As recently as 10 years ago, few of us made purchases via the internet. Over time, security issues and the ‘risk’ of making a purchase via the internet have been mitigated by sellers and financial institutions alike. According to the Cisco Inclusive Future Report (2020), “In 2000, only 6.7% of the world used the Internet, yet by 2017, almost half of the global population did.” In the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau (18 February 2022) Total e-commerce sales for 2021 were estimated at $870.8 billion, an increase of 14.2 percent (±0.9%) from 2020. E-commerce sales in 2021 accounted for 13.2 percent of total sales.
Business buyers are using the internet extensively to not only research possibilities, options and alternatives, but often to make their buying decisions. And they are often doing this before engaging with a salesperson from the supplier organization. This harks back to the days of business buyers using the e-auction method – taking relationships out of the equation as much as possible.
Now more than ever, our customers have little time to ‘teach’ their potential suppliers all about their business. Likewise, our customers do not see value in working with potential suppliers who are not as knowledgeable about the options and alternatives as they are.
The internet has changed how salespeople need to prepare to work with a potential customer in readiness to negotiate. More than ever, a salesperson needs to know clearly the unique business value that their solution / product brings to the table, and they need to know how to explain that differentiated value proposition. This differentiated business value needs to resonate with what is important to the customer’s buying decision.
By analyzing what would happen if there is no deal, (using Consequences of No Agreement Analysis) and listing the impact to the buyer if they do not reach agreement with you, the customer decision criteria becomes clear. Leverage your resources and experience to understand and validate the priority of the decision criteria. Then compare how well your solution / product addresses each decision criteria compared to the customer’s alternative. Any decision criteria that is high priority for the customer and for which your solution / product is better than the customer’s preferred alternative, shows you where your solution / product differentiates. This differentiation against the highest priority decision criteria is invaluable for you when you are working with a very knowledge buyer – especially a buyer who has done their research via the internet!