What is Buyer Enablement? 5 B2B Experts Weigh In.
Lots of B2B marketers and salespeople are talking about buyer enablement…but what actually is it? 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 need to adopt this mindset.
What is the difference between buyer enablement and sales enablement?
“When we use the term “buyer enablement”--lots of people don’t have a clue at all what it is.
But buyers notice when you start to work on their behalf.
The simplest definition is this: Buyer enablement= ‘Why change? Why now?’
Vs. sales enablement= ‘Why us?’”
Buyer enablement is enabling the buyer to sell internally
“Buyer enablement is particularly relevant in a complex sales environment, where you have 10-12 buyers who all need to come together to decide on a purchase decision.
Those types of decisions aren't made in a sales meeting, they're made at an internal meeting. And as such, the sales rep is not in the room during the most critical moments.
Buyer enablement is not removing the sales rep from the equation, but shifting their role to enable a buyer to sell their own team internally.
We do this by helping sales reps develop thoughtful content to enable buyers to guide those internal conversations–because that’s what will actually shape the outcome of the deal.”
Buyer enablement is the “forgotten” way of selling
The concept of buyer enablement is nothing new. But through the development of SaaS sales, we have become very data and process-driven, and have forgotten about what “good selling” means.
Instead of leading the sale, we became more like a supervisor, rushing someone through a process. And because it’s a process we dictate, this often results in a bad buying experience.
Rather, buyer enablement is enabling buyers to make good decisions, decisions that they can own. We can do this by creating a framework in which the buyer and seller can interact.
Beyond buyer enablement to change enablement
In this article Hank Barnes goes beyond buyer enablement to point out the importance of “change enablement”: tools and resources to help buyers understand what it’s going to take to get value out of the product–but shared even before the deal is closed.
Paraphrased below:
“A few years back, Gartner defined a new approach, buyer enablement. Our research into B2B buying revealed clearly that complex buying situations challenge buying teams, beyond just product selection.
They struggle to build confidence in their decision process, to build consensus, to secure funding (vs. competitive projects), and to make sense of the volume of high-quality information. It became clear that marketing teams needed to focus on creating tools that helped customers get buying jobs done, and build confidence.
But it’s not enough.
For your customer, the vast majority of tech purchases are just a waypoint on the road to a change. The purchase may get them further down the road, but there is a long way to go to get value out of the purchase.
Change enablement will start to address that road to value, before we even get to the buying waypoint–but it may get you to that waypoint sooner than you would think.
From trials to post-sale content (implementation guides, product documentation, training), we need to help customers think beyond the purchase.
Change enablement is content, tools and program that help buyers:
More thoroughly evaluate the challenges facing their organization
Identify incremental steps to achieve goals
Identify potentially contentious decisions earlier in the process
Prepare for potential risks
And understand the tasks and resources needed to achieve value.”
Buyer enablement is helping buyers build confidence in their purchase decision
Last but not least, my thoughts:
Buyer enablement refers to tools, resources and sales process that help buyers build confidence in their purchase decision.
In some cases, this could be pieces of content designed to help prospects navigate buying obstacles we’ve identified as common momentum-blockers in the sale, like:
Defining the problem
Building requirements
Validating the solution
Etc, etc
While influenced by Gartner’s definition of buyer enablement, my approach to creating these tools and resources is always rooted in the primary buying process research I do with clients.
By talking to a sample size of closed-lost and closed-won ideal buyers, I collect data about the buying process that sheds light on the glaring opportunities, huge gaps, low-hanging fruit, and no-brainer changes we can make to their GTM strategy to improve win rate and shorten sales cycles.