B2B Sales from the Buyer's Perspective: 3 Tips to Level Up Your Sales Team

What do B2B buyers expect from sales reps?

B2B buyers expect salespeople to understand their business, engage everyone involved in the purchase, and communicate well in the virtual channels buyers prefer. Most buyers say sellers fall short on all three. In a joint study, ValueSelling Associates and Training Industry, Inc. surveyed 260 U.S. managers and executives about the sales reps they buy from.

Key findings

• 74% of buyers say reps don’t demonstrate financial literacy, and 75% say reps aren’t well informed about their industry’s structure.
• Only 37% of buyers say reps provide unique industry insights.
• Only 34% strongly agree their sales rep is helpful throughout the buying process.
• 1 in 4 buyers say vendors are effective at engaging influencers in their company.
• Email is buyers’ preferred channel (81%), followed by phone or VoIP (63%). Yet only 1 in 4 buyers rate salespeople “always effective” at communicating virtually.

3 tips to level up your sales team

• Develop the business acumen of the sales function. Teach every customer-facing role the financial terms buyers use to make decisions, and build industry research into deal preparation.
• Foster the skills to better engage buyers. Map the buying group early, engage influencers along with the economic buyer, and prepare reps for conversations with executives.
• Grow your virtual communication touch points. Treat email as a primary sales channel, train reps to run meetings on video, and set standards for text and social messages.

To see how a shared framework and language help every role on the deal team, read the essential guide to value-based selling.

About the research

Source: Sales from the Buyer’s Perspective, ValueSelling Associates and Training Industry, Inc. Online survey of 260 U.S. managers and executives across industries, fielded in 2018. This 2026 edition of the infographic updates the design and recommendations. The survey data is unchanged.