The cartoon of business-to-business (B2B) buyers depicts gray-haired executives and purchasing agents in meetings, on the phone and lunching with their vendors. Conversations focus mainly on negotiating price and payment terms.
How Digital Natives Are Changing B2B Purchasing
Millennials have transformed the way B2B buyers research purchases, qualify vendors and make purchases — changing the rules of the game for marketers and product managers. Some 73% of Millennials are involved in product or service purchase decision-making at their companies with one-third reporting that they are the sole decision-maker for their department. And about half of all B2B product researchers are digital natives, a number that increases every year. This cohort identifies online search, vendors’ websites, peers and colleagues as the most important sources of information — all more important than salespeople. Thus how vendor companies position themselves before buyers is changing, with an increased emphasis on digital and social tools, and delivering functional and personal benefits that resonate for Millennial buyers.