The Customer’s Buying Process Trumps Your Sales Process

Customer Buying Process

One of the biggest changes in B2B sales over the last few years has been the flip in the importance in the buyers purchasing journey versus the steps in the sales process for the vendor. It is not to say that your internal process is not important, but the buyers process is more important. This really hit home for me last week.

We are interested in exploring a new marketing automation solution for both ourselves and our customers. I had seen a solution recently at a large vendor road show that stopped in Toronto. I spent over 30 minutes with the vendor and had most of my questions answered. The next step for me was to have the team see a demo of the marketing automation system as they work with the competing systems on daily basis. Instead of allowing us to move to a demo with my team, we had two telephone meetings that captured about the same information with two different reps before I was able to schedule the demo. The biggest issue is that the prospect gets excited about the solution and/or demo but does not have the power to buy themselves.

Here are some ways that you can match your customers buying process and still get the information you need to support your sales process.

What Problem is the Customer Trying to Solve?

In some cases the prospect may be looking at the wrong solution for their problem. This is often a hard task to validate that your solution is right for them. As an example we often get customers that come to us looking for sales help, when marketing help may be best. You need to answer these questions as early as you can as your prospect is exploring your solution.

What is the Purchasing Process?

This is probably the most important aspect to know. Is the person that you are talking with the main decision maker? There could be other stakeholders involved in the decision. The main contact could be doing the ground work for a recommendation to their boss. There may be competitors involved in the process as well. This is often where the sales team will say, that was a great demo. What is the next step? They didn’t ask at the end of the demo and now the opportunity is in limbo.

Is Budget Available?

This is another very important aspect that relates to how quickly the opportunity will close. Do they have the budget for the project or are they looking for solutions and how much it will cost. This will have a huge impact on your ability to close the opportunity quickly, or at all.

What is Their Timeline?

Understanding the purchasing process is only part of the equation for how soon they could buy. They have a schedule already set-up that could include an RFP or can they make the decision quickly and be ready to implement shortly. In some cases you may need to interject some reality into the situation as they want to close and implement faster than your business may be able to. This is typically a good problem to have.

What is the Size of the Opportunity?

They could be looking for a short-term solution for a few users or a multi-year agreement for all their employees. It is important to scope the size as that can effective pricing, timing, and what is needed for decision making by your prospects.

If you are looking for some help with your sales processes and team then check-out our white paper on building a sales team.

The Customer’s Buying Process Trumps Your Sales Process