A Comprehensive Guide every business is looking for buyers, but just a few companies take the initiative to understand how their potential customers arrive at their decisions. Investing time to understand this process is key to bringing more buyers to your website.
The B2B buyer journey matters because rich people database buyers engage with multiple touchpoints before making a purchase. Competitors influence decisions early, so businesses must establish a strong presence throughout the journey. Understanding its three stages—awareness, consideration, and decision—helps companies create targeted marketing strategies to attract and convert B2B buyers.
What is a B2B buyer journey?
The B2B buyer journey is the process businesses follow when making a purchase decision. It includes three stages: awareness (identifying a problem), consideration (researching solutions), and decision (choosing a provider). Understanding this journey helps businesses create targeted marketing strategies that guide buyers toward conversion.
The most commonly known version of the B2B buyer journey includes:
I’ve discovered a problem impacting my business.
How do I fix it? What are the options for the particular pain points?
I know what I want and I’m looking for the best deal, best quality, and most features from a reputable business.
Now we can see how this plays out with a business owner who may be in the market for a CRM solution.
Awareness/discovering problem
My customer base is growing and my sales reps are solid, but I sense that we are losing track of leads and I don’t think we are communicating with customers efficiently.
Consideration phase
Maybe I need to invest in a CRM solution. Wow, there are so many expensive offerings and my business is small. I’m not sure I have the budget for some of the big names. I wonder what’s out there? I’ll do a little research.
Decision-making
Pipedrive and Hubspot have solutions that I like. I’m going to take a look at the features and compare them side by side. There’s a free trial offer that looks good. Sold.
Depending on the type of purchase, the complexity, the pricing, etc. this sales process can take 10 minutes or 10 months. Decisions that require significant research from business buyers create windows of opportunity that you can use to market your business. But how?
The buyer’s journey funnel
A Comprehensive Guide if you prefer to visualize the three stages, you can observe this process as a buyer’s journey funnel. The funnel helps clarify why it’s important for your marketing campaigns to touch the top, mid and lower sections of the funnel. If you want buyers to be aware of your solution, the key is to be present before they narrow the choices.
Businesses that understand the buyer’s journey can market to potential buyers during each stage of