In the world of business to business (B2B) sales, this article in Forbes explains that buyers are really confused about what to buy and need the help of the organisations they are buying from.
The words used to describe buying from another organisation are: “hard”, “awful”, “painful”, “frustrating”, and “minefield”.
This throws up huge opportunities for companies that are willing to engage in "Insights Selling". This means that those who are willing to understand the potential customer's problems and issues and help educate them are much more likely to win the business.
It's about building trust, rapport and being seen as the trusted advisors. I believe the best way to do this is with face to face meetings - but there are only so many face to face meetings you can get. So the next best thing is to continually share timely, relevant insights from you and the subject matter experts in your team. Insights that genuinely educate your clients and enable them to be more effective in their job.
If you do that and your competitors do not you have a great chance of winning!
The new B2B sales process is enormously stressful for buyers. In an HBR article, CEB and HBR explain the nature of the shift: "Most B2B sellers think their customers are in the driver’s seat—empowered, armed to the teeth with information, and so clear about their needs...Customers don’t see it that way...research shows that they’re deeply uncertain and stressed."