You knowwho the decision-makers are for your buyers, and you know how toanswer their unique concerns. You can't do that if you're not inthe room, but your marketing can speak on your behalf. (Image:Shutterstock)

Gone are the days when the salesperson was in control; now, thebuyer reigns supreme. Buyers no longer have to wait for asalesperson to educate them on potential solutions; they are goingonline and researching themselves.

Unfortunately, that means we are seeing their buying processgrow significantly longer. And with increasing frequency, they areabandoning their search altogether and not making any purchasedecision.

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The reason? An overwhelming amount of information and no clearpath or timeline to their decision.

For the salesperson, the most obvious implication is that it isnow harder to get in front of a prospect. Sales teams need to finda way to intervene earlier, both for their benefit and that of thebuyer.

The key lies with your marketing strategy. The marketingdepartment must make sure prospects see your organization as aneducational resource from the very beginning of their search. Whenyou're marketing strategy creates a presence with ideas and contentthat speak to those problems, you will be able to guide that buyerdown a path that leads to a conversation with your sales team.

A complex problem

While the research buyers are conducting is typicallyspearheaded by one individual or department, they are doing so onbehalf of a broader group of interests, which gets to the reasonfor the longer buying process and the increased abandonment rates.In complex buying decisions, there are multiple decision-makers.The average has increased over the years, and we're seeing reportsof as many as 6.8 people involved in complex purchases.

Each influencer has a different role within the organization,and different parts of the organization they are charged withprotecting. They all come into a buying process with differentconcerns.

You can start to see how difficult it is to gather all of theinformation necessary to satisfy everyone's individualinterests.

Marketing is your difference-maker

You know who the decision-makers are for your buyers, and youknow how to answer their unique concerns. You can't do that ifyou're not in the room, but your marketing can speak on yourbehalf.

You'll likely need to shift the intent of your marketing messageinitially, because most of these messages are designed to solve aselling problem by connecting the potential buyer with the seller'svalue proposition.

The real struggle for the buyer isn't connecting to the seller'svalue proposition; it's connecting internally to find agreementaround their problem.

You can anticipate the concerns, questions and likely issues.You know the areas where they will potentially disagree with oneanother. Anticipate these, provide the answers, and build thebridges into your early-stage marketing content.

Make it easy for them to find their respective answers, connectwith one another, become comfortable moving for ward, and rallyaround a sense of urgency to make that final buying decision.

Marketing is not just some optional activity. Instead, it is acritical daily function of running any successful salesorganization.

Use educational marketing content to help your prospectscoalesce around a challenge, and you will be the obvious choice asthey coalesce around an answer.

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