The modern B2B buyer isn’t necessarily harder to reach, they’re just harder to fool.
B2B tech sales used to be a dance. Marketing warmed the lead, sales swooped in, demoed the product, sent a proposal, and boom – deal signed.
Today, you might not even speak to a human until they’ve already Googled your competitors, browsed Reddit for reviews, and asked ChatGPT what you’re missing.
So what changed?
1. Economic Fear = No Margin for Error
Finance teams are scrutinising every line item. You’re not just selling software, you’re selling risk mitigation.
2. More Decision-Makers = More Bottlenecks
Even a mid-sized SaaS company might have 8+ stakeholders involved in the buying process. Each with different agendas, pains and needs. You’re not selling to one person – you’re selling to a committee of skeptics.
3. Competition = Saturation Overload
There’s a tool for everything and five copycats for every original. Add to the mix AI and non-code software development and this means the competitive landscape has exploded! Differentiating you brand, product and solution is now essential – and the way that message is delivered has to be crystal clear, with the value understood within seconds.
4. “Do Nothing” Is Your Biggest Competitor
The easiest decision is no decision. No spend, no risk, no implementation headache, no change. If you’re not adapting with the changes in the market, then you quickly become a dinosaur. Do nothing may be the easy option, but the longer you wait, the quicker things around you change.
So, what can be done now?
There are some teams who are winning. They are reaching, closing and onboarding new business in a strategic and effective way.
Start small, prove strategic value, then ramp it up.
Shift from selling a full platform to offering a high-impact pilot / demo tied to a specific, measurable outcome.
- Pitch pilots with quickly visible results, dont just sell the platform and its features.
- Prove ROI fast, then scale.
In a risk-averse environment, it’s a barrier to commit to a 12-month rollout. Instead, offer a clear, low-friction entry point (e.g. a 30–60 day test or pilot) that solves a meaningful problem for one team.
NOTE: Don’t forget to measure the impact – how many pilots convert into larger deals? How long does it take? What cost was attributed to gain that client and what will the longer-term return be?
Speak to the whole room – Speak the CFO’s language
The CFO doesn’t care about the same things the IT team or end users do. Learn and understand what keeps them up at night. What really demonstrates value for them to easily invest financially into your solution. CFOs don’t normally look to “spend”, they look to justify spend – reduce wastage, increase margin, mitigate risk.
- Craft your messaging for Ops, Finance, and IT – not just the end user.
- Help your internal champion sell it internally – provide strong clear value they can share internally.
Hyper personalise every interaction
Treat every buyer interaction like you’re already on their side of the table. Using generic demos in a sales environment – often lead to inevitable ghosting.
- Demonstrate you understand the problem they didn’t know they had.
- Show outcomes that you bring from partnering with them. With so many choices, they need to know you get them.
Build a path to certainty
If choosing you is a no brainer, i.e. their is little risk on the clients part – Either the results are guaranteed, or the cost is negligible in comparison to the wins, this builds confidence.
- Strong case studies, reviews, referrals, references, social proof, evidence that you are a safe pair of hands is essential now more than ever.
- The more uncertain the world, the more they need your software to feel like a sure thing. give them that and half the work is done.
Final takeaway
It’s not that B2B buyers don’t want to buy. They just don’t want to regret buying. So make your sales process about reducing the change of regret.
Make your offer feel safe, but progressive and strategic.
Sell certainty — and the deals will follow.
