TrustRadius’ New B2B Report: The Age of the Self-Serve Buyer is Here

Today, TrustRadius published their 6th annual B2B Buying Disconnect report—revealing that virtually 100% of tech buyers want to self-serve.

TrustRadius, a research and review platform dedicated to helping technology buyers make confident decisions, released their 2022 B2B Buying Disconnect report—a survey of 2,185 respondents that shows year-over-year trends in business technology buying and selling. The annual survey covers significant findings across industries, along with further analysis and insights.

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A few of the biggest highlights of the 2022 report:

• Usage of nearly all vendor-provided information sources declined from 2021 to 2022, with vendor reps dropping by 18%
• Virtually 100% of buyers want to self-serve all or part of their buying journey, up 13% from last year
• Buyers want to try before they buy—and they want vendors to enable it
• The vast majority of buyers (81%) want to find pricing information on their own
• With the rise in remote work, collaboration among the buying committee has increased, and is highly unstructured

“The main theme echoed throughout our 2022 report is that we are in ‘The Age of the Self-Serve Buyer,'” said Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius. “In past years, we found that millennials and generation Zs were primarily relying on self-service channels. It’s a fact that we’ve come to expect, but now, we’re finding that all generations and decision-makers are following suit. Our research found that virtually 100% of buyers want to self-serve all or part of the buyer journey, a 13% increase from just last year. This has big implications for vendors. Today, a company’s failure to provide self-service resources can lead to a significant decrease in buyer interest.”

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This year’s report saw a growing buyer demand for self-service channels such as reviews, product demos, and transparent pricing. And, scheduling a sales meeting or call ranked lower than ever in respondents’ lists of preferred ways to learn about a product or service. In fact, buyers named cold calls (64%) as the number one reason they are less likely to buy a product from a vendor.

“The goal of this report is to bridge the gap between the way B2B buyers want to buy and how vendors go to market,” said Megan Headley, VP of Research. “Each year, we see a growing disconnect in the way vendors market or sell their product and the way buyers research or make purchase decisions. We see vendors continuing with tactics such as cold sales outreach, while buyers are increasingly turned off by these approaches. Instead, buyers are seeking self-service channels, and even crossing vendors who don’t support that need off their consideration list. We’re aiming to help vendors adapt to the age of the self-serve buyer.”