The B2B IT market is rapidly evolving as buyers' preferences shift towards online purchasing. However, research shows there is a gap between what buyers expect and what is currently offered. The document discusses modern purchasing preferences, frustrations hindering the buying experience, and how the market is changing. It also reveals many buyers now research and purchase products online rather than through sales representatives. However, most still prefer to speak with an adviser for IT services. While buyers value technical advice, nearly half would like to cut out resellers. The top frustrations for buyers are the high volume of unhelpful reseller calls and lack of price transparency.

1. Is the B2B IT Market Broken?

2. The B2B IT market is evolving at a rapid rate as
suppliers and resellers look to keep up with
customers’ shifting buying preferences. Yet
research, conducted by Probrand, shows that
a large gap exists between what buyers expect
and what is currently being delivered.
This PowerPoint unearths modern purchasing
preferences and some of the frustrations that
are hindering the buying and selling
experience. It also outlines how the market is
changing to bring buyers and suppliers closer
together.

3. All of these variants make facilitating buying and selling within this fast-moving
market difficult. To resolve this challenge a large value-added reseller (VAR)
sector exists – the 100 top players in this industry have a combined turnover of
£12.7bn. Sitting in between customers and distributors and vendors, resellers
play the role of the trusted adviser to buyers and a facilitator to suppliers trying
to reach their end users.

4. This readily available information has also made it easier for buyers to purchase products
via the internet, completely cutting out the need to talk to an adviser. This shift in
behaviour was borne out in Probrand’s survey of buyers. It reveals that more than half of
B2B buyers (53%) now like to research and purchase IT products online, compared to just
over one third (36%) who prefer to buy through a sales representative.

5. A similar percentage of suppliers (38%) believe that their buyers
prefer to purchase products via a salesperson. There seems to be
less appreciation for how many prefer to buy online, however – with
only 39% believing this is how buyers choose to buy.

6. The research reveals that almost three quarters (73%) still prefer to talk to a
salesperson when buying an IT service, compared to less than one fifth (19%)
choosing to buy online. The suppliers also understood this preference, with 68%
believing sales representatives would be the preference and just 11% thinking
online would be the better option.

7. Four in five buyers (80%) also say they see value in the technical advice made
available by suppliers. However, despite the ‘value added’ trusted adviser role
resellers offer, nearly half (45%) say they would now like to cut out resellers
altogether.

8. One of the more obvious irritations is the number of unsolicited reseller sales calls
that IT buyers are often forced to field. Probrand’s research reveals half of buyers
are receiving more than six calls per day on average – and 11% receive more than
ten. One participant even complained that they can receive up to 40 reseller calls
in a single day. More than half (54%) also added that reseller calls are never
helpful!

9. Despite this hindrance, however, neither procurement procedures nor manual
processes are considered in the top two barriers that buyers experience when it
comes to purchasing IT.
In an indictment of the reseller sector – which is supposed to provide trusted
advisers to buyers – they were actually the second biggest barrier.

10. It appears that IT buyers are only too aware of the complications involved in
tracking price levels. Nearly two thirds (65%) understand that there can be up to
15,000 price changes in the IT product market in any given day.

11. Surprisingly, given their frustration at the lack of visibility over price and stock changes,
85% of buyers think they never overpay for IT products. This is in sharp contrast to separate
research, conducted using IT benchmarking application KnowledgeBus, which revealed that
IT buyers pay an average mark-up of 18% on IT hardware, and as high as 1992% in extreme
cases. That’s considerably higher than the industry best practice level of 3%, which is
recommended as ‘fair’ by the Society of IT Managers (Soctim).

12. A lack of visibility in the IT market is not just a frustration that affects buyers,
however. Suppliers also want greater transparency in the market. Almost one
quarter (24%) say a ‘lack of visibility of the end user community’ is their biggest
source of frustration.

13. When almost half of buyers say they would like to cut resellers out of the process,
VARs need to question whether they are still providing the ‘value added’ element of
the reseller promise. Despite their frustration, however, 55% of buyers say they still
see a place for resellers. The need for buyers to access trusted advisers is also
becoming increasingly important, especially as purchasing decisions are becoming
less and less straight forward.

14. It’s logical that the B2B sector should follow suit. Analyst Frost & Sullivan certainly
thinks so. It anticipates that B2B online marketplaces will be worth $6.7 trillion by
2020 – a prediction that puts them on course to eventually outpace the B2C sector.

15. Register for Probrand’s Digital
Marketplace Today!