New Apttus Report Reveals Risk, Reward of Understanding – Or Neglecting – B2B Buyer Demands in Today’s Digital Economy

Sales EngagementB2B Database & List Services

By STS News Desk On Sep 24, 2019

New Apttus Report Reveals Risk, Reward Of Understanding – Or Neglecting – B2B Buyer Demands In Today’s Digital Economy

Apttus Commercial Experience Report Reveals Customer Experience Eclipses Price as No.1 Factor Driving B2B Buying Decisions, Spotlights the Fundamental Value of Automating Selling Processes to Meet Dynamic Buyer Demands

Apttus, the global Middle Office leader, released the Apttus Commercial Experience Report (ACE), a third party multinational study spotlighting the changing expectations, assumptions, and behavior of B2B buyers and sellers in the digital economy.

The ACE report factors in these buying tendencies to identify both the alignment and misalignment between B2B buyers and sellers in US and European markets. It spotlights customer experience as the top factor driving buying decisions in the digital economy – even more than price – focusing ultimately on the implications for businesses if they merely meet or fall short of customer expectations.

Apttus commissioned Provoke Insights, a New York-based research firm, to conduct a study involving 1,500 B2B buyers and 1,500 B2B sellers in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany. The study’s thesis revolves around the cause-and-effect relationship between selling and buying experiences influencing overall customer satisfaction over time. In other words, if businesses enhance their selling processes to fit the business models of today’s digital economy, they will, in turn, generate better buying experiences for their customers, which will result in better overall customer experience long term. The ACE Report identifies approaches enterprises can take to ensure this continuity, including automation and artificial intelligence.

Some of the key findings include:

Nine out of ten B2B sellers believe they already know how their customers want to buy from them, but a considerable number of B2B buyers disagree with their assumptions.
Customer buying experience is the No.1 factor dictating customer buying decisions.
Buying experience dwarfs price by five times in importance.
Good or poor buyer satisfaction can grow or shrink deals by as much as 20 percent.
Automating selling processes is a key solution to improving buyer experience.
Automating selling processes can accelerate deal cycles by as much as 25 percent.
Automating selling processes can increase deal sizes by as much as 5-10 percent.
Ultimately, automating selling processes can impact earnings and company growth rates.

“We live in a dynamic era, with new business models replacing archaic ones,” Apttus CEO Frank Holland said. “The ACE Report highlights the value of digitally transforming revenue and legal operations to drive better customer retention and revenue stability. In a dynamic, on-demand, digital economy that features increasing shifts toward software-as-a-service (SaaS) and subscription-based business models, the need for growth and revenue stability becomes critical for enterprises striving to evolve, lead, and compete effectively in their industries.”

The ACE Report features a dense set of findings. Although today’s announcement focuses mostly on the state of B2B selling in the digital economy, upcoming chapters of the report will delve deeper into B2B expectations and behavior, areas of misalignment with sellers, prescriptive guidance, the impact of artificial intelligence, and future outlook for both parties.