Interactions with buyers are essential to moving deals down the sales cycle. Unfortunately, buyers are spending less time with vendors each year. According to Gartner research, buyers spend 17% of their buying time with vendors, and that figure is projected to go down by 5% in the next three years. 

Now, imagine that you are one of three vendors that a buyer is considering. Take that minimal % of buyers' time and split it into thirds - that’s how much (or how little) time they’re spending with you and your business!

Why are buyers spending less time with vendors?

In a traditional buying cycle, the sales team used to be the gatekeeper of product content and information. If a buyer wanted to gain insight into the product, they'd have to interact with the sales team. 

Today, however, there are countless resources online where early stage buyers can independently learn about products and get answers to questions immediately (Youtube, review sites, forums, etc.). These options allow buyers to bypass interacting with the sales team to get details about product(s). 

At the same time, buyers' preferences are changing to preferring a rep-free buying experience, another factor contributing to buyers spending less of their time with vendors.

Despite this reality, many sales organizations are still relying on a traditional sales process to engage with their buyers. They continue to ask buyers to engage at times that are convenient to the sales team – a request largely ignored by buyers today. Sticking to this model is resulting in less time with buyers year over year, taking away even more opportunities from sales professionals to influence deal progression. 

Win more of buyers' time with on-demand buyer portals

A proven way to increase the time buyers spend with you is through buyer portals. A buyer portal is a private, virtual microsite that gives each buyer an on-demand experience with your business and product(s). And it can include all of the content and information third-party sites provide.

Buyer portals increase the time you get with your buyers for three reasons: 

1. On-demand availability: Because buyer portals are accessible anytime, anywhere, buyers are no longer forced to engage with you at a time convenient to you. They can engage with you when it's convenient to them, which is often not during the typical work day or for 30 minutes or an hour at a time. In fact, Omedym user-data shows that 34% of portal visits are during non-business hours (at night and on weekends). 
2. Delivering an experience that compounds engagement (aka, a rabbit hole): Buyer portals allow buyers to get immediate answers to questions and search terms using a google-like, natural language search function. This gives each buyer a simple, yet powerful way to navigate your content. Pair that with recommended content and topics, and buyers will often continue to consume content after their initial search or action in the portal. 
3. Reach every member of the buying committee: Buying committees are expanding, including 14 members on average. Finding a time to meet with each member at the same time is nearly impossible (especially if they work in separate time zones!), and meeting with a few people at a time is extremely expensive and a tough way to manage the group. Buyer portals allow each person the ability to engage when it’s right for them and learn about the part of your product that is relevant to their role.

Buyer portals are a great way to provide your buyers with on-demand access to information that they want in a platform that you own. That allows you to not only control the content and information, it lets you see every interaction taken by your buyers – insight that is extremely valuable to influencing deal progression.

More time with buyers means more influence over their decisions

Buyer portals give you insights into what matters to buyers and a much better understanding of what stage of the buying process they're in. Equipped with this knowledge, you can craft relevant outreach to buyers that positions you as an advisor in the buying process, helping create the trust between buyer and seller that is crucial to closing a deal.

Instead of relying on sporadic meetings to progress buyers down the buying cycle, give them an on-demand portal they can access between interactions with your team to increase their knowledge and familiarity with your product. 

And while your competition tries desperately to get them on the phone to reiterate next steps, you'll be monitoring buyers' engagement with your product in their buyer portal.

Learn how you can regain time with your buyers by providing a world-class buying experience with Omedym.

As our customers describe it via G2:

"It's becoming increasingly difficult to get in front of buyers when they start the buying process. Omedym is allowing sellers to insert themselves early and often in the buying process." - Mich F.

"I love being able to drop in any and all content I need my prospects to see. Super helpful to know when they viewed the portal and what items they clicked on so I can lean into that on our next call or to keep them engaged in the process." - Delilah S.