Over 2/3rds of B2B buyers indicate that immediate purchase price dominates today's buying decisions, raising deal discounting pressure to unheard of levels. As a B2B marketer and sales pro, what can you do to counter the initial purchase price focus and stop discount mania? This webinar, jointly presented by Chris Eifert, Principal of TriCom B2B and Tom Pisello the ROI Guy & Chairman / Founder of Alinean, presents new survey results from 448 B2B buyers conducted by TriCom B2B, giving you the insight and tools needed to understand buying criteria and drive strategies to meet the new challenges: What is most important to today's buyer? What these priorities mean to your sales & marketing strategies How can you overcome today's price focus and discounting pressure? What proven tactics can you use to better connect, engage and sell today's more frugal buyer This webinar is a must attend for Marketing Executives, Content Marketers and Sales Enablement professionals

1. CHRIS EIFERT, Principal TOM PISELLO, Chairman & Founder
Powering B2B sales to economic buyers
Blog: http://www.tricomb2b.com/blog Blog: http://www.fightfrugalnomics.com
Twitter: @eifertb2b Twitter: @tpisello
http://www.tricomb2b.com http://www.alinean.com
Five Sure Fire Ways to End the Discount Dance

2. Five Sure Fire Ways to End the Discount Dance
• The Considered Purchase Decision Research
• How to End the Discount Dance?
• Top 5 Tips – Advice in Action
• Next Steps & Resources
Chris Eifert, Principal Tom Pisello, Chairman & Founder
The ROI Guy
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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3. The Considered Purchase Decision Research
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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4. Research Rationale
• The Considered Purchase?
– A systematic process for identifying a business issue, defining a
specific need and selecting a solution to fulfill the need.
– Generally thought of as an important decision due to costs or risks
associated with the issue and/or the solution.
• Buyer Focused
– What do influencers and decision makers think about during this
process?
– What motivates and influences their decisions?
vs.
– What do other marketers think?
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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5. Methodology & Respondent Profile
• Survey focus
– Product considerations & message relevancy
– Information consumption & online habits
• Respondent criteria (448 respondents)
– $50M min. company revenue
– B2B sales model
– Influencer or decision maker in considered
purchase process (>$25,000)
Decision Role
Functional Role
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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6. Price Dominates
• Price dominates decision for
majority of purchases for 64% of
respondents
• Good news for price leaders
– May not be good for customers
who will pay more in the end, or
get less business value than
expected
• Bad news for majority of sales
professionals & marketers
– More competitive
– Discounting
– Do all work, lose deal in the end
Source: 2011, TriComB2B and University of Dayton.
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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7. TCO Focus Relevant For Some Buyers
• Senior executives and owners
evaluated TCO more than any
other role (67% vs. 56%)
• Deal Size Matters
– 42% begin doing so >$25,000
– 25% begin doing so > $100,000
• 60+ year olds twice as likely to
calculate 100% of time
compared to sample as a whole
(32% vs. 15%)
• TCO by industry
• Most relevant in equipment-
Source: 2011, TriComB2B and University of Dayton. intensive industries
• Less impact in medical and IT
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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8. Do Other Product or Service Features Matter?
• Business Value has an impact:
• Operating Cost Savings
• Process Improvements /
•
Productivity Gains
Significant in majority of decisions
(top 3)
• Customer Service
• Process improvements (78%
• Operating costs (67%)
• Impact on customer service (66%)
• Matters less:
• Other Financing options
• observations
• •Operating costs lowest in IT (52%),
Ongoing maintenance /
highest in process industries (76%)
support contract costs
• Process improvement ranked
high(>74%) in all industries but
construction (62%)
Percent stating feature played significant role in purchase
decision 80% of the time • Conceptual process improvement
message important to owners/execs
Source: 2011, TriComB2B and University of Dayton.
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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9. Do Safety or Environmental Impacts Matter?
Significant factor in majority
of decisions
• Safety (57%)
• Energy efficiency (48%)
• Green supply chain (27%)
• Green does not have as big an impact as expected observations
Other •
• Safety even more dominant in
energy and process industries; also
age 50+
Source: 2011, TriComB2B and University of Dayton. • Energy efficiency more important
for senior execs/owners and age
60+
• Highest ranking for green supply
chain was 36% (industrial
manufacturing)
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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10. Research Conclusions
• B2B buyers are currently heavily motivated by price
– Good news for price leaders
– Important implications for the rest of us!
• TCO can be an important consideration for:
– Larger purchase decisions
– Sr. Executives & Owners
– Older decision makers
• Additional business value factors can be important.
http://tricomb2b.com//about/b2b-buyer-research
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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11. Five Best Practice Recommendations to End the Discount Dance!
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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12. Tip #1: Prove Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
• Move beyond purchase price to lifecycle cost to own
• Automate TCO comparison report development in tool:
– Self-service from web for executives doing their own research
– Sales tools for workshops and proposal development
– Needs Credibility = 3rd party developed / validated + research based
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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13. Tip #1: Prove Lower TCO with Competitive Comparison Report
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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14. Tip #2: Prove Higher Business Value and ROI
• Go Beyond TCO to include:
– Business Value (More savings, More productivity, More revenue / margin)
– ROI
– Payback
– Risk
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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15. Tip #3: Engage Executives
• Direct meeting with executives
– Compelling analysis to connect & engage
• Arm champion to move discussions beyond price
– Executives
– Procurement
– Other Stakeholders
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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16. Tip #4: Be Proactive
• Don’t wait for Price to become an issue – it will
• Don’t wait for Competition to present their case first
• Proactively develop case for lower TCO / incremental value
• Assure that all stakeholders have evidence they need to get beyond
price challenges
Price Objections
Competitive Proposals
Frugal Stakeholders
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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17. Tip #5: Tool to Succeed
• Buyer’s executives are empowered
– Use web to do research
– Self-service oriented
– Trust peers / analysts most
• Sales needs tools to succeed
– Equipped to better connect & engage
with executives
– Automation to ease TCO / ROI business
case process
– 3rd party credibility
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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18. Five Best Practice Ways to Move Beyond Price / End the
Discount Dance
1. Prove Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
2. Prove Higher Business Value & ROI
3. Reach the Executive
4. Be Proactive
5. Tool to Succeed
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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19. Next Steps & Resources
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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20. Nest Steps & Resources
• Additional Research and Insights
http://tricomb2b.com//about/b2b-buyer-research
http://tricomb2b.com/blog
http://tricomb2b.com//about/b2b-b http://www.fightfrugalnomics.com
Ask the ROI Guy FAQ Center
http://www.alinean.com/faq/
Dozens of TCO Tool examples
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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21. Q&A
Chris Eifert, Principal Tom Pisello, Chairman & Founder
The ROI Guy
© 2011 Alinean, Inc.
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