The founder of an IT support firm measures business development the way he was taught: calls made, meetings booked, proposals sent. Every quarter he pushes harder, and every quarter the results are much the same. Meanwhile, a smaller competitor seems to win contracts without much visible selling at all. Prospects arrive already knowing what they want, already familiar with the competitor’s approach and often already convinced.
When the founder finally asks a lost prospect what made the difference, the answer is revealing. “By the time we talked to anyone, we’d already read their guides, seen their case studies and spoken to two of their clients. We had a shortlist of one.”
Business development has changed. Buyers, especially business buyers, now do most of their research before they ever speak to a supplier. The strategies that build lasting success reflect that shift: they focus on being useful, trusted and visible long before a sales conversation begins, and on building relationships that keep paying off afterwards.
One Like insight: Today’s buyers decide much of what they want before they talk to you. Be part of that decision.
How buyers really buy
The research firm Gartner surveyed 750 business buyers involved in complex purchases to understand how they spend their time during a buying process. The answer surprised many sales leaders.
Buyers spent only 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers, and that time was shared between all the suppliers they were considering. With three suppliers in the running, each might get only around 5% of the buyer’s time. Most of the rest went on researching independently online (27%) and offline (18%), and on building consensus within their own organisation.
Gartner also found that buyers often described the process as complex or difficult. Their conclusion was that suppliers who help buyers make sense of their choices, rather than simply pushing their own offer, tend to be more successful. Gartner calls this buyer enablement.
The research focuses on business-to-business purchases, mostly in larger organisations, and was conducted before the pandemic accelerated the move to digital channels. If anything, buyers now research even more independently, increasingly using AI assistants as well as search. But the message is clear for any business that sells to other businesses: most of the decision is shaped in places the salesperson never sees.
Strategies that last
If most buying happens before a conversation, long-term business development is about earning a place on the shortlist early, and then making it easy to choose you.
Help buyers decide, not just buy. Publish practical guides that help prospects understand their options, costs, risks and the questions to ask, even if some readers choose someone else. As explored in Customers Are Asking AI for Advice, useful advice is increasingly how businesses get found.
Prove it with evidence. Case studies with real results, references prospects can call and transparent pricing ranges answer the questions buyers research independently.
Focus on a defined market. Specialising in an industry, size of client or type of problem makes your expertise more visible and your message sharper. As explored in Your Strategy Is Mostly What You Say No To, focus is a strength.
Grow through relationships and referrals. Existing clients and partners are often your best source of new business. As Why Referred Customers Are Worth More showed, referred customers tend to be more valuable.
Build partnerships. Complementary businesses that serve the same clients, such as an accountant and an IT firm, can recommend each other.
Stay consistently visible. Business development compounds over time. As What Happens When You Stop Showing Up showed, going quiet has a delayed cost.
[Infographic placement] Where B2B buyers spend their time. A pie chart: Researching independently online 27% · Researching independently offline 18% · Meeting with all potential suppliers 17% · Other activities, including building consensus internally, the remainder. A callout: With three suppliers competing, each gets about 5% of the buyer’s time. Caption: Gartner survey of 750 B2B buyers.
Rebalancing your business development
Look at how your business development time is spent now. How much goes on outreach and pitching, and how much on creating useful material, nurturing existing clients and building partnerships that bring prospects to you? For many small firms, the balance is heavily tilted towards the first. Shift some effort to the second, and measure success over a longer horizon, including referrals, inbound enquiries and how often prospects arrive already informed about you.
A few questions can help:
- What do our prospects research before they ever contact us, and do we show up there?
- Do we have case studies, references and guides that answer their real questions?
- Which clients and partners could introduce us to similar businesses?
- Is our business development consistent, or does it stop when we’re busy?
Which brings us back to the IT support founder and his rising call counts. His competitor wasn’t selling harder; it had invested in being useful and visible during the long stretch of research buyers do alone. By publishing practical guides, gathering case studies and building a referral network, the founder could start appearing on shortlists before the first phone call, and spend his selling time with prospects who already want to talk.
Sources
- Gartner, “Gartner Says 80% of B2B Sales Interactions Between Suppliers and Buyers Will Occur in Digital Channels by 2025”, press release, 15 September 2020, citing Gartner’s B2B buying journey research (survey of 750 B2B buyers). Breakdown of research time as reported by DestinationCRM and others.
