Gartner for Sales

CSO Update
The new B2B buying journey and its
implication for sales

Brent Adamson
Distinguished VP,
Gartner Research & Advisory
An inescapable evolution
If I were to sum up the single biggest challenge we hear most
often from today’s chief sales officers (CSOs), it would be this:

“How do we sell our complex solutions to increasingly demanding

customers in order to meet rising organizational growth goals?”

Essentially, it’s the entire CSO job in a single question. This rising tension between old-world selling and
new-world buying naturally leaves CSOs asking really
Of course, finding an answer isn’t nearly as easy as
tough questions about data, analytics, strategy, role
articulating the question. But that doesn’t stop many
specialization and deal qualifications as they seek to
heads of sales from trying, exhorting their teams to, “Work
adapt their sales organizations to today’s very different
harder!” or “Work smarter!” Or the sales classic, “You need
commercial landscape. For CSOs to deliver on constantly
to be hungrier!”
rising growth goals, however, they can’t simply get better
Still others will lean on worn chestnuts like, “You need and better at skills that matter less and less.
to spend more time with customers!” or sales leaders’
perennial favorite, “You have to deliver more value!” For CSOs to deliver on constantly rising
(which typically translates to, “Talk more about how growth goals, they can’t simply get better
great our stuff is!”).
and better at skills that matter less and less.
The problem with these rapid-fire responses to
underperformance, however, is they each represent a This is exactly where Gartner comes in. We study how
different-in-degree selling solution for what Gartner the world of B2B buying and selling is changing, and what
research repeatedly demonstrates to be a different-in- exactly those changes mean — both strategically and
kind buying reality. As business-to-business (B2B) buying tactically — for sales leaders and their teams.
behavior rapidly changes, traditional sales approaches — no
To get caught up and positioned for what’s next, join us
matter how well executed — will dramatically underachieve.
on the journey of adapting to this inescapable evolution.

Top of mind for today’s CSOs

Compared to three years ago, where are you looking for additional help from Gartner?
Challenges leveraging data and analytics to
enhance commercial performance 46%
Increasing specialization and coordination
required among commercial roles 40%
Aligning go-to-market strategy (sales roles,
coverage, etc.) to a changing customer base 38%
Seller need for support outpacing the quality
of enablement 28%
Lead qualification and prospecting efforts fail
to generate enough high-quality leads 27%
Difficulty attracting and hiring talent to meet
business demands 22%
Difficulty hiring, motivating and managing
next-gen/millennial sales talent 20%
Capability gap among frontline sales
managers 21%
Incentive plans not delivering desired changes
in seller behavior 20%
Required technical and product knowledge
exceeds seller capacity 14%
Suboptimal performance on major pursuits/
largest deals 14%
Insufficient bench of sales leadership to fill
second-line management positions and above 8%
0 10 20 30 40 50
n = 59 CSOs
Source: Gartner

© 2019 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_575677
The impact of high-quality information abundance
We’ve examined the impact of information abundance on B2B selling for several years — often
captured by customers’ ability to significantly delay in-person sales interactions as a result.
As suppliers’ content marketing strategies continue to In fact, providing customers with information specifically
evolve, however, today’s customers have access not designed to help them advance their purchase has the
only to more information, but to more high-quality single biggest impact on driving deal quality that we’ve
information than ever before. As a result, customers find ever documented in all of our research.
themselves less empowered than actually overwhelmed
simply by the need to prioritize and deconflict all of those Change in likelihood of high-value,
competing perspectives. low-regret deal
Gartner research shows that the sales reps most likely to
win in this world are far less focused on demonstrating
personal expertise by dumping yet even more information
into customer interactions, and far more focused on helping
customers sort through information already available —
acting as a kind of “information connector” to provide the
frameworks and tools customers desperately need to
efficiently organize and align their thinking.
The reason this new information curation role matters
so much stems from its direct impact on driving 3.0x
purchase ease, an outcome that customers will reward
with bigger, higher-value deals accompanied by far less Information that helps us advance
purchase regret. n = 135
Source: Gartner

“The information we encountered as part “The amount of trustworthy information

of this purchase decision was generally we encountered as part of this purchase
of high quality.” was overwhelming.”

3%
7% Disagree
Neutral (42) 90% 31% 50%
(81)
Agree Disagree Agree
(1,051) (369) (584)

19%
Neutral
(221)

n = 1,174 n = 1,174
Source: Gartner Sales 2019 B2B Buyer Survey Source: Gartner Sales 2019 B2B Buyer Survey

© 2019 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_575677
B2B buying isn’t linear The B2B buying journey
To understand how to best help customers advance through a complex purchase, Buying jobs don’t happen sequentially but more or less simultaneously. And if we were to map
Gartner research identified six B2B buying “jobs” that customers must complete to out a real B2B buying journey, it would look a lot less like a step-by-step linear process and lot
their satisfaction in order to successfully finalize an actual purchase. more like a big bowl of spaghetti.
Every one of these moments is a potential driver of In that respect, B2B buying is far less about progressing
B2B buying jobs looping, revisiting or re-evaluation. As a result, customers through a funnel and far more about completing a
are trapped repeating each job over and over until all six diverse set of tasks. And the actual purchase decision
are locked in simultaneously. doesn’t happen until all six tasks are considered
Problem identification Solution exploration Requirements building Supplier selection complete at the same time.

Validation Exploration of
Start integration with Purchasing rules
existing system overrule group decision
Contact with a
Consensus creation former colleague
Buying group
CEO
Feasibility turnover Budget Legal flag
turnover
review cut
End-user
Executive Capital
Source: Gartner input
presentation review
Web Procurement
and questions Budget board
search flag End-user
approved
Supplier input
Web Trends report Social media
search website
reviewed conversation
visit
However, our customer surveys also tell us that B2B buying doesn’t play out in any kind
of predictable, linear order. Instead, customers engage in what we might call “looping” Problem Solution Requirements Supplier
identification exploration building selection
across a typical B2B purchase, revisiting each of those six buying jobs at least once.
White paper Supplier RFP Buying
website RFP response Live supplier
download Web group
creation demos
Proportion of buying groups revisiting Independent Overwhelming search
visit comparison debate
Online
given buying tasks at least once online information about
content Supplier’s More
research the problem information Contract
Peer shared buying guide
updates
Web Misalignment Group discussions download needed from
required
search on problem diagnostic Online virtual sales reps
79% 80% 79% LinkedIn demo Business
80% 76% deployment
discussion case data
Discussion
Misalignment Buying unavailable
with customer
on solution consultant Expert references
White paper scope discussion consultation Customer
download testimonial
40% videos review
Overwhelming Deconflicting Buying Group Purchase
information about information group disagreement on decision
the solution within buying debates requirements
Source: Gartner group

0%
When we adopt a jobs perspective, we’re able to better If our ultimate goal as a supplier organization is to help
Problem Solution Requirements Supplier
identification exploration building selection appreciate what individual sellers are up against selling each and every customer successfully land in an actual
n = 573 n = 640 n = 606 n = 824 into this complex buying reality every single day — if for purchase decision, then CSOs will have to figure out
Source: Gartner
no other reason than the simple impossibility of actually how to materially simplify B2B buying in a world where
being present in all these places at exactly the right individual intervention is insufficient on its own.
time, for all the deals they’re doing. This is especially
true when the vast majority of this activity happens
“over the horizon” and behind closed doors.

© 2019 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_575677 © 2019 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_575677
Three implications of today’s B2B buying behavior

1. 3.
Your reps are a channel to customers, not the channel You need to rewire sales and marketing
When we examined whether some jobs are better As a result, sales reps are no longer the channel to Most sales and marketing teams are organized in serial As a result, in today’s world of B2B buying, there is no
supported through an in-person sales interaction and customers, but simply a channel, and alignment across fashion: Marketing is charged with generating and handoff from marketing to sales (or digital to in-person).
others through online channels, we found that customers in-person and digital channels is crucial for supporting nurturing demand early through digital channels before It’s a parallel process, not a serial one.
demonstrated no particular preference for one channel customers in the way they actually buy. handing off the most qualified of opportunities to sales for
To win in this world, CSOs (and their marketing
over another when completing any of the six buying jobs. in-person pursuit. First marketing, then sales. First digital,
Helping B2B buyers buy isn’t a sales problem, it’s an counterparts) must realign both organizational structure
Instead, they are largely channel-agnostic when seeking then in-person.
information problem. And CSOs looking to drive growth will and functional activity to more closely map to actual
the information they need to get a job done.
solve first for information quality rather than individual skill. Gartner research clearly indicates, however, that buying behavior, creating a parallel commercial
customers don’t buy in a linear fashion. Rather, they organization rather than a serial one.
use both digital and in-person channels with near equal
Proportion of buyers who used sales reps vs. website to complete a job At the very least, the best companies will ensure tight
frequency to complete each of the six B2B buying jobs
alignment of information across multiple channels to
more or less simultaneously.
100 guarantee both consistency and maximum support for
92%
88%
85%
90%
86% 87% 85%
buying jobs.
82% 82% 80%
80 79% 79%

The serial commercial organization

60

Marketing (digital) Sales (in-person)

40

20

Supplier sales rep

1 2 3 4 5 6
0 Supplier website
Problem Solution Requirements Supplier Validation Consensus
identification exploration building selection n = 1,003 creation
n = 976 n = 1,073 n = 994 n = 1,253 n = 643

Source: Gartner
The parallel commercial organization

2. Marketing (digital)

Your pipeline is lying to you

Most sales organizations organize activity around a Conflating job completion with sales
linear pipeline, seeking to move opportunities from progression leads CSOs to solve for
one stage to the next in a logical, linear order. sales problems they ultimately may
For customers, however, purchase progress is far not have and to easily overlook ones
Problem Solution Requirements Supplier Validation Consensus
better defined in terms of job completion rather than they actually do. identification exploration building selection creation
stage progression.
best-bet interventions. Conflating job completion with
As a result, while pipeline reviews might indicate a sales progression leads CSOs to solve for sales problems Sales (in-person)
Source: Gartner
preponderance of opportunities stuck in sales Stage 5, they ultimately may not have and to easily overlook ones
for example, there is no way of knowing through a linear, they actually do.
supplier-centric sales funnel where exactly customers
are truly struggling to make progress in any given deal.
This misalignment between sales model design and 1 2 3 4 5 6
underlying purchase reality easily leads to potentially
costly misdiagnoses of both sales rep shortcomings and
Source: Gartner

© 2019 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_575677 © 2019 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_575677
Get involved and get your answers
Benchmark your sales force
We’ve just launched our latest powerful survey to identify the specific rep behaviors most
associated with deal success.
If there was one assessment to deploy to your reps, it Steer our research to your needs

The premier event for

would be this one. The assessment will specifically test
seller behaviors/mindsets related to three areas: We invite you to connect directly with our research
team to direct our work through your perspectives,

chief sales officers and

■■  ustomer confidence: Are your sellers able to
C experience, questions and most pressing priorities.
provide customers with the information they need
to confidently make purchase decisions?
■■  ustomer focus: Do your sellers put the customers’
C
success at the heart of their sales strategy?
For more information or to
schedule a research interview, B2B sales leaders
■■  urchase ease: Do your sellers make it easy for
P contact David Millstein:
potential customers to make a purchase?
[email protected].
Every participating company receives a customized
benchmark report giving you powerful insights into
how your team stacks up.
Gartner CSO & Sales
Leader Conference
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Join us for a day of discussion gartner.com/us/sales
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discussion and exploration of our latest findings
Dates
and their implications for your organization.
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© 2019 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_575677 © 2019 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_575677
© 2019 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_575677