The Overloaded B2B Buyer

The Overloaded B2B Buyer:from Wide Angle by Jing Zhang
Many of our readers know that B2B customers are feeling intensified pressure to make the right purchasing decisions.  With increased C-suite involvement and complex buying group priorities, there is more at stake, so customers pursuing more extensive independent research and due diligence.  Recent studies have substantiated these trends: the majority of B2B buyers say they spend more time researching purchases than they did in the past.  What’s more, 67% of buyers say they’re using a wider variety of sources (on average more than 10!) to research purchases, many of which are not supplier-controlled.
But while customers may feel more secure with so much readily available information, science says otherwise.  To measure the effect of information quantity on decision quality, researchers at the Center for Neural Decision Making at Temple University measured brain activity across varying levels of cognitive load.  As the researchers gave their subjects more and more information, activity in the dorsolateral PFC dropped precipitously, “as if a circuit breaker had popped.”  (A little background: the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a region behind the forehead that is responsible for decision-making and emotion control.  So if those lights go out, your “smart” brain has effectively left the building.)
In other words, with information overload, decisions make less and less sense.  One the one hand, people start making stupid mistakes.  On the other, the brain’s emotional regions (previously balanced by the dorsolateral PFC) run amok, leaving individuals anxious and frustrated.  These two effects compound each other, and before you know it (literally), the attempt at a well-informed decision has been sabotaged by your own well-meaning intentions.
This research may not come as a shock to B2C marketers who have felt the implications of our Decision Simplicity research for a while now.  However, it is an under-recognized issue in the B2B space, one that can explain — at least partially — why so many purchases are stalling despite marketers’ best efforts at informing buyer decisions.
So what can B2B marketers do to help their customers avoid being overloaded by information?

• Less — Less Often — Is More: MLC has found that in response to excessive emails and other communications from a supplier, more than half of buyers adopted an “Ignore All” mentality.  In fact, 30% said that unwanted supplier contact actually lessened their likelihood of purchase from the perpetrator.  Very few customers want more information from suppliers in their purchase process, so there’s probably room for marketers to rein in the content beast.
• Illustrate — Not State — The Facts: When most buyers are creating their short lists, the most commonly sought out information are case study examples.  Suppliers that can help a buyer envision the solution in their own environment are much more likely to win a long-term customer.
• Orient Around Action: After case-studies, the the next most sought-after information are action-oriented checklists or guides.  In fact, nearly three in four buyers say that tools designed to support the business case for a purchase have a significant impact on their ultimate decision.  So instead of telling your customers what you can do, tell them what they can do (hopefully only with you).