B2B Tech Buyer Trends: Goodbye Vendor Reps, Hello Self-Service

Martech — Wed., Aug. 17, 2022

B2B technology buyers are turning to vendor representatives less than ever and are increasingly relying on self-service resources. According to a recent survey from TrustRadius, for the first time in five years, vendor reps were not listed among the top 5 resources used for researching potential purchases. Resources typically used include product demos, free trials, user reviews, vendor/product websites, and communities/forums.

B2B buyers also expect vendors to provide self-serve resources such as pricing information, product specs, free versions/trials, and customer use cases. To make buyers more likely to purchase, they need to provide pricing on the vendor website and access to a free demo/trial. The most impactful resources when making a decision are product demos, free trials, and the buyer's prior experiences.

The report was based on a survey of 2,185 professionals who had helped buy new software or hardware for their organization in the past year. It reveals that B2B buyers are turning to self-service resources rather than vendor reps, and that they expect vendors to provide certain resources to make them more likely to buy.

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