Why Your B2B Buyers Aren’t Buying

How infuriating is it when you provide a stakeholder or client with bulletproof evidence that they should pursue a change, only for them to do nothing? Even if you receive clear confirmation that “Yes, this is a big problem and a change here is needed,” you can’t bank on this “problem confession” being enough activation energy to compel change. The bigger issue here is that your stakeholders’ problems may have their own problems. Let’s dive in.

Today we’re talking about the reasons why B2B buyers don't buy. And this will be an ongoing series because there are multiple factors that can hold someone back from moving forward on a project or change initiative. 

Uncertainty is your client’s default state, but it’s not a factor in and of itself that prevents them from buying. It’s how most customers will generally present, but there’s always an underlying reason for their uncertainty. 

The most likely reasons your buyer is uncertain— and therefore isn't agreeing to your offering: 

1. Limited understanding of the problem or the potential solution

2. Lack of resources to make solving the problem possible

3. Misalignment between stakeholders around incentives, what the problem is, or if there even is a problem that needs solving

4. Consensus challenges between stakeholders who agree there’s a problem but can’t agree on how to solve it 

5. Low amounts of emotional energy to lead challenging and complex conversations with internal leaders

6. Constrained time to address this problem when significant time needs to be allocated to keeping the business running

7. Fear of negative impact on status can completely halt a change initiative, especially if your stakeholder operates in a politically charged workplace where a failed initiative has serious ramifications

Here’s an example objection: “We’re concerned we’re not going to hit our annual growth goal of 50,000 new paid subscribers.” This might be the surface level problem. You might probe further and discover the real problem that needs to be solved is “We can’t hit our 50,000 new paid subscriber goal because of how much is on our developers’ plates.”

Actual problems that need to be addressed:

• Lack of developer resources like tools, staff, etc.

• Lack of consensus between leadership on the developer vs whoever is driving the change initiative

• Limited time on the developers’ calendars to address the bottleneck

A typical seller would say “Ah, that’s out of my scope. Let me know when you, uh, make progress here.” The consultative seller would say “I might not be an expert here, but one of my clients worked with a specific consulting firm that helped them through a very similar problem. Let me connect you with them.”

Remember: Your clients problems that impede a deal from advancing are your problems. 

Recognize that your clients' problems likely have their own problems. How are you helping your customers or stakeholders address the true underlying problem(s)?

Only 13% of customers believe a salesperson understands their needs (source). This might even be conservative considering customers themselves don’t always understand the depth or complexity of their own problems.