Challenging the 57-percent myth

Between 57 and 87 percent of the buying process is complete before a buyer ever contacts a company—at least that’s according to some widely quoted statistics floating around these days.

Busting a bad myth. Sales expert Bob Apollo gives us the facts behind this fiction in his recent online article “The B2B buying decision process: Challenging the 57 percent myth.” He explains where these numbers come from, why they’re taken out of context and how they can harm your business development.

On complexity, he has this to say: “If [customers] have a clear sense of what they want to buy—for example, if it is a simple or relatively inexpensive transactional purchase or the re-ordering of the same or similar solutions, then it’s hardly surprising that the prospect may conduct most of the buying process online.

“But if the problem is poorly defined, and the solution less than obvious, or if it involves a high-value complex buying decision process with multiple stakeholders, then the prospect is much more likely to be open to early engagement with potential vendors.”

Why your clients still need you. Bob got it right. Our prospects still need us just as much as they always did. But their needs have changed. They don’t need us to give them demos or canned sales pitches, because they can get all that online. What they do need is our expertise, industry experience and insights about what does and doesn’t work. 

Our job as salespeople is to offer solutions before prospects even know they have a problem. To do this, we have to ask the right questions, become trusted advisors and set the stage for their success—not just our own. Let your competitors believe the myth. While they’re waiting for the phone to ring or for emails to come through, their business will be yours to win.