The reality of working in B2B today is that tried-and-tested tactics are no longer as effective for engaging buyers.
Buyers are independent, defensive, and prefer independent research before reaching out to sales, only when they are absolutely ready to do so.
Part of the reason for this is due to the increase in size of buying groups, the average of which now spans approximately 11 individuals.
These buying groups have their own complex purchasing processes – 70% of which take place in the dark and often anonymously before they reach out to sales.
When these buyers are ready, 84% of the deals go to the vendor on their day-one list.
This new buying behavior, where self-discovery predominates, highlights the urgency of evolving old tactics and embracing buyer-led strategies that meet buyers on their own terms, where they are.
This includes moving away from traditional lead generation in favor of evergreen, always-on buyer enablement practices based on buyer intelligence.
In this article, I will share five buyer enablement strategies based on successful demand programs that elevated our clients’ engagement metrics and resulted in sustainable buyer relationships.
5 Proven Demand Strategies To Enable Buyers
1. Identify Your Buyers Precisely
Identifying your buyer starts with recognizing that most B2B buying groups are made up of multiple stakeholders – as many as 15 individuals or more – each with distinct concerns and decision-making power, according to our own Q4 2024 market research.
To effectively engage these groups, you need detailed buying group personas that define key revenue leaders and influencers.
Referencing existing buyer personas at large accounts is a helpful starting point, while first-party data and other sources like client relationship management (CRM) insights, client interviews, website behavior analytics, and industry reports will provide you with a more comprehensive view of their needs, goals, and preferences.
Identifying intent signals is equally important for modern account-based marketing (ABM) strategies. These behavioral cues suggest when a prospect or buying group is actively researching solutions and may be in-market to buy.
Key buying group intent signals include:
- Multiple website visitors from the same organization.
- Consumption of solution-specific content.
- Engagement across multiple channels.
- Webinar or event attendance.
- And many more.
Predictive tools, competitive research, and technographic data can further enrich these insights.
By integrating real-time intent signals into your ABM programs, you can dynamically adjust campaigns to align with the evolving needs of buying groups and their individual members.
Rather than relying solely on static personas, dynamic ABM leverages intent data to better understand each persona’s immediate pain points, preferred channels, and buying triggers.
This approach ensures that you reach the right personas, within the right accounts, with the right message at the right moment, ultimately driving greater engagement, pipeline velocity, and revenue impact.
2. Be A Partner To Your Buyers
We are seeing a trend of more and more buyers (as many as 58% according to our Q4 2024 market research) seeking the proven expertise of consultants and subject matter experts to inform and de-risk their decisions. This trend is closely associated with the increase in the length of buying cycles.
To compete effectively, marketers ought to adjust their engagement to offer integration and consultation, effectively establishing their brand as a committed partner that supports its buyers and meets their needs. This, in turn, translates to demand.
This brand-to-demand-to-revenue strategy relies on early engagement to establish trust and build a brand presence before buyers are actively looking.
The brand experience you present should carry across multiple touchpoints to engage all stakeholders within the buying group, emphasising your position as a trusted source.
Examples of early brand-to-demand tactics include:
- Identifying the most suitable channels for generating awareness of your unique value proposition (UVP).
- Sponsoring events to engage qualified prospects with just-in-time information.
- Adopting a multithreaded nurturing approach.
- Promoting curated content hubs to facilitate buyer research and self-discovery, customized per persona.
- Offering webinars, workshops, or roundtables.
- Providing buying group influencers with data to make an internal case, such as product specification sheets, decks, and guides.
Establishing a vendor-partner relationship is critically important when nurturing defensive buyers because it reduces risk, builds trust, and enhances buyer confidence – all of which are top priorities for today’s cautious, efficiency-driven buying groups.
This also helps buyers feel reassured that they are investing in solutions that are well-supported, credible, and aligned with other trusted vendors in their partner ecosystem.
3. Focus On Buyer-Led Content
Nurturing and enabling buying groups calls for buyer-led content strategies that speak directly to active buyers, buying groups, and accounts.
Creating content hubs to enable buyer research is one of the most powerful moves you can make today, especially for large buying groups in complex industries.
Content hubs designed to support in-depth research empower buyers to make informed decisions with more confidence.
These content libraries also establish your brand as a reputable, expert source of information.
It is important to align content hubs to individual buying journey stages so buyers can self-serve information.
Below is an example of what that looks like:
- Awareness stage: industry reports, tactical guides, thought leadership focused on how-tos.
- Consideration stage: product overviews, case studies, webcasts.
- Decision stage: demo request, pricing sheet, product implementation roadmap.
Additionally, content can be personalized by role:
- CMO: trend reports.
- Procurement: service-level agreement (SLA) terms.
- Finance: return on investment (ROI) guide.
- IT: security threat insights, compliance checklist.
Micro-targeting buyers with relevant, behavior-driven content is great for creating seamless, value-added experiences that drive preference and loyalty, ultimately enabling buying groups to confidently choose your solution.
To achieve competitive displacement, ensure your content is visible and discoverable throughout the buyer’s journey.
This can be achieved through SEO, AI/Generative Engine Optimization (AEO/GEO), and by leveraging omnichannel engagement tied to real-time behavior to deliver personalized messaging that resonates at every touchpoint.
You can also use intent-driven targeting to engage accounts already researching similar topics.
4. Continuously Optimize With Demand Intelligence
Nurturing and enabling buying groups is not a one-time effort, but an ongoing optimization process.
Success depends on continuously updating intelligence across buyers, buying groups, and accounts to stay aligned with evolving needs and behaviors.
Measuring the impact of your buyer enablement tactics can be done in several ways:
- Content engagement metrics, such as views, downloads, and time on page.
- Buying group activation metrics, such as the number of roles and stakeholders engaged.
- Deal acceleration metrics, such as sales cycle length and conversion rate.
- Feedback loops with both buyers and sales teams.
By measuring and optimizing at every stage, organizations can identify what is working, adjust strategies in real time, and eliminate inefficiencies.
Essentially, they can successfully self-educate without talking to sales, which aligns with modern B2B buyer expectations.
Continuous optimization also turns good programs into great ones, driving stronger results and building lasting buyer trust.
This approach not only strengthens engagement, but also ensures that every marketing dollar is working harder, helping you maximize the impact of your spend.
5. Enable Sales Teams For Success
To truly nurture and enable buying groups, organizations must equip their sales teams with the right strategies, including the tools, insights, and approaches that support more informed and impactful outreach to buyers.
This starts with personalized messaging tailored to each account and buying group, and continues with follow-up that reflects the needs and behaviors of individual buying group members.
A key part of this approach is helping sales teams engage buyers at the right pace.
Acting as trusted consultants, sales teams can guide buyers through their journey with a buyer-centric mindset that clearly communicates the unique value of your organization.
Achieving this requires strong alignment and collaboration across marketing, sales, and the broader organization – everyone must rally behind a shared North Star focused on enabling the buyer first and foremost.
Best practices for achieving organizational alignment include:
- Collaborating to define the ideal buying experience.
- Setting joint revenue and buyer engagement targets.
- Regularly refreshing sales outreach strategies.
- Detailed mapping of each buying group and member, including pain points and interests.
- Activating multi-threaded account strategies.
By prioritizing buyer enablement and supporting sales teams with the right approach, organizations create a seamless experience that builds trust, accelerates deal cycles, and drives better long-term outcomes.
The Importance Of Evolving Alongside Your Buyers
Buyer purchasing behavior has changed unequivocally. Buying groups are expected to remain cautious, with buyer journeys expected to lengthen even more.
To thrive in this environment, organizations must prioritize brand-to-demand and value-focused solutions, using their expertise to solve buying group challenges – all the while enabling self-service options whenever possible.
It is time to meet buyers where they are, which means evolving the playbook and closing the door to old ways of thinking.
Key Takeaways
- Buying groups and long sales cycles are the new reality: Today’s buyers prefer to self-educate, making it essential to shift toward buyer-led strategies that meet them where they are – on their terms. This requires moving beyond traditional lead generation and embracing buyer enablement approaches powered by real intent signals.
- Buyers and how they buy have changed: B2B purchases now involve up to 15 stakeholders or more, each with their own priorities and influence. To engage them effectively, build detailed buying group personas and identify intent signals that reveal when prospects are actively exploring solutions.
- Buyer enablement does not end; it evolves: By optimizing at every stage, organizations can fine-tune strategies in real time, enabling better and consistent outcomes.
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