Buyer’s Journey

In responding to the challenges of marketing and sales, sellers can become too preoccupied with their own goals and activities. It’s easy to become distracted from the buyer’s interests and needs.

An alternative is to focus first on the buyer’s journey, the steps the buyer must take in order to become a customer.

A typical business buyer goes through several stages:

• Untroubled or unaware of the problem
• Become aware of the problem, acknowledge pain
• Gain initial info, define their need
• Gain in-depth info
• Justify internally, build consensus to make a buying decision
• Compare and prioritize offers
• Make purchase and engage with seller

Buyers must complete each stage of their process before they can move to the next one. They are only interested in talking to sellers who can help them in their journey.

These buyers operate in a complex social environment. They involve multiple people in major purchasing decisions – from finance, operations, development and customer-facing organizations.

Customer Value Mapping

Use customer value mapping to understand the various people in your customer organization. These maps will show you what they value about your solution and your sales process.

First, identify the people or roles in your customer organization who are affected by your solution.

Next determine the concerns of the people in these positions. Their concerns will point you to what they value.

• Constituencies and relationships
• Objectives and responsibilities
• Metrics (which they evaluate or on which they are evaluated)
• Strategies – internal and external
• Issues and challenges (that they face, both internal and external)

Third, now that you know the concerns of the various players in the customer organization, highlight those where your solution could have an effect.

Fourth, characterize value propositions at each stage of the journey that answer the buyer’s question: “How can you deliver what I value?”

Once you understand the buyer’s journey, you can develop a marketing and sales process that creates value for the buyer at each stage of their journey.