Rapid changes in markets, technology, regulation and competition continuously reshape organisational realities. Buyers face a flood of information and an expanding group of stakeholders. At the same time, sellers must identify opportunities, build solutions and create consensus within buyer organisations — often without clear signals.
Research highlights just how tangled the process has become. Many buyers consider their latest purchase journey highly complex, citing contradictory supplier information and an overwhelming number of alternatives. Understanding uncertainty, then, is not a theoretical exercise but a practical necessity for improving willingness to buy and motivation to sell.
Where Uncertainty Emerges
A recent meta-analysis by Mullins et al. (2024), covering 220 peer-reviewed articles, offers a structured lens on where uncertainty arises and how it affects B2B exchanges. The research identifies several key themes:
- Environment & Outcome Uncertainty
External factors — such as technology shifts or regulatory changes — make it hard to predict the future. Similarly, buyers may doubt whether a solution will deliver the expected results or whether performance risks are manageable.
- Supplier, Needs and Buyer Uncertainty
Buyers often question a supplier’s capability or reliability. They may also struggle to articulate their own needs, understand requirements or assess their organisation’s readiness to implement a solution.
- Decision-Making & Partner Uncertainty
Decision processes can be unclear, especially when information is incomplete or roles are ambiguous. On both sides, perceptions of trust, shared information, reputation and relationship investment shape how confident partners feel about moving forward.
What is left to discover
Interestingly, existing research focuses much more on buyers’ uncertainty than on sellers’. This can create an assumption that sellers are confident actors who always know the next best step. In reality, sellers also face significant uncertainty — for example, when deciding how to adapt their approach or which actions will best progress the relationship.
Future research should explore shared and distinct uncertainties experienced by buyers and sellers as well as how individual and organisational factors on both sides interact to shape confidence and decision-making. These open questions sparked lively debate within the Sales Management Master’s Program’s students, highlighting how relevant and practical the topic is for today’s sales leaders.
Written by:
Sini Jokiniemi
Head of Sales Management Master’s Programme, Faculty of Business and Media
Reference:
Mullins, R., Chase, K. & Friend, S. (2024). Buyer-seller uncertainty: a systematic review and future research directions. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 44 (1), 29 – 49. https://andor.tuni.fi/permalink/358FIN_TAMPO/176jdvt/cdi_scopus_primary_2_s2_0_85179663539