Top 5 Most Trusted Buying Sources

Where do people go for an informed buying decision? Here are the top five answers:

1) Friends and family come first. When needed, most consumers use their friends and family for product and service information because they trust their opinions. This probably comes as no surprise.

2) Customer reviews. This trust is bigger than you might think. Customers interested in making a “correct” purchase, particularly for online shopping, use this kind of powerful information to help them make their decision. Simply put, reviews work when they are done properly. In some cases they rank higher than influencers or celebrity endorsements in terms of credibility and the closing of a sale.

3) Company websites. Many online shoppers trust business/service websites for their research and/or purchasing decisions. Many visit the website of the brand they are interested in first before they search for other competitors.

4) Print and online articles. Many customers place trust in the author’s reporting as a source of important brand information, which is only slightly ahead of those trusting in blogs.

5) Social media. Last, but not forgotten. Fewer everyday are trusting social media sources for brand information. However, it’s still an important form of communication. For brands looking to develop trust among the younger crowd make sure your response time is super nova. This will help build brand loyalty.

How to Avoid Irking.

What’s the one thing that irks B2B buyers the most about their sales representatives?

• The lack of understanding of their company? No.
• The lack of understanding of their needs? No.
• The lack of understanding of their industry? No.
• The lack of listening? Yep. You guessed it.

It seems elementary, but the first thing sales representatives have to do is learn to LISTEN better.

A recent 2017 international survey asked 200 B2B buyers to choose from a list of their greatest challenges during the process of searching for and identifying which business products and services they would buy. Overwhelmingly, the most common complaint was that their sales rep was unwilling to listen.

Specifically, 65% of the buyers said sales representatives were more interested in selling their products and services than listening to their needs. By comparison, 31% pointed to sales reps not understanding their needs.

This survey exposes a huge problem: Many sales representatives are more company-focused rather than customer-centric. In fact, many B2B marketers admitted that most of their corporate content was company-focused rather than centered on the customer’s needs.

Other results indicated that B2B customers wanted help running their businesses, valued industry knowledge, and appreciated vendor dependability.

Are you listening?



Source: Marketingcharts.com