This post was written based on a webinar given by Sarah MacKinnon, which you can watch here.

Sarah MacKinnon is a qualitative researcher and content strategist focused on helping B2B tech vendors see the glaring opportunities, gaps, low-hanging fruit, and no-brainer changes they can make to their go-to-market strategy to improve win rate and shorten sales cycles.

Sarah conducted a study where she spoke to B2B buyers about their recent software purchases. Four common hurdles emerged that sales organizations should keep in mind as they improve their buyer’s experience moving forward.

Early in the buying process, buyers are seeking the information they need to qualify the seller and their product. That can include, but isn’t limited to, pricing, functionality, time to value, etc. Oftentimes, that information is often only available by filling out a form and agreeing to a call or meeting.

The majority of buyers feel that qualifying calls with SDRs offer little value and are just another “hoop to jump through” to get the information they need to qualify the product. This is a big point of friction in the buying process and can be especially frustrating to buyers looking to make quick decisions.

Some buyers even noted that those calls feel like a “bait and switch” because the SDR doesn’t actually reveal the pricing during their initial call and further delays the process. Instead, SDRs take up much of the call asking the buyers qualifying questions, which feels like a waste of time. Buyers know they’re being qualified and it’s flatly not a good feeling.

Buyers want to understand what the product actually does and how it will impact their business as early in the buying process as possible. Because most companies have their sales teams manage demos, buyers don’t get to see the actual product without engaging in a sales conversation, which oftentimes, they’re not ready for.

According to buyers, demos aren’t always very helpful, especially conducted by the sales team. Buyers reported feeling that demos:

• Only showed the most expensive or most popular features
• Were long and unengaging
• Did not address their specific needs
• Did not always provide a fair representation of the product
• Made it difficult to understand the value of pricing without interacting with the product
• Had sales request information buyers didn’t want to disclose
• Were only available during business hours – buyers want to see that information on nights and weekends!

All of these factors are pushing buyers away from demos and towards third party sources of information to learn about the product, including review sites, videos, forums and others where they can engage in a self-service, informative experience without being sold to.

It’s in companies’ best interest to enable a self-directed learning experience as early as possible because it will improve lead quality by allowing buyers to eliminate themselves, and it will save sales teams time spent conducting qualifying calls. What’s more, buyers that do continue down the process are more informed about your product and will come to sales calls with valuable questions that can’t be answered without the help of another human.

Figuring out the technical side of the transaction is a huge hurdle buyers face. Buyers want to know what functionality is covered by a solution compared to what they’re currently using so they can know what parts of their existing tech stack they can get rid of or downgrade.

After only a demo or two, buyers don’t always have the product knowledge needed to know which features will and won’t be covered by the new product and how their existing tech stack will look with it implemented. Understandably, buyers don’t want to spend more money than they need to.

Figuring out what the new tech stack will look like with the new solution integrated requires complex feature analysis. Buyers feel that this task is all on their shoulders.

A tip for sales: ask about the buyer’s tech stack early and offer your product knowledge and experience to help buyers understand how it will affect their existing tech stack.

The anticipated fear of implementation and transition leaves buyers feeling hesitant to pull the trigger. Buyers have this fear in the back of their minds early in the buying process, particularly when the solution connects to accounting or finance. They’re looking for clarity on project management and what roles the seller and buyer will assume during the transition.

Buyers reported having questions like:

• What does the implementation look like?
• How do we manage accounting transition?
• How long do we work in two systems?
• How are we going to pick a time to transition?

Planning the implementation is one of the areas of the buying decision that feels risky. While offering content and training videos is a good start, it doesn’t fully eliminate the because every buyer’s situation is unique.

These major hurdles add unnecessary length and complexity to the buying process and can often inhibit a buyer from completing the transaction at all. When confronted with these hurdles, many buyers choose to continue their buying process with the vendor that offers the most convenient, informative process.

As Brent Adamson, former Gartner analyst puts it: “The single biggest challenge of selling today is not selling. It’s actually our customers’ struggle to buy.”

To see how Omedym is helping B2B Sales teams create a buyer-friendly buying experience, visit our demo portal.