities as identifying the decision maker, the buyer’s timeline, and the buyer’s budget. These three items are also the LEAST likely things the buyer wants to discuss!

Even from the first call, buyers and sellers are at odds. With the help of buyer enablement, sales teams can address and eliminate the friction points for how buyers get information, interact with sales, and actually make a purchase decision.‍

Key Pillars of Buyer Enablement‍

Effective buyer enablement is focused on three key pillars: information, interactions, and process. Each pillar represents an important part of the sales cycle, but from the buyers point of view. They also give sellers a simple way to think through the buyers objectives, rather than their own.‍

Information‍

As mentioned earlier, buyers are mostly done with their research and discovery by the time the talk to sales. When they reach this point, they are looking to for information they aren’t able to get on their own. This includes things like pricing, how your product will actually work in their use case, and time to implementation.

Sales teams who implement effective buyer enablement practices and tools are able to quickly give prospects this information and fulfill a major component in their search criteria.‍

Interactions‍

Since sales reps are also getting limited time with buyers (again, potentially only 5% of their buying process), it’s important every interaction is efficient and full of value.

To do this, give prospects several options to work through the buying journey. Offering different ways to meet live, connect asynchronously, or even partially self-service their purchase will position any sales professional as a helpful guide in the process instead of an obstacle to deal with.

‍Process‍

Gartner research shows that B2B buying is more complex than ever, with 77% of buyers state their latest purchase was very complex or difficult. Most purchases also have between 6 and 10 decision makers!

To help remove complexity for buyers, the route to a purchase needs to be clear. Mutual action plans can help outline every necessary step and deal rooms help organize information in one centralized location. Plus, deal rooms give sales teams nan easy way to onboard new stakeholders to the deal without needing to go over every single detail they may have missed.

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With buyer enablement, sales teams can turn frustrating, lost opportunities into wins. Giving prospects the information they need, in a format that works for them, with a clear process is the only path to compete with the rise of self-service and product-led growth companies.

Want to learn more about buyer enablement or discuss how it can increase won deals for your team? Click here to schedule a 30 minute buyer enablement strategy call today! No software sign up or purchase required.

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