49% Of Buyers Never Talk To The Vendor

By Bill King

I came across this new research about B2B technology buyers and thought that despite a different vertical, a lot of its findings are relevant for the water and wastewater industry. Here’s a quick summary of The 2020 B2B Buying Disconnect report:

• 49% of tech buying committee members never talk to a vendor while making a purchase decision. (p. 5)
• The average buyer consults 5.1 different sources of information to make a purchase. (p. 13)
• 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. (p. 5)
• When tech buyers rate the trustworthiness of information sources and the influence of information sources, vendor blogs/case studies, vendor marketing collateral, vendor sales reps, and vendor websites all ranked worse than third-party publications and independent media sources. (p. 14-16)
• Buyers are stingy with their contact information, making it harder than ever to generate actionable leads and to gain insight into a prospect’s buyer’s journey. (p. 54)

This research was conducted by a software review site, which is obviously looking to support its mission as a third-party and neutral publisher. And while we don’t offer reviews or pay-for-play coverage from our editors, I do agree with many of the findings about the buyer’s journey, the difficulty of earning a prospect’s trust, and the complexity of the purchase decision. That’s why new content created to serve the reader’s informational needs has become so important in navigating some of the marketing challenges this research explores.