New Finn Partners Research Report Unveils Top Factors Influencing B2B Purchasing Decisions

News provided by

Nov 05, 2019, 11:17 ET

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Global marketing and communications agency, FINN Partners, today unveiled findings from a new survey, providing deep insights into the factors influencing business-to-business (B2B) purchase decisions. The B2B Buyers Influence Report, created, implemented and analyzed by the firm's integrated marketing practice, features a comprehensive analysis of the factors that inform B2B product procurement personnel, based on a survey of nearly 800 business professionals in key U.S., European, and APAC markets.

"There are more than 40,000 distinct paths based on industry sector, company size, purchase value, country, and buyer journey roles from which B2B marketers can optimize their activities against to ensure success. Only by looking through these various lenses of influence can sales organizations find actionable insights," said Barry Reicherter, senior partner, Research, Planning & Measurement at FINN Partners, and director of the survey.

Additional survey highlights revealed:

IT professionals play the most impactful role in the enterprise purchase process in terms of being the most informed and most influential in the four stages of the buyer journey, including the identification of need, determination of solution required, identification of potential providers, and the final decision.
Personal contact with key personnel is vital: strategic interactions with company representatives are more important than sources of information when it comes to making the final decision. Additionally, establishing confidence was critical to becoming the chosen provider.
Product demonstrations, trials, and proof of concept are important across all regions. While online webinars, trade shows and conferences are still important, "the demo" is a compulsory activity to winning the business.
Consultants specific to individual sectors are the most consistently valued sources of information throughout the buyer journey. Consulting firms entrenched in these sectors are an important audience to build awareness and positive opinions about your offering.
There are several personal preferences among B2B decision makers, globally, that can lead to marketing points of entry, including:

They are more likely to play video games than the general population.
Nearly half (47%) have watched an e-sports tournament.
82% say they would pay more for eco-friendly or sustainable products.
58% eat fast food regularly.

Findings show that the variables with the greatest influence on B2B decision-makers vary across markets and sectors. For example, senior managers, IT, and finance personnel, were the only three roles critical to driving purchases in the American health sector, while a broader range of managers influenced purchase decisions in the European and APAC health markets.

"These new findings will help marketers and PR professionals deepen their understanding of the nuances driving B2B transactions," continued Reicherter. "Through an enhanced awareness of the qualities and values associated with suppliers across industries, communications professionals can develop more focused strategies that best position client products or services for maximum B2B impact."

Per Reicherter, "Since the report segments these variables, it can have wide-reaching impact because it can be filtered and applied to numerous complex or industry-specific scenarios. We can create more than 40,000 different potential scenarios from this data set to closely match almost any company's objectives."

Detailed findings of this research are outlined in the B2B Buyer Influence Report. For further information or to receive a copy of this study upon its release, please contact [email protected].

Survey Methodology
Finn Partners partnered with Global Web Index (GWI), the world's largest survey on the digital consumer, to conduct a global study to gain a greater understanding of B2B purchasing decisions - who is involved, the purchase journey, the key attributes and sources of information that influence decisions, and the confidence with the chosen provider.

Leveraging GWI's reach across 46 countries and 2.4b consumers, a total of 773 interviews were conducted globally among Senior Management under 65 years old who are involved in business purchase decisions at companies with 250 employees or more and were involved in recent significant purchases.

Sectors covered in the report were: technology; manufacturing; professional services; financial services; retail/wholesale; construction; health and human services; community and social services; transportation and storage; education; public administration; utilities; travel and tourism; agriculture, forestry and fishing; charity and non-profit; and other business services.

Job roles represented in the report were: owner/chairman/CEO; director/partner; senior manager; IT/CIO; production/technical; operations; sales; marketing; finance; procurement/purchasing; human resources; administration/accounts; legal; and other. The study also segmented purchase decisions based on Last Significant Purchase Values ranging from less than U.S. $50,000 to greater than U.S. $5 million.

About FINN Partners Integrated Marketing Practice
FINN's integrated marketing team is comprised of campaigners, strategists, researchers, creatives, developers, brand builders, and all-around marketers. This cross-discipline collaboration ensures that FINN surveyed B2B product purchases over the last 12 months across 15 industry sectors in three regional markets. The research team then analyzed segmentations such as job role, product type, information source, and supplier to determine their importance in the purchase process. our approach and recommendations are grounded in more than tactics.

About FINN Partners
Founded on the core principles of innovation and collaborative partnership, Finn Partners has more than quadrupled in size in eight years, becoming one of the fastest growing independent marketing and communications agencies in the world. Its record setting pace is a result of organic growth and integrating new companies and new people into the FINN world through a common philosophy. With 750 professionals, FINN provides clients with global access and capabilities in the U.S., Europe and Asia. In addition, FINN provides its clients with access to top tier agencies around the world through its membership in the global network PROI. Headquartered in New York, FINN's other offices are in Chicago, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Frankfurt, Jerusalem, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Nashville, Paris, Portland, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore and Washington D.C. Find us as finnpartners.com and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @finnpartners.