What is Buyer Enablement and How to Do it

Sales reps are the face of a company and play an essential role in the organization's success. But, with the increasing complexity of business-to-business (B2B) sales, it’s becoming harder for sales teams to close deals. In a Gartner survey of B2B customers, 77% said their previous purchase experience was highly complex or challenging.

The B2B buying process is far more challenging than business-to-consumer (B2C) because multiple stakeholders are involved in the decision-making process, each with their own goals and objectives. As a result, sales reps need to think about how they can guide their prospects and customers through the buying process. That’s where buyer enablement comes in. This article will explore what buyer enablement is and how to implement it.

What Is Buyer Enablement?

Buyer enablement is a sales process that helps buyers understand their pain points and how to solve them with the product or service you sell. It’s not just about educating potential customers on what they need but also teaching them how to make an informed decision about your offering. Moreover, buyer enablement can help internal champions sell on the seller's behalf when they aren't in the room. Salespeople don't have to worry about being present at every sales meeting. They can trust their champions to do the job for you.

Buyer Vs. Sales Enablement

Sales enablement and buyer enablement help the people they serve—salespeople and buyers, respectively. Sales enablement allows sellers to sell by providing prescriptive advice and practical support to make the buying process easier to navigate. Buyer enablement does the same for buyers by providing them with prescriptive advice and practical support to complete the buying process more efficiently.

Buyer enablement is a set of activities that help your buyers understand, buy and use your products and services. In today’s competitive market, companies must deliver a great customer experience. Unfortunately, without the right tools, many organizations have trouble keeping up with the needs of their customers. This has led to increased churn rates across industries and decreased revenues for some companies.

The good news is that buyer enablement can help you improve your customer experience by reducing churn rates and increasing revenue—if you do it right! With buyer enablement at its core—and with proper training on how to leverage this practice properly—you can become an industry leader in providing great experiences for all types of customers.

What Does Buyer Enablement Look Like?

Buyer enablement can take many forms, but at its core: it helps buyers have a more effortless buying experience. Instead of focusing on sales-heavy content, sales representatives should focus on materials that simplify the buying process for clients.

The buyer thinks, “Hey, I have this problem, and this product solves it by ___.”

Here are a few examples of materials that qualify as buyer enablement:

• Checklists
• Calculators
• Benchmarks
• Advisors
• White papers
• Simulators
• Videos
• Diagnostic tools
• Recommendation tools

A more detailed example of buyer enablement would be a cost savings calculator. Suppose your company sells customer relationship management (CRM) software. To support buyer enablement, your website includes a calculator where potential buyers can plug in a few details and see in real-time how much they could save by choosing your product. 

When someone sees how much they could save by purchasing your CRM software, it's easier for them to make an informed decision about whether or not they want to invest in your services. In addition, if they're already considering hiring another company, then seeing how much they could save by going with you may be enough to convince them that you're a better choice.

What Are The Benefits Of Buyer Enablement?

The benefits of buyer enablement include:

• Increase sales - You can generate more revenue by helping buyers find the product or service that makes their lives easier. Quality and consistency of your sales content can also be assured to a more significant effect.

• Save time - You can save time by assisting buyers in making better purchasing decisions, which means spending less time taking them through the pipeline.

• Improve customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty - Your customers will be happier with the products they buy from you because they won't have to worry about making uninformed decisions. Sales reps will also have the ability to drive high-value customer interactions. 

• Improve customer experience - Providing outstanding customer support is crucial if you want to retain happy customers. Buyer enablement allows organizations to create world-class customer interactions without excessive training.

How To Build A Buyer Enablement Program

To be effective, buyer enablement should be shareable, align with your customer's emotional needs, provide confidence in your product or service and focus on your company’s unique differentiators.

Here are some tips to help you build your buyer enablement strategy:

#1 Understand Buyer Needs 

To build a successful program, you need to know your target audience's needs and how you can help them. You also need to understand their buying journey and where you fit into it.

Know your buyers. Who are they? What do they want? What challenges do they face? What questions do they have?

#2 Identity Your Champions

Make sure that any information you provide is shareable. It should speak to the problem your organization is trying to solve, and your contact (or contacts) should act as your champion within the buying team.

#3 Identify Moments Of Need

Identify the stages in the buying cycle when buyers need guidance most. You might help them before they've started their search, or you might help them after they've begun their search but before they've made any commitments.

#4 Ensure Marketing & Sales Teams Are In Sync

Marketers and salespeople need to be on the same page to succeed. To produce material buyers find valuable, marketers should understand how buyers make decisions and what they need to complete this task. Salespeople must communicate with their marketing counterparts what type of collateral would work well to facilitate buyer enablement.

To Recap

To simplify the purchase process, B2B customers need information that helps them make informed decisions. Buyer enablement scratches that itch. 

Recapped includes an action plan to keep buyers and sellers on the same page throughout the sales process. Our tools outline buyer needs, consolidate marketing collateral, and offer collaborative opportunities for all stakeholders.

Ready to close deals and onboard clients up to 75% faster? With Recapped, it’s possible. Request a demo today.

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