Today’s buyer is more informed than ever before, thanks to the vast amount of information available at their fingertips. Because of this, the balance of power has shifted from the sales rep to the buyer in most sales conversations. This is why pushy sales tactics are no longer effective the way they used to be.
Instead, to be successful in sales in today’s day and age, sales reps must adapt their mindset from selling to helping. And the best way to start this process is to become intimately familiar with who the buyer is and the journey they take on their path to purchase: The buyer’s journey.
The buyer’s journey describes a buyer’s path to purchase. In other words, buyers don’t wake up and decide to buy on a whim. They go through a process to become aware of, consider and evaluate, and decide to purchase a new product or service.
By understanding the buyer’s journey, the pains and problems they experience along that journey, and the influencing factors that shape their thinking, sales reps can better empathize with the buyer and position their product or service along that path. So let’s dig in a little further.
The buyer’s journey can be broken down into three “stages” that describe how they are driven to make a purchase: the awareness stage, the consideration stage, and the decision stage.
Here’s how to conceptualize each stage:
Awareness Stage: The buyer becomes aware that they have a problem.
Consideration Stage: The buyer defines their problem and considers options to solve it.
Decision Stage: The buyer evaluates and decides on the right provider to administer the solution.
Now that the overall journey has been defined, let’s take a look at each stage, from the buyer’s perspective:
The Awareness Stage:
At this stage, the buyer discovers they are experiencing a problem. For example, they have symptoms of pain, and their goal is to alleviate it. They may be looking for informational resources to more clearly understand the root of their problem.
Such as: Why does my lower back hurt so much?
The consideration stage:
The buyer will have clearly defined their problem and given it a name. They are now committed to researching and understanding the available options or methods to solving the defined problem.
Such as: “How to treat lower back pain?”
The decision stage:
At this stage, the buyer has decided on a solution, method, or approach. The goal now is to compile a list of available vendors, make a shortlist, and ultimately make a final decision.
Such as: “Where can I get treatment for my lower back pain and how much will it cost?”
Conclusion:
If you don’t have an understanding of your buyers, then it will be difficult to understand your buyer’s journey in a way that will be helpful from a sales perspective. In this case, be sure to conduct interviews with customers, prospects, and the salespeople at your company to get a sense of your customers’ buyers’ journey.
By providing content that is valuable to your potential customers at a time that is right for them you will build a better relationship with your buyers and establish trust as well as create invaluable long-term customer loyalty.