This year, we’re set to see a significant rise in self-service buying in B2B. In fact, Forrester has predicted that more than half of large B2B purchases in 2025 will be processed through digital self-service channels.
While this is a fundamental change for B2B enterprises, it isn’t so surprising. B2B buyers are getting younger – millennials and Gen Z now constitute 64% of business buyers – and they expect seamless, self-service experiences.
Much of the discussion about this shift has focused on the technology that will enable self-service buying. But for B2B marketers, the change goes beyond this, with significant implications for both sales and marketing and the way the two functions work together.
From selling to strategic partnership
The most immediate impact will be on sales. While there will understandably be concerns about future employment, the shift could and should be positive. There will always be a need for salespeople in B2B, but their roles could change significantly. B2B buying is often a complex and multi-stage process, so a hybrid model of selling that includes both human and automated interaction will be preferable for many B2B vendors. This will elevate the role of the sales team to that of strategic partners – guiding, facilitating and providing expert advice rather than hard selling, nudging and converting.
Bringing sales and marketing closer together
How sales and marketing will work together will also change, with the move to self-service inevitably shining a spotlight on the gap between the two functions. The fallacy of marketers collecting a name and phone number, calling it a marketing qualified lead (MQL) and throwing it over to the sales team to convert is well past its sell-by date. But so too now, with the move to self-service buying, is the sales’ expectation of getting all the data about a prospect and being left to get the sale over the line. The new generation of buyers won’t want that type of sales contact, so the greater reliance on data and the elevation of the sales function will inevitably bring sales and marketing together in a new interdependence.
To provide value in their new elevated strategic partner role, salespeople will need up-to-date and actionable data on individuals. This will place greater emphasis on the role that marketing plays in data delivery. For example, how data flows across channels to CRM in a way that enables a salespeople to fulfil their role as a strategic partner for buyers. There will need to be more shared responsibility between sales and marketing, more two-way trust, and genuine alignment on how the buyer experience is changing and why it requires this fundamental shift.
Elevating the role of marketing
And with the shift to self-service and an elevated sales role, we will similarly see an elevated marketing function. The change in buying process will result in less proactive sales touchpoints, so B2B brands will need to invest in stronger brand marketing to ensure that they are even considered by buyers that will have ever greater control over their buying journeys. For some time now, there have been calls for B2B marketers to invest in longer term marketing and these will get ever louder as brands will no longer simply be redirecting leads into a nurture model. B2B marketing will increasingly be about driving brand preference among potential buyers.
And while self-service buying will increasingly become the norm, that won’t mean more single-person buying decisions. B2B buying groups will continue to grow – at the moment, the average group is already around 10 people. There will be increased pressure to consider the needs of all the influencing personas, not just in the new sales experience, but also to engage them as educated brand advocates before they enter the buying journey.
Marketing’s role in the new customer journey
And there will inevitably be a shift in the role that marketing plays in the new customer journey. For starters, there will be increased pressure on marketers to effectively track an individual through the self-serve journey and to find new ways to gather valuable data for sales teams without the need for constant asset gating and form-filling. This in itself is a challenge that goes beyond technology and data collection – it requires a shift in the long-standing culture of B2B demand generation.
And with self-service buying will inevitably come a great need for personalization in marketing and across the customer journey. AI solutions will be able to perform much of the heavy lifting in the field, but the content strategy that supports a self-serve model will be key. Marketers will need to ensure that they have the right types of engaging content at all stages along the journey. Providing the right type of experience for the new generation of buyers will likely involve the collaboration of marketing, sales, IT, product, customer services, and other functions. But the responsibility to coordinate it all into a seamless experience will likely fall on marketing.
The importance of martech self-service buying
And, of course, marketing will need cutting edge technology to enable it to meet its new challenges and opportunities. But it will also need to be intelligent and not limited by legacy practice and culture. Imagine online tools that allow prospects to select their own route through your content based on their industry, challenges, goals etc. Imagine giving buyers options to self-assess and size their own solutions online, then receive instant customized advice and recommendations. Imagine being able to categorically inform a prospect that they will not be contacted by a sales rep, regardless of the information they share about themselves. And imagine all the live actions they take through your self-serve journey populating their profiles in your CRM, so when they do reach out your sales team can provide truly informed and personalized advice and guidance. All of this will need fresh and joined up thinking across content, channels, martech and data.
Technology and high-level operational changes will inevitably lead the transition to self-service buying, but the impact on sales and marketing will also be fundamental. B2B enterprises that embrace the opportunities to elevate and redefine how these two functions work together will be best placed to succeed in the new era of B2B buying.
If you want to find out how you can make the transformational changes to take advantage of self-service buying, then talk to a digital marketing expert at Luxid.
