B2B Buyer-Vendor Relationships

What qualities make a buyer willing to conduct business with a vendor?

Three highly valued traits in business relationships are trust, personal relationships, and responsiveness, according to a recent Marketing Charts report and data from a LinkedIn study of more than 6,000 B2B buyers, marketers, and salespeople employed at mid-sized and enterprise companies.

Strong buyer-vendor relationships have:

Trust between the purchaser and vendor
Personal relationship between the parties
Responsiveness in communication
Willingness to participate in a product demo
Sellers who are subject matter experts or thought leaders
Valuable consultation, education or tools provided by vendors
Demonstrated knowledge of the company’s products, services and business model

Weak buyer-vendor relationships have:

Lack of responsiveness
Disagreement on financial terms
Inadequate speed of delivery

Trust is the top-cited reason for strong relationships between #B2B buyers and vendors. Share on X

View our infographic below to learn more about the buyer-vendor relationship:

Brian Shilling

Brian is our Executive Vice President of Client Operations with experience leading diverse teams of marketers and designers in strategic marketing, content creation, and crafting comprehensive messaging and positioning platforms for our healthcare and tech clients. To learn more about Brian's experiences and qualifications, visit our leadership team page.