As a qualitative researcher, I am a BIG fan of great questions and of course, the brilliant people who ask them.

Recently I took a swing through some of the videos and presentations at the Buyer Enablement Community and loved some of the buyer-centric questions shared by Adele Revella, Ardath Albee, Anthony McPartlin and others.

Lots of B2B marketers and salespeople are talking about buyer enablement…but what actually is it?

Recently, I spoke with a few peers in B2B software, consulting and research space and they shared a few different angles on what buyer enablement is…and why today’s marketing and sales leaders need to adopt this mindset.

As avid consumers of Pelotons, Oreos, slow-cookers and much more, we know that any type of buying friction makes us seriously reconsider our purchase.

And you wonder, “How can they (the vendor) afford to leave such obvious gaps in the buying experience?”

It was back when I was just a few years into freelancing copywriting and was starting to raise my prices. Instead of working for everybody and their uncle and writing everything from ad copy to website landing pages, my pipeline for work got slimmer. I was having fewer sales conversations. Then in the midst of all that, I lost a client.

Why does coming up with a content strategy often feel like pulling ideas from a black box?

Yes, I am a shameless content nerd ;) And moving to Spain about two months was no exception.

A few years ago, Gartner researchers uncovered this troubling stat that sent me on a real bender: 77% of B2B buyers state that their latest purchase was very complex or difficult.

A few weeks ago, I caught up with Cassandra Jowett, Senior Director of Marketing at PathFactory to hear her perspective on one of the big shifts we’ve been observing in B2B SaaS marketing and sales: the movement towards buyer enablement.

TLDR: My whole life I’ve been told that I’m too curious and ask too many questions. I figured it was high time to call it a strength and double-down :D.

Turns out, I’m not the only B2B marketer who has been wondering if the funnel has outlived its usefulness. And if so, what comes next?

Marketing is generating enough leads. Sales is closing (some) deals. But somewhere in the middle of your funnel, it feels like *something* is decreasing deal progression and sales velocity. **Something** is going on at the buyer’s end, and you have zero visibility.

Does this “buyer journey” thing even exist? I wondered this for a long time myself. It’s like this mythical thing but no one can really define what it is, why it exists or if (or how) it can be helpful to sales and marketers.

Click here to watch Buying Obstacle #1: How are we going to implement it?!#$%& (~6 mins) while you’re brushing your teeth, or making your coffee or read it leisurely below like a 16th century Elizabethan. Your call.