The Role of Content in Winning the B2B Sale

By Andy Paul

Think Beyond the Content You Have to the Content the Prospect NeedsNot that long ago I wrote an article on the Meaning and Value of Content in Selling. I recently came across some slides from a webinar titled "Inside the Mind of the B2B Buyer" that was presented by DemandGenReport and Genius.com. They further illuminate the discussion about the value of content in selling with some interesting research data about your prospect's information requirements and their perceptions of the role the seller plays as a content provider. 1. Successful sellers are content providersIn their research, the presenters found that 95% of recent B2B purchasers said that the vendor they chose "provided them with ample content to help them navigate through each stage of the buying process." On the surface this may seem a little self evident but let's dig a little deeper. Remember, first and foremost, that your prospect won't move from step of their buing process to the next until their information requirements for the current stage are met. This study says that the seller that best helped the purchaser navigate from one step of their buying process to the next nearly always won their business. The data doesn't say that 95% of vendors were able to help the purchasers. It states that in 95% of the cases the purchaser chose the seller that best provided the content they needed at the appropriate time.2. Responsiveness is critical to winning ordersAccording to the study, 80% of recent B2B purchasers indicated that timeliness of response was influential in their choice of vendor. Responsiveness is critical to winning business. It is the core of the modern selling as I describe in my book, Zero-time Selling. What is responsiveness? Responsiveness is the combination of information content and speed. To be responsive to a buyer means that you are supplying complete answers to their questions in the least time possible to help them move from one step of their buying process to the next. Why is responsiveness, this combination of information content and speed, so critical to purchasers? Because purchasers are trying to make fully informed purchase decisions in the shortest time possible. They have no interest in stretching their buying process out one minute longer than it needs to be. But they can't move forward until the seller provides the answers they need.3. Buyers are seeking context not just content.The researchers found that 62% of recent purchasers said that the "consistent and relevant communications" provided by the seller was a key influence in their decision making about a solution and solution provider. In a recent blog article I discussed the need for the successful seller to provide customers with content that is not just company information. Purchasers are looking not just for content but also for context. Pundits describe how the Internet overloads people with content without providing context. The same is true for your prospects.Buyers are looking to the salesperson to provide them with "relevant" information, not just product information, to help them develop a context for the purchase decision they are going to make. The seller who can create value for the customer by consistently serving them information that helps them develop a broader perspective on their decision dramatically increase their odds of winning the business.4. Sellers need to think like buyersThis same study demonstrated how customers are searching for a wide range of input and data in their buying processes. This means they have content but are hungry for context, hungry for content is independent of the seller, that will help them make a more informed purchase decision. -48% utilized a wider variety of sources of information-59% engaged with peers-48% followed industry conversations-37% posted questions on social media looking for suggestionsThis data shows that an increasing opportunity exists for the seller to be a valued content provider to their prospects. The successful seller will anticipate the needs of their prospects, and create value for their buyer, by becoming an additional content source for the wider variety of information that the buyer is seeking. According to the study, the responsive seller that consistently provides relevant content to help the prospect navigate through their buying process in a timely manner dramatically improves their odds of winning the business. Or, as I like to say: Your prospects have questions. The first seller with the answers wins.

Andy Paul is author of the award-winning book, Zero-Time Selling: 10 Essential Steps to Accelerate Every Company's Sales. A sought-after speaker and business coach, Andy conducts workshops and consults with sales teams of all sizes to teach them how to use responsiveness, speed and intelligent processes to increase sales. Enjoy what you just read? Sign up for our regular digest of valuable Zero-Time Selling sales tips and strategies, “Selling with Maximum Impact.”

© Andy Paul 2013