Featuring:
Steven Casey, VP and Research Director and Barry Vasudevan, VP and Principal Analyst
Show Notes:
To understand the current state of B2B buying, consider that more than 80% of B2B buyers surveyed by Forrester expressed dissatisfaction with the company they ultimately chose in a recent purchase. Forces such as the generational shift in buying decision-making and now, the role of third-party “influencers” and generative AI (genAI) are complicating an already complex buying process — and leaving selling companies with less control. This week, VP and Research Director Steven Casey and VP and Principal Analyst Barry Vasudevan discuss these dynamics and introduce the concept of buying networks as a framework to help address them.
The conversation begins with a discussion of the forces currently shaping B2B buying. Millennial and Gen Z buyers now dominate purchasing decisions, carrying expectations for seamlessness and personalization forged by their prior experiences as consumers. Meanwhile, in the past two years, genAI has become a pivotal factor in B2B buying, with Vasudevan noting that it is now one of the most common ways buyers gather information. And now, third-party information sources — often, influential voices found on social media platforms — are shaping buying decisions to an unprecedented degree.
The combination of these forces means that B2B providers have less control of the buying process than ever before. Their approaches to selling aren’t helping matters, the analysts point out. Many B2B companies are still too focused on revenue, says Casey, at the expense of buyer experience. “If all you’re really focused on is growing your revenue, and you’re just pushing the buyer as quickly [as possible] through the process that you’ve built,” he says, “you’re going to keep doing things that just really don’t meet [buyers’] needs, like bombarding them with emails and cold calls.”
The discussion then shifts to best practices for engaging buyers — chief among them, changing focus from revenue to delivering genuine value. Businesses must also structure their marketing and selling processes around buying groups rather than individual leads and arbitrary scoring regimes, the analysts say. That entails adopting more nuanced and collaborative approaches and working to understand the specific needs and concerns of individual buying group members. Leveraging data-driven insights and providing tailored value propositions can help providers build consensus within buying companies and improve the likelihood of a successful sale.
The analysts note that while shifting to a buying group orientation has helped companies significantly improve their results, the concept of buying groups is typically limited to people inside of a company. This has necessitated a new concept: buying networks, the subject of new research launching at Forrester’s upcoming B2B Summit North America. Buying networks encompass external partners, third-party influencers, and even AI used within the buying process. Thinking in terms of buying networks can help B2B companies address the myriad forces that are shaping buying decisions today.
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