THE BUYER’S JOURNEY
It is the ideal path that a potential customer takes to make a purchase and it is usually divided into three steps:
- Awareness: the moment in which the buyer/consumer realizes that he has a need or a problem to solve.
- Consideration (Evaluation): the phase in which the buyer/consumer collects information and searches for different options to satisfy/solve his need.
- Decision: the final step in which the buyer/consumer chooses the best solution for his needs.
The Buyer’s Journey has changed profoundly since it was first defined in an article published in 2009 in the McKinsey Quarterly magazine. The buyer today has acquired considerably more autonomy compared to the past, especially in the Evaluation phase. The web, in fact, allows him to delve into every aspect of his needs and collect all the information he requires (often the final choice occurs even before having established contact with the company).
But there is one very important aspect that every seller should keep in mind when communicating with a potential customer.
KEEP THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN ASSESSMENT AND DECISION IN MIND
Sellers need to pay close attention to whether the prospect is still in the Evaluation stage or is already in the Decision stage. It is very important to understand what stage of the purchase our buyer is in to have the right commercial approach.
If our buyer is still gathering information and evaluating the various possibilities, we should just help him delve into the evaluation phase thoroughly; without having an overly aggressive commercial approach. We must explain all the features that the product has to meet its needs, delving into all the technical aspects and so on. The more information we provide to the buyer in front of us, the more he will be encouraged to take our product into serious consideration. And this approach contributes to increasing the value of our product. But at this stage we should never put too much pressure on finalizing the sale. There is an invisible boundary between these two phases that must be respected. Especially in B2B.
In this regard, I would like to point out a video by Michael Humblet which explains this aspect well.
OUR “SHOP WINDOW” ALWAYS IN ORDER
In closing, a final reflection regarding our online presence. Since today more than ever the Evaluation phase takes place autonomously online, this means that we must always keep our digital “shop window” updated and in order: our website, blog, social media, etc. And the more a product has important technical characteristics, the more we have to spend time describing them on these platforms. Not getting tired of repeating them and obviously translated into the languages of the countries we have chosen as our target markets.