Let’s take a brief walk along the buyer’s journey. See any road signs? Probably not.
Most prospects experiencing a problem feel pain. But that doesn’t mean they see a solution to their problem.
You must first understand the prospect’s vision for a solution. Or you must help create it.
It’s not an easy job.
Sixty percent of companies admit they do not understand their buyers, shares Sirius Decisions.
And K. Martell of Cintell claims, “the rest are in denial.”
To better understand buyers, you need to do deep primary and secondary research.
You need to get in early and help define requirements. You may even need to change the way you think. It’s age-related, too. Millennials buy differently than Generation X or Baby Boomers.
We’ll help you know how and why prospects buy. And how to stand beside them in the buyer journey.
The buyer’s journey.
Of course, it’s just not as simple as the chart appears.
Especially when the Corporate Executive Board tells us B2B buyers are a much as 70 percent the way through their buying cycle before they ever engage a salesperson. That’s a game-changer.
How Buyers Think
Early work at UCLA on human intelligence proved that people deploy three types of thinking to make decisions: cognition, divergence, and convergence.
In cognition, (awareness) people seek to understand a situation. Too many sales people uncover a need, jump to a solution, then wonder why the prospect reaches no-decision.
In divergent, (consideration) people consider alternatives. Too many salespeople offer a solution before the prospect has had ample time to do his divergence and, again, the opportunity ends up with a no decision*.
In convergent, (decision) prospect is ready and converges on a decision she thinks is the best. Ideally, the salesperson has led the prospect to self-discover the solution. We’ll show you how to lead prospects to your solution, not lead with it.
Nothing happens until something sells.
And you cannot sell unless you know how the prospect buys.
If you cannot sell well, there’s no revenue growth.
If we decide to work together on your go-to-market strategy, we’ll put our heads and hearts into how your prospects buy and why.
Then, we can help you adjust how you sell to follow your prospects’ buying journey.
*60 percent of all qualified sales pipeline opportunities end up in no decision (Sales Benchmark Index) Next: Power of Buyer Personas