As B2B EQ hits our 10th episode, we’re honored to be joined by someone known to have the “biggest crystal ball in B2B sales”. He is the co-author of The Challenger Sale and The Challenger Customer. With nearly 20 years of experience at CEB and Gartner, he’s seen the ins and outs of the industry. Today’s guest is the Global Head of Research, Advisory, and Communities at Ecosystems, Brent Adamson. Host Tim Harris sits down with Brent to discuss why 72% of buyers don’t want to talk to reps, how customer channels have changed, and why you need to build your customer’s confidence in themselves, not your company.

Takeaways:

• Marketing teams need to focus less on the customer’s perceptions of the brand, and more on their perception of themselves. Instead of overloading your customer with your product features, you need to make your customer feel confident in themselves.
• The single biggest driver of a customer making a high quality low regret deal purchase is confidence. Customers want to feel confident that they have done enough research, asked enough questions, and fully understand the problem.
• In a buyer's journey, there are a lot of objectives to hit and decisions to make. The best way a rep can assist is to narrow down the objectives, give context into how other buyers assessed and chose those objectives, and let the buyer make the decision.
• While buyers and decision makers are engaged in the process for their company, they make buying decisions around how it affects their roles. Companies need to provide resources that highlight how their product helps CTOs, CMOs, and other stakeholders.
• 72% of B2B buyers would prefer to buy a product without talking to a sales rep at all. One reason buyers still engage with reps is because they are unable to find the proper resources to help them make a decision elsewhere.
• Customers are channel agnostic, and the sales rep is no longer the sole channel to your customer. Instead of focusing solely on how you can improve sellers or web channels, you need to help your customers align on key targets, metrics, and timelines.
• While you may not be the right solution for every customer now, not all is lost. If that customer walks away feeling that you understand their needs, and are helpful, they will look to you when they need a solution you offer.

Quote of the Show:

• “The driver of a decision is self-confidence, it isn’t your amazing value.” - Brent Adamson

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/brentadamson
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentadamson/
• Website: https://ecosystems.io/
• Book Link: https://www.amazon.com/Challenger-Sale-Control-Customer-Conversation/dp/1591844355

Ways to Tune In:

• Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b2b-eq/id1672326834
• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1T2zlqNsSYATzXFPH1DquY
• Google Podcast - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mYXN0Lndpc3RpYS5jb20vY2hhbm5lbHMvajRuNnNjYmc2Ni9yc3M