The buying process for high-value b2b products or services is frequently complex, time consuming and involves multiple stakeholders, and it is challenging for any vendor to be consistently successful without a profound understanding of how and why their most valuable prospects make buying decisions.
Identifying the trends and catalyst events that initiate the first step in the buying journey, understanding the factors that influence your prospect's considerations, and tracking the key phases in their decision making process are all fundamental to creating a scalable, repeatable sales and marketing system.
The Process of B2B Buying
Most high-value b2b sales reflect a remarkably consistent evolution in the prospect's mindset - from being satisfied with the status quo, to recognising the need for change, evaluating options, and finally implementing the chosen solution.
The process is rarely simple. The prospect can choose to abandon the journey, put the project on hold, or revisit a previous phase, at any stage in the process.
But it's unusual for complex, high-value purchases not to pass through a series of key consideration phases - or to have to navigate a series of decision gates.
Each successive consideration phase reflects an important step forward in the buying process.
It's been repeatedly proven that opportunities with momentum are far more likely to result in a positive buying decision than projects that have been stuck at a given phase for a long time.
Each phase is separated by a decision gate. Each gate offers vital evidence of commitment on the part of the prospect. Learn more here...
Trends and catalysts...
What causes your prospects to start searching for solutions? What are the factors that might change their status quo? What industry-wide trends affect their behaviour? What internal changes might signal the potential for your solutions?
Catalyst events upset the status quo and initiate buying processes. They make the prospect recognise that "business as usual" may not get them where they want to go, and cause them to start searching for solutions - and as such they represent the first step in the prospect's buying journey.
Organisations that develop a superior understanding of the trends and catalysts that shape their behaviour of their target markets are much more likely to be part of a potential prospect's consideration set when they start searching for solutions. Learn more here...
Mapping the buyersphere...
Which people, and which organisations, are most influential in shaping your prospect's thinking? Who do they turn to for advice when they recognise they may have a problem? Who do they trust to guide them? And how do they go about searching for solutions?
Today's B2B prospects are influenced by a wide variety of sources, far beyond the traditional analyst and press community. They look for recommendations from a community of trusted advisors, who can include formal and informal networks, business connections, existing vendors and many other sources - collectively referred to as their BuyerSphere. Learn more here.
Here's how we might be able to help...
Achieving sales and marketing alignment is particularly important to any organisation that is trying to achieve a step-function improvement in marketing effectiveness or sales productivity, to out-perform strong competitors, or to successfully launch new products or enter new markets.
We've been able to help a growing number of B2B organisations to realise their ambitions by diagnosing and dealing with the constraints that have been holding them back. We may be able to help your company achieve the same. You can learn more about our approach by browsing this website.
When you are ready, please complete our contact form, drop us a line at info@inflexion-point.com or call us on +44 (0) 845 519 0295.
We look forward to finding out more about what you are trying to achieve, to sharing some ideas - and to helping you achieve the benefits of alignment throughout your sales and marketing organisation.