Why B2B Buyers Trust Reviews Over Brand Brochures
The era of brand brochures has been and gone with less businesses choosing to print out copies of them to hand out to potential customers. They have lost their impact over the years with there now being more effective online methods, as there’s ways to get your business in the views of more customers in a much quicker way. Reviews allow you to reach a larger audience, who are looking for trustworthy brands.
B2B customers in particular need to find businesses that they can trust, with the most popular way of finding them being to search through review platforms for the highest ratings. In fact, 97% of B2B buyers consider customer feedback more credible than other content types, such as brochures. This guide will explore this in more detail, so continue reading to find out more.
Why Reviews are More Effective
Better Peer Trust
Buyers trust peers and independent third parties far more than vendor sales teams, who are the ones who have likely produced a brochure to promote their products or services in the best light. B2B customers prefer to hear real-world experiences rather than one-sided corporate narratives, which is why they always prefer to form their opinions from the reviews of other businesses who have worked with the source. For example, B2B buyers would much rather purchase plant hire equipment from a company that has strong reviews than one that just has a brochure full of their products.
Lower Risk
B2B purchases are high-stakes, as they often involve higher amounts of money than purchases that happen B2C. Reviews act as social proof that validates product or service performance and reduces the perceived risk of making a bad decision. Businesses can look for other businesses that have the closest to 5-star ratings and with a high level of reviews to find the one that has the lowest risk, but you would need to ensure that these reviews are legitimate and not SPAM or fake.
Key Indicators of fake reviews:
- Lack of verified purchase badge.
- Extremely generic or overly enthusiastic language.
- Multiple reviews posted in a short time frame.
- Identical phrasing used across different user profiles.
Reduced Sales Interaction
Approximately 75% of B2B buyers prefer to avoid dealing with sales representatives, as they will tend to attempt to skew your perception for a lot of positive information that might not necessarily be true. Choosing to self-educate via reviews and independent research is a far better way for businesses to make up their mind about another company.
Specific Details
Detailed reviews provide insights into user experience, as well as give more information about support quality and actual product performance, which are absent in promotional brochures. You will get a more accurate account as to what the entire process of the purchase will look like, including how quick it can be completed and if there’s any support along the way.
Identifies Weaknesses
Buyers often look for negative reviews to fully understand product limitations and strengthen their confidence in the purchase decision. It’s important to know the weaknesses of another business before completing any deals with them, as you don’t want to throw away money. Brochures won’t outline any weaknesses, which can deter businesses from enquiring.
Transparency
Most B2B buyers value transparency, so they much prefer to deal with a company that has good reviews rather than one that hands them an overly positive brochure. They are trained to question claims and prefer finding out potential issues from others rather than being promised perfection in a ready-made brand magazine.
Credibility
Verified reviews on trusted platforms like Google My Business, Clutch and Trust Pilot confirm the legitimacy of the product or service. This increases the chance of a B2B buyer being interested in your business. Encouraging customers and clients to leave reviews on this platform can be great for building up a good portfolio of evidence as to how much your business can be trusted.
