State of the Connected Customer 02 Companies Face a New Connected Mandate 12 When it comes time to buy, today’s customers When They Buy, Customers Seek Ease, Seamlessness, and Consultants expect more than knowledgeable salespeople and a quick and easy checkout. Increasingly Likelihood of Customers Rating Each Quality as Important vs. Unimportant drawn to ecommerce sites, they value product comparison tools as well as mobile Important Important apps. On top of it all, they want to move Consumers Unimportant Unimportant Business Buyers seamlessly between various digital and offline channels, often browsing on one in the morning only to close the deal on another in the evening. 5.7x Product comparison tools 7.1x more likely more likely Customers are 3.7x more Seamless transitions between channels likely to view seamless 3.4x (e.g., online to in-store) 4.4x transitions between more likely more likely channels as important, versus unimportant. 1.7x Mobile apps 2.5x more likely more likely With their professional reputations — and often large sums of money — at stake, Product recommendations business buyers have set the bar even higher. 1.3x (that match my buying habits) 2.3x Seventy-eight percent of business buyers more likely more likely seek salespeople that act as trusted advisors with knowledge of their needs Respondents were not required to rate a quality as important or unimportant. and industry. Business buyers are more Data is based off respondents who elected to rate a quality as such. likely than consumers to value product Not a complete list. See appendix page 46 for a full list broken by generational segmentations. recommendations and mobile apps — a testament to the blurring lines between B2C and B2B behavior. Salesforce Research