Your buyers would rather not talk to you. Here's what to do about it

In 2023 Gartner published a number that should make every closer a little uncomfortable. In its survey of B2B buyers, 75% said they prefer a rep free buying experience.

Three quarters of buyers, given the choice, would rather research, compare and decide without a salesperson in the room. If you run a business built on discovery calls and closers, that is worth sitting with.

Why buyers feel this way

It is not that buyers hate people. It is that they have learned what a sales call often is: a scheduled interruption where they repeat information they already gave on a form, get qualified, and then get pushed.

Gartner's own research on how B2B purchases happen found buyers spend only around 17% of their total buying time meeting with potential suppliers. The rest goes on independent research, internal discussion and comparing options. The call is a small slice of the decision, not the decision itself.

Your buyer has usually watched your videos, read your emails and checked your reviews before they ever speak to you. By the time they book, they are often most of the way to a decision and looking for a reason to say yes or a reason to back out.

The catch in the same research

Here is the part that gets left out of the LinkedIn posts. Gartner's 2023 findings also said buyers who completed a purchase through a rep free experience were 23% more likely to regret it.

That is the tension. Buyers want to avoid sales reps, but they make worse decisions without good guidance.

For an expert selling a $3,000 to $25,000 offer, regret is expensive. It shows up as refund requests, chargebacks, poor results and clients who never refer anyone.

Buyers do not want a sales pitch. They want a second opinion from someone who knows the answer.

What this means for an expert business

The conclusion is not to fire your closers. It is to change what you ask the call to do, and to move as much of the convincing as possible to before the call.

Think of it as a split. Content, emails and your sales page do the persuading.

The call does the diagnosing. A good call should feel like a consultation with someone who has seen your problem a hundred times, not a negotiation.

Practically, that means a few changes most businesses can make this month.

• Put the price, or at least a price range, somewhere public. Buyers who are shocked by the number on a call were never going to buy, and you just paid a closer to find that out.
• Send a short pre call video or page that answers the ten questions every prospect asks. The call can then start at question eleven.
• Rewrite your call script around diagnosis. What have they tried, what happened, what would success look like in ninety days, and is your offer actually the right fit.
• Make it easy to say no. Buyers relax when they know they will not be pressured, and relaxed buyers tell you the truth about their situation.
• Offer a buy now path for lower priced products, so people who already decided are not forced through a call they do not need.

A worked example

Say you run a consulting offer at $8,000. Your closer takes ten calls a week and closes two. Most calls spend the first twenty minutes explaining what the program is.

Now add a ten minute pre call video that covers the program, the price and who it is not for. Some prospects cancel after watching it. That feels like a loss, but those were mostly calls that would not have closed anyway.

The prospects who still show up arrive informed. The call starts with their situation instead of your offer. Even if the close rate only moves from 20% to 25% on fewer calls, your closer now has hours back each week to follow up properly with the people who are genuinely deciding.

The new job of the sales call

The rep free preference is real, and fighting it is a losing game. Buyers will keep doing most of their research alone, on their own schedule, in your content.

But the regret finding is just as real. The opportunity for experts is to be the one guide in a buyer's process who reduces risk instead of adding pressure. Do the selling in public, and use the call for what a person does better than any page: listening, diagnosing and telling someone honestly whether you can help.