Published 21 February 2018
Our buyers still take a journey through the buying process, the difference is that the buyer’s journey looks vastly different today. The internet has informed and empowered buyers and that has impacted the relationship between salespeople and customers.
Today's buyer can more easily and quickly access information before and during the decision process. To combat this challenge, sales reps must avail themselves to the same information source their buyers are using. Technology has made the buyer smarter and it has made sales reps better!
The New Buyer's Journey
While the buyer's journey has improved, the power of technology has also improved the job of the sales rep buy revealing insights into the buyer's process. Determining where a customer is at in the buying process will greatly affect the results of that process.
If you have ever been pitched a hard close only shortly after entering the awareness phase of the buyer's journey, you understand how off-putting it can be. In fact, it can be an instant deal breaker. Fortunately, sales reps can track a prospects' activity on company websites. This will tell the sales rep what exact stage of the buyer's journey their prospective customer is in.
The Awareness Stage
This is the stage where you introduce yourself to your customer. The customer may be browsing for a particular item, your recent blog post may have caught their eye or it might have been a social media interaction. These are people who have shown interest in something you've said, done or advertised. The next step in the journey is finding out more about you or your products and services... Naturally, a prospective buyer will move from being interested in something said or done to the "who" said or did it. At this stage, the consideration stage, buyers will check out product pages, maybe feature pages or expertise content areas. Most often the "About Us" page will be visited. This stage in the buyer's journey shows initiative and a defined interest in your business. Once an introduction is made and after a buyer expresses continued interest, a time of decision follows. This stage of the buyer's journey is appropriately referred to as, the decision stage. Everything has been leading up to this and it is here that the buyer will make some very telling choices. At this stage, the customer is past reading a blog or two. They have already visited your "About Us" page and taken steps to find out about you. Now your prospective buyer will start checking out pricing pages. They will investigate case studies to find support for and reasons to make the decision to buy. Lastly, the people in the final stage will often land on your "Contact Us" page, it is important to have the ability to communicate with the seller after all.
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Marketing
The Decision Stage
