Buyers want to search, not guess
Two thirds of business buyers prefer to buy without a salesperson. What that asks of your website and your sales team.
An IT manager is exploring a new solution. He is not in the mood for a sales pitch, he first wants to understand for himself what is possible. On the websites he visits, he finds plenty of fine words and very few answers.
The problem
Business buyers increasingly want to work out for themselves what they need. Gartner research among 646 business buyers found that 67 percent prefer to buy without a salesperson. 45 percent had already used AI in a recent purchase.
But searching for themselves often fails. In another Gartner study, only 14 percent of customer queries were fully resolved through self-service. The buyer wants to search, but ends up guessing.
The cause
Most websites are made to persuade, not to inform. They say what a product is, but not whether it fits this particular buyer's situation. Companies save those specific questions for the sales conversation. Precisely the conversation the buyer is not ready to have yet.
What a buyer does when they cannot find an answer is not measured in the research. Our expectation: they are more likely to move on to the next supplier on their list than to pick up the phone.
Enablement leaders should modernize how they equip sellers, moving beyond static content distribution to AI-driven support.
Alyssa Cruz, Gartner
The solution
- Make searching easy: answer the questions buyers really ask, including the tricky ones about price and terms.
- Make the step to a person small: a conversation at a time the buyer chooses.
- Make sure the salesperson knows what the buyer has already worked out, so the conversation picks up where the buyer left off.
Stiqqs AI Agent answers questions from your approved knowledge, the way your best salesperson would. The assistant asks about the buyer's situation and lets them choose a time. The buyer stays in control, and you speak to someone who already knows what they want.