The 10 Buyer Motives B2B Sales Teams Should Know

Why do consumers decide to make their final purchases? What is it that compels them to choose one product or service over another? We wish it were as easy as differences in price point or customer service. It’s not.  There are many reasons consumers make their final purchase decisions. We’re going to take a look at the top motivators and ways a CRM database can help. But first, let’s explore the big differences between B2C and B2B buyer motives.

The Challenge for B2B Sales Teams

We think it’s important for B2B sales teams to understand all buyer motives and not just those that pertain specifically to B2B sales. That being said, there are major challenges that are specific to B2B sales teams that are worthy of exploring.

First, B2B sales need to focus on longer-term relationships, while B2C can focus on one-time relationships based on transactions. This has an obvious effect on strategies for each.

Longer-term relationship building also affects how organizations accomplish their branding. However, in this instance, it is just as important for both types of businesses, it is just accomplished slightly differently. Typically, B2B branding focuses more on relationship branding, while B2C focuses more on messaging.

B2B organizations need to also make sure to create open lines of communication because the sales cycle tends to be so much longer. Meanwhile, B2C organizations have a shorter sales cycle and need to focus on simplifying the message. This strategy can help ensure they don’t miss out on any opportunities.

These challenges also explain the need for a CRM database to store and make accessible pertinent information. It makes available all of the information necessary to build and maintain these relationships and see consumers through the sales cycle.

Just to complicate matters, even more, 2020 has changed much of what we’ve known about B2B marketing. Gartner published a study showing the 6 things that characterize the B2B buyer in 2020, which include:

• Customer satisfaction is no longer enough to make purchasing decisions to drive growth, it is only enough to convince businesses to repurchase.
• Organizations lose motivation to purchase if it’s too difficult, unknown, risky, or disruptive.
• Customers need confidence in their own decisions to continue to make purchasing decisions.
• Too much information such as reviews and price comparisons can overwhelm buyers, which results in failure to reach a decision to purchase.
• The perception customers have of sales reps is critical to closing deals.
• Whether or not customers have confidence in the information they have has a huge impact on closing deals.

The reality of 2020 B2B sales is worth exploring as well, but for the purposes of this article, we are now going to look deeper into the 10 buyer motives that all B2B sales teams should know and understand.

10 Buyer Motives B2B Sales Teams Should Know

1. Fit

One of the major motives for consumers to buy is when a product or service fits their needs. It’s advantageous to make sure your customers are aware of your products or services and what problems they solve so they are aware enough to know it fits their needs.

2. Fear of Missing Out

Some consumers decide to purchase simply because they don’t want to miss out on it. This is the case with many B2C technologies or fashions and less relevant to B2B organizations. Marketing your products as the next must-have product can help, but having a highly desired product is a must.

3. General Fear

Another tactic that is effective for B2C sales teams is to play on your potential customers’ fears. Giving consumers a sense of urgency to purchase based on their fears of injury, safety, or financial concerns gets their attention. This is a common tactic for businesses that sell everything from alarm systems to a toothpaste that allows them to send the message that consumers will suffer consequences without this product.

4. Well-being

Physical and mental health is a hot topic nowadays…and for good reason with a worldwide health crisis in our midst. Many potential customers will be motivated by the health implications of products or services on the market. Focusing on the benefits organizations can provide to consumers tied to their well-being can easily motivate buyers.

5. Excitement

For some lucky B2C sales teams, you may be able to get impulse purchases by producing some excitement about your product.  This is not as likely in B2B sales, but can certainly help with longer-term relationship building if you can get them excited about your product.

6. Luxury

If you provide a product or service that can be considered a luxury, you can entice people who have particular wants instead of needs. This is helpful with customers that have some expendable income and like fast cars or relaxing vacations.

7. ROI

For B2B organizations, focusing on the financial gain consumers can experience is a key buyer motive. Inform potential customers about how they will be able to increase their ROI with your particular offering. Money speaks volumes to most organizations.

8. Self-improvement

Another hot topic that will motivate buyers in the 2020s is anything that will help with self-improvement. Mostly a B2C advantage, some B2B organizations may benefit as well if you can offer ways for companies to help their employees achieve their self-improvement aspirations.

9. Competency

One of the main motivators for business buyers is competency. If the purchasing organization believes the selling organization to be competent with their offering, the buyer is much more motivated.

10. Credibility

Another very important buyer motivation is credibility. Publishing quality content in a helpful manner, for instance, can establish organizations as credible and even as an expert in their field, according to Forbes.

How a CRM Database Can Help

As we’ve determined, B2B sales have unique challenges compared to B2C sales. As such, effective CRM database providers offer a way for B2B sales teams to collect, maintain, update, and access all of their customers’ and prospects’ data in order to build those invaluable relationships.

Agile CRM is an advanced all-in-one CRM database solution that not only provides the space to collect this information but will also allow for sales and marketing automation capabilities so that your teams will be able to do exponentially more in less time. As a cloud-based solution, it also available anywhere, which helps teams combat some of the issues that 2020 has thrown at us as many of us continue to work remotely.

Agile CRM is also part of the 500apps Infinity Suite of workplace productivity apps that can help your sales teams even further with numerous apps to choose from, allowing you to do more with less.

Conclusion

Though trying to pinpoint your particular customers’ motivation may seem extremely difficult, referring to this list of top buyer motives that your sales team should be aware of will help simplify it. Ensuring you stay on top of these top motives can help you sell the right benefits to the right customers and increase your conversions. Implementing an effective CRM database will be key to successfully gathering the right information to determine motives.