How do I do “buyer enablement”?

In my last post, i proposed that buying has become so difficult, information overloaded, risky, that buyers struggle to make buying decisions that sellers need to step in and help. Thus “buyer enablement”.

The seller is an expert; the buyer – surrounded by unrivalled access to information – tries to become an expert, and typically fails. How can the expert assist? Firstly, by understanding the buying process from the clients perspective, and by building trust between buyers and seller.

A long time ago, June 2018, I wrote a post about trust, and since then my ideas about trust have simplified, and so I intend to write again about trust in business, in the next post. So that means this post is about considering the buying process from the perspective of the client and how we can better enable buyers to buy.

In the last post, I introduced the ABC of buying – awareness, belief and commitment. I’ll use this buying process again. But be warned, Buyers think about a purchase more in terms of discrete tasks than an actual journey, missing both the links between the tasks and the need for alignment within the group and validation of the insights presented. Not only is this journey not recognised by buyers, but 90% of all buyers reported revisiting‚ or looping back‚ to at least one job as part of their overall purchasing process. So buyers management of the buying process if troublesome.

Purchase ease matters

All of this looping around and bouncing from one buying task to another means that buyers value suppliers that make it easier for them to navigate the purchase process. Additionally‚ purchase ease has a significant impact on the value customers perceive from their purchases — and the level of regret they might experience. The presence of an easy effortless process greatly decreases purchase regret. High levels of regret dramatically reduce customer loyalty and sharply cut the chances a customer will advocate for that supplier.

Given that customers spend roughly two-thirds of any B2B buying journey learning from whatever information they can find‚ the type of information they encounter matters especially if it contributes to real insight into problem solution. It actually matters more than a specific supplier capability or individual sales conversation. Quite frankly‚ customers don’t have a preference between talking to a solution provider and researching digital channels — they just want simplicity to access the right information for their job at hand. In other words‚ information‚ not individuals‚ makes the purchase process easier.

The information and insight helps buyers complete each job because it is:
Shareable; Despite increasing numbers of stakeholders‚ information must be easily shared across time and geography. Information can move between stakeholders with little difficulty‚ zero delays and at almost no cost.
Channel-agnostic; Customers want to access information across channels and consume it when‚ where and how they prefer. Information empowers customers to seek it out without having to engage a supplier.
Consistent; Information needs to remain consistent across delivery channels so it effortlessly conveys the same story every time it’s seen.
Targeted; Information needs to be specific enough to help customers complete their specific critical buying jobs.

In preCovid Gartner research, buyers indicate that they are confident in information when they feel they have:
– already determined the right questions to consider and to ask suppliers.
– identified which information mattered most in their purchase decision.
– identified consistent patterns or themes in the information they encountered during the purchase providing actionable insights.

Buyers were skeptical of sellers when they:
– did not trust the seller to disclose all the relevant information they needed to make purchase decisions.
– were specifically skeptical of the claims made by the seller.

– those who lack that confidence are likely paralysed by the amount and range of information they’re trying to process and that makes them less likely to commit to a high-quality deal. Clients who encountered information that’s trustworthy but contradictory are 66% less likely to commit. Clients who receive conflicting information on the trade-offs between vendors are 33% less likely to commit. Clients who report encountering overwhelming amounts of information are 54% less likely to purchase — at least without regret. The impact of these information challenges is cumulative when they occur simultaneously.

Positively, Clients who reported NO seller skepticism were 164% more likely to choose a high-quality, low-regret deal, while customers who felt confident in the information they encountered were 157% more likely to purchase. Buyer enablement works.

From selling to clients to enabling clients to buy or the providing enough information to clients in a way that enables them to complete the three critical buying jobs, combined with empathy and a deep industry and customer knowledge, to gather, curate and deploy information to help buyers buy.

Buyer Enablement
The provision of information that supports the completion of critical buying jobs

Prescriptive advice; The What “Helps us know what to do and how to do it”. This largely takes the form of “do this” or “don’t do this” recommendations specifically designed to ease customers’ buying burdens across the five blocks.

Practical support; The How “Helps us complete discrete‚ job-related activities”. This represents the actual tools customers use to follow through on prescriptive advice.

there are a series of sub-tasks within each of the buying topics;

Information in support of buyer enablement must meet a CURE the problem;

Credible and backed up by data and facts. Useful for customers in accomplishing the intended buying job Relevant to the specific challenges buyers face. Easy for the customer to use quickly and effectively. The best buyer enablement information will also be shareable, align to customers’ emotional needs, provide confidence and lead back to supplier’s unique differentiators.

So how can you provide this necessary information and insight to enable buyers to buy. Have it readily available on your website. Consider having the following as part of the insights offering;

All of this looping around and bouncing from one job to another means that buyers value suppliers that make it easier for them to navigate the purchase process.  Gartner research found that customers who perceived the information they received from suppliers to be helpful in advancing across their buying jobs were 2.8 times more likely to experience a high degree of purchase ease, and three times more likely to buy a bigger deal with less regret.

As Ive said before, Buyer enablement works.

further reference; from Gartner (again)