Buyers don’t show up empty-handed.
I’ve had buyers call with a competitor’s spec sheet in hand. I’ve had buyers ask for a datasheet we didn’t have online. And I’ve had buyers who knew more about the part than our product page did.
By the time they reach you, most of the research is already done. The question is whether any of it happened on your website.
What Buyers Look Up First
Before they pick a supplier, buyers want to know they have the right part.
Dimensions, pressure or load ratings, materials, what it fits, and what it replaces. Price and stock come after that. If they can’t confirm it’s the right part, nothing else on the page matters yet.
The full list of what they’re looking for is in 10 Things Buyers Need Before They Ever Pick Up the Phone. This post is about where they go to find it.
Spec Sheets And Datasheets
At most places I’ve worked, the full specs lived on the vendor and manufacturer websites. Not ours.
That makes sense from the inside. The manufacturer already wrote it, and keeping a copy up to date is one more job.
From the buyer’s side, it looks different. They leave your site to confirm the part. Now they’re reading someone else’s page, and a lot of manufacturer sites have a “where to buy” page that lists every distributor they sell through, including your competitors.
The fix:
- Put the key specs on your product page as text.
- Link the full datasheet as a backup, not as the only source.
- Ask your vendors for their product data. Most have it in a spreadsheet or feed, and many are glad to share it.
Catalogs: PDF Or On The Page
Catalogs still get used. Buyers flip through them to see a whole product line at once.
Keep them, but don’t make them the only place the specs live. Buyers skim, search engines can’t read what’s locked in a file, and a scanned PDF can’t be read by much of anything.
Comparing You Against Other Suppliers
Buyers almost always check more than one supplier. They’re comparing specs, price, stock, and how easy you are to buy from.
You can help them compare, or you can make them do it somewhere else.
On a sister site I built for a specific group of buyers, I added landing pages that compared products side by side. Buyers could see the difference and pick what fit their equipment without calling. Fewer calls came in asking which one to get.
That’s the research stage done on your site instead of someone else’s.
When They Call Before They Trust The Page
Some buyers call no matter what. Some never do.
The ones who call usually want to confirm something the page didn’t make clear. That’s useful. Every one of those calls tells you what the page is missing.
Ask your sales team and counter what buyers ask before they order. Then put the answer on the page.
What To Put Where
- On the product page: key specs as text, part numbers, what it replaces, and what it fits.
- As a download: the full datasheet and the catalog.
- On a comparison or category page: the differences between similar products, side by side.
- Off your site: nothing a buyer needs to make the decision.
For the rest of the buyer’s journey, see 5 Stops on the B2B Buyer’s Journey (And Where You Lose Them).
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