The modern enterprise technology customer is more tech-savvy, has numerous opportunities and use cases for tech, has access to more options and information than ever before — but often regrets their purchase. Gartner research showed that 73% of tech buyers who had bought but not yet implemented their products/solutions already indicated high regret.
In a 2022 study, Gartner enabled tech buyers to characterize their regret by asking them to indicate to what extent they agreed with two specific statements:
“The offering we ultimately purchased is failing (or failed) to meet our expectations.”
“We initially considered offerings that were much more ambitious than what we ultimately decided upon.”
The survey of more than a thousand enterprise-tech purchasers showed that high-regret buyers tend to:
Lack focus and clarity in their buying approach. Conflicting objectives are the clearest precursor to regret, occurring in almost 90% of high-regret cases. High-regret buyers are less likely to have identified clear evaluation criteria and/or are unclear on the specific outcomes and goals of the intended project. They are more likely to continuously change project objectives and to allow occasional decision makers to sway decisions.
Have prolonged purchasing cycles. Enterprises that declared a high level of regret surrounding a major technology purchase decision took seven to 10 months longer, on average, to complete a purchase compared with those with no regret.
Are more likely to make no decision at all. These would-be buyers are more likely to cancel buying efforts regardless of how much time and effort vendors put into wooing them.
Low-regret buyers, by contrast, focus on topics and outcomes, gain internal buy-in, and rapidly focus on working with the one vendor most likely to help them achieve those outcomes.