“ If
they have no web presence, both personally and, if relevant, corporately as
part of a team/company, I’m not going to trust them, or at least would find it
hard to justify putting in my time to work out if they know anything about anything”
Buyers ‘do
social’ on Sales
The processes and approach to the buying role have
changed markedly.
More and more buyers ‘do social’ as part of their buying role.
For example, 55.% of the respondents used LinkedIn to research potential
suppliers and products in the last 12 months.
Buyers also use other social
media channels to carry out their research of potential suppliers 22% had
looked at Blogs, 22% had used You tube as a search engine to investigate
supplier solutions , 20% had used
Twitter to read and listen in on potential suppliers. 12% had used facebook in
their research of new suppliers and products.
Those in sales who
still do not “do social” themselves in their business are increasingly
putting themselves at a disadvantage to their competitors who do.
Social media is also accepted by many Buyers as a channel to be used in prospecting activity from suppliers.
Cold calling has had a further resurgence in this 2012 poll to above 1 in 5 .
This is indicative of tough times but also challenges the view of many that believe cold calling is entirely dead.
Linked In at 34% acceptance is also an increase in acceptance from 28% in the previous study.
The TACK
International Buyers’ Views of Salespeople 2012 captures detailed information on Buyers’ Views and is a “must read” for anyone involved in sales, sales management
and those interested in benchmarking their own organisation and looking for
best practice in sales.
It is an invaluable resource for Sales leaders, Trainers and those
in Customer facing roles in the b2b sector.
The study is
an on-going project, which was started in 1998 and acts as a bellwether
indicator of the state of selling from the Buyers’ viewpoint.
In the 2012 survey, 201 buyers from SMEs to
Global Corporations across Europe, Middle East and Africa, Australasia, Far
East and North America shared their views with the study.
Buyers
undertake the questionnaire on line.
Both quantitative and qualitative information
is captured from a set of 39 questions.
76% of the respondents
had four or more years of corporate purchasing experience
39% had ultimate
buying authority setting budgets 49% had
limited buying authority ( budget
holders and/or decision influencers).
The male
female split was 65%:35%.
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