Why B2B Sales Still Needs a Human Face

We are all instinctively aware of how Business-to-consumer (B2C) sales works. Brands build a profile and connection to consumers with advertising and we usually buy the products from a retailer. Soft drinks are a good example – you might prefer Coke over Pepsi even if the products are almost identical.

But business-to-business (B2B) sales is different and this is where those of us with a connection to customer experience and business process outsourcing can really identify because we see how companies in this sector are only ever selling services to other companies.

Every CX-tech or BPO company selling products or services to another company exists within this environment. Some B2B companies now offer their clients a list of services that resembles the Amazon home page, but in most cases the B2B sales process still requires a human to human interaction.

Think about the last time your business contracted with a supplier to buy in an IT platform, a cloud storage service, a HR platform, or a customer service solution. It’s usually an important purchasing decision that will be an ongoing commitment to outsourcing – not just a one-off payment – so managers and ROI projections will be involved.

The supplier will have a skilled sales team that can answer questions and create bespoke versions of their service. A sales director will communicate with the manager buying the service. People on both sides of the transaction are engaging with each other.

We all know from personal experience that when we need to purchase a service, we prefer to buy from someone we trust. We keep calling the same plumber when there is a problem at home, even if they are not the cheapest in town. If you know that they always deliver a good service, then you call.

This same dynamic still plays out in B2B relationships and therefore B2B marketing needs to acknowledge that, in many cases, large B2B contracts are not being awarded to companies because they are the lowest cost or the best in the market. Companies are winning B2B contracts because their sales director is trusted and known to the people making the purchasing decision.

B2B sales directors have always known this. It’s why they are usually authorised to spend cash taking prospective clients to sports events, rock concerts, and smart restaurants that are usually impossible to reserve for dinner. This schmoozing is designed to keep the sales director top of mind when a choice of supplier has to be made.

But in recent years, social media has provided an additional channel for sales directors to publish ideas, establish credibility, and create ongoing conversations with existing clients and prospects. During the Covid pandemic this was the only game in town as every business conference and smart restaurant was closed.

Executives rushed to LinkedIn with their attempts at ‘thought leadership.’ The results were variable – and remain so. Some sales directors share valuable tips and ideas, they generate conversation with people who might be prospective clients and demonstrate they really know their industry. Others share information about the latest service offered by their company – thinly-veiled sales pitches masked as insight into the future.

Post-pandemic, it is important to acknowledge that personal interactions remain as important as ever, but social content now adds an important dimension to ongoing business relationships. The B2B buyer you meet once a year at an annual conference can be engaged in a weekly conversation, rather than that annual catch-up in a hotel bar.

Demonstrating genuine insight is more important than some sales executives seem to realise. Even way back in 2016, the Harvard Business Review (HBR)  published research indicating that B2B buyers want to engage with suppliers that have good ideas. The research back then suggested that 82% of B2B buyers said that the social content of their chosen supplier had a significant impact on their buying decision.

Think about that. Even before the pandemic closed down most business interactions and networking for two years, eight out of ten B2B buyers were influenced by what you are publishing online.

According to a study by Gartner, up to 57% of the purchase decision process is completed before a buyer ever reaches out to a supplier or vendor. This is where the emphasis on ideas and relationships needs to focus. Many B2B buyers have a good idea which company they want to give a contract to. So long as all the main service providers are in the same ballpark regarding the cost of the service then it will come down to who is most trusted.

Corporate culture plays a strong role here for BPOs. If 4 or 5 BPOs are equally qualified to engage with a client on a CX project, and the fees are all fairly similar, then individuals (who do I already know?), or culture (which company seems the most interesting?), will be important factors.

Every analyst and research company talks about different statistics, but despite the variation, they all point in the same direction. B2B buyers want to know the sales directors in service providers before they hand over a contract. They want to build a conversational relationship and trust. When they do have a big contract, they will prefer it to go to a company where they already know and trust the people in charge.

This is a challenge for marketing teams, because it means creating more personal content that reflects the opinion of individual sales leaders – rather than publishing more generic thought leadership in the name of the brand. But honestly, who reads all that generic stuff anyway?

When I summarise this dilemma to sales and marketing leaders I always ask them this question. What will a B2B buyer find if they search Google or LinkedIn for the name of your sales director?

They find intelligent industry comment and ideas about what might happen to companies in this sector next year? Will they find an irrelevant Power-Point from ten years ago? Or, even worse, will they find nothing at all from your sales leader?

A B2B buyer may not know your sales leader personally, but if they have spent a couple of years swapping ideas about their industry in conversations that are not focused on sales then they will have banked a valuable amount of trust – just look back at those Gartner and HBR stats. B2B buyers know who they want to buy from before the RFP is ever published.

Mark Hillary is a CX analyst and technology writer. His recent book focused on B2B sales, ‘The Social Sales Playbook’, is available now. www.markhillary.com