Millennials. This is a group of digital pioneers. Computers, email and some type of cellphone have all been in play since they were born, and they’ve always expected some part of their work life to be digital. We recently surveyed a big group of them, but we made sure the respondents were specific — millennial B2B buyers who are regularly responsible for B2B purchases over $10K. Marketer, millennials are a critical segment you should be targeting! Because they will soon be the largest population in the U.S., and our research confirms their B2B buying authority is gathering strength. Unsurprisingly, they also have specific buying preferences and expectations.
Some of the expectations our research found are millennial-specific. But others are more universal expectations that are shared by all segments, as we continue to see B2C experiences influencing B2B buyers.
Here’s what I mean. Like many B2B buyers today:
- Millennial buyers like to do online research before they buy. Review websites (for 49% of respondents) and web searches (for 43% of respondents) are the top resources for researching a purchase decision.
- They think buying groups take too long to make decisions and that it’s hard to get budget. 52% said they’re challenged by too many people being part of the decision-making purchase process.
- The webinar is one of their preferred content types to help gain new insights. 47% cited webinars as one of the most helpful content formats in business buying decisions.
- They want a timely response to their inquiries. 55% said the timeliness of a vendor’s response was very important.