“New Search” and Changes in Buying Behavior – What They Mean for You
It seems large language models (LLMs) are reaching the point of mass adoption as a search tool. It wasn’t that long ago that we’d type something into Google and it would just return the most relevant or recent links. Nowadays, AI tools are baked into every search we run, and they give us recaps of topics (aligned with what we put in as a prompt) in addition to a bunch of sites to look into.
I don’t think it’s complete coincidence that there’s also recently been a massive shift in general buying behavior. According to Andrew Cain of WebProNews, 86% of B2B buyers now make their purchase decisions before they ever engage with a salesperson. In other words, they arrive at the table with their minds pretty much completely made up.
This represents a truly seismic shift in how businesses need to go to market. It’s no longer about getting a lead and working it through the process; it’s actually the opposite. Businesses have to attract and nurture sales opportunities, and even close them to some extent – all before they even capture the lead.
In this new world, how do businesses need to operate to ensure they’re not missing out on opportunities – and putting themselves in the best possible position to win? In short, it all boils down to being proactive and strategic about your communications function. Here are a few examples:
Your go-to-market messaging and brand essence have to hit the mark. There’s no longer any room for error; if consumers are engaging with you before you know it, then they’re engaging with the version of you that’s out there and they can find the easiest. You’ll get feedback eventually, but you won’t have any time to react in a meaningful way; you’re left to the mercy of the experience the consumer has when they find you. Better make it a good one. Make sure you’ve done the research and pre-work needed to produce messaging that resonates and differentiates.
To the above, you need to be visible in the market. You need to be seen as a leader in your space…an expert in your field…the solution to their problem. And the LLMs need to find you early and often. These days, there’s no better way to crack this nut than to secure earned media.
Also, you need content – and lots of it. Videos, case studies, white papers and more…these items are how we capture and tell our stories to the market. We need content that tells a complete story of what we do and how much value it brings, and we need to spoon-feed it to our target customers as much as we can.
When you do get feedback of any kind, you need to act on it faster than ever before. Buyers’ decision timelines (or at least the portion of it that we’ll be a part of) have never been shorter. We have to feed them information and help them make decisions at their speed, not ours. If we’re unresponsive or we miss the mark, we’re going to lose.
More generally, we need to have all of this top of mind and make proper investments in doing the job right. Gartner just issued a report predicting that strategic communications and earned media budgets will DOUBLE by 2027 due primarily to the mass adoption of LLMs as a search tool. That’s mindboggling in and of itself – and a tacit endorsement that strategic communications will increasingly become THE primary enabler of sales activity in relatively short order. Again, you’re either on top of it or you’re falling behind your competition.
We’re here and ready to assist you on any/all of these fronts. Call us anytime.
