Ongoing survey of 2,000 executives sheds light on the factors that influence B2B buying decisions
Plano, Texas (April 23, 2019) – VanillaSoft, a leading sales engagement technology company, is pleased to provide initial findings from a broad study on B2B buyer engagement preferences. The objectives of the study are to understand buyer behavior during the sales process, understand buyer preferences during the buying process, and, ultimately, improve customer satisfaction. The final report – developed in collaboration with academic and industry partners – will be unveiled in the coming months following the full tabulation and analysis of all results.
David Hood, CEO of VanillaSoft, shared initial results from the survey during a keynote address at the AA-ISP Leadership Summit in Chicago on Tuesday, April 16th.
Among other points, the research looks at buyer attitudes and preferences for receiving information or being contacted at three phases of the sales engagement process: the identification of need, the search for solutions, and the evaluation of alternatives. The table below reflects respondents preferring each channel “a lot” or “a great deal.”
TABLE: How do you want to be contacted during the sales engagement process?
| Channel/Phase | Need | Search | Evaluation |
| SMS | 13% | 16% | 16% |
| Social Media | 24% | 19% | 15% |
| Phone | 39% | 42% | 54% |
| 92% | 82% | 90% |
“We often read and hear about the rise and role of social selling at various points in the sales engagement process,” said Hood, “However, as these initial findings show, more traditional channels – from email to phone to simple word-of-mouth – are actually preferred by B2B buyers.”
The initial results found that among the youngest demographic studied [25 to 34-year-olds] only 18 percent expressed a preference for social as a contact channel – as compared with 41 percent who said they preferred the telephone.
Other elements of the research will look at preferred sources of information, channel preference by age group, the ideal speed to respond to prospect inquiries, desired seller competencies, and scheduling preferences.
“Understanding these types of reality-based findings will allow smart sales professionals to align their activities to their customers’ wants and desires,” said Hood. “We’re sitting on some rich and exciting information, and are looking forward to introducing our partners and sharing formal results in the coming months.”
About VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft, the industry’s most successful sales engagement platform, helps sales development teams engage over 15,000,000 contacts every month. Used standalone, or in combination with existing traditional CRM systems, VanillaSoft empowers sales reps to respond to new leads faster, interact with leads more consistently, across more channels, and generate more qualified sales opportunities. Globally, thousands of users employ VanillaSoft’s queue-based sales engine and intellective routing to implement sales cadence automation resulting in substantial gains in speed-to-lead, persistency, productivity, and revenue-per-rep. VanillaSoft is a privately held company headquartered in Plano, Texas, USA. To learn more, visit www.vanillasoft.com.