DRAPER, Utah, April 26, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released research from Primary Intelligence highlights the importance of vertical industry expertise when B2B buyers evaluate potential vendors for new opportunities with their organizations. The new industry study, entitled, "B2B Vendor Success: How Understanding Buyer Perceptions Can Increase Vendor Win Rates and Improve Customer Engagement," highlights key B2B buyer preferences when they consider company-related attributes in competitive sales evaluations.
"When we analyzed eight standard criteria Primary Intelligence uses to understand buyer perceptions of companies overall, we found that experience in a buyer's industry is overwhelmingly the most important factor buyers consider when evaluating company-related attributes, with nearly half of all buyers ranking industry expertise as their highest priority for overall company-based criteria," states Carolyn Galvin, Director of Industry Insights at Primary Intelligence and the report author. "This held true over the long term and more recently, underscoring the importance buyers assign to a trusted partner who has deep knowledge of their industry and the issues they face."
When evaluating how well buyers are performing in industry experience, the report's findings show that 38% of buyers judge their vendors to be just "average" and 18% believe their providers lack any experience in their industry, highlighting a sizeable gap between buyer needs and vendor performance.
Other key findings include:
- Buyers are generally satisfied with company-based performance, although "Future Direction" is an area of concern for most buyers, who rate vendors as mostly "average" in their ability to communicate and demonstrate their organization's strategic path forward.
- "Service and Support" and "Customer References" are other areas of concern for many buyers, with more than 1 in 5 buyers rating vendors as "poor" in these categories.
- Healthcare buyers are most satisfied with their vendors compared to buyers in other verticals, with roughly 75% of Healthcare buyers awarding their vendors "excellent" ratings in 7 out of 8 company-related criteria.
- Vendors in Latin and North America fare better than vendors in EMEA and APAC in buyer perceptions of their companies, especially when asked about "Reputation," "Company Size Fits Needs," "Deliver What was Sold," and "Experience in your Industry."
"While buyers typically make vendor selection decisions based on product- or service-related factors, company-related criteria are also important and can tip the scales in important deals. Knowing how these factors influence buyer decisions is critical," said Galvin.
This report is part of the Industry Insights series from Primary Intelligence. More information about the report can be found at: https://www.primary-intel.com/product/b2b-vendor-success/
About Primary Intelligence
Primary Intelligence delivers outcomes for B2B marketing, sales, and product leaders. We teach companies how to win and retain more revenue by speaking directly to buyers and sales teams to uncover root causes through our Win Loss Analysis and Customer Experience Analysis programs. Our expert consultants initiate transformation in Fortune 500 companies, including 6 of the Fortune 20. For more information about Primary Intelligence, visit http://www.primary-intel.com.