6 Stages the Online Buyer Goes Through
6 Stages the Online Buyer Goes Through (that the Salesperson Has to Respect)
By Rao Wu
Salespeople are most often goal-oriented people, and sometimes this focus on objectives can bulldoze the necessary steps their Internet prospect has to go through when evaluating a purchase. All too often, this over-zealousness causes the salesperson to lose a sale and the online buyer to be left without a solution, or worse – someone else’s solution. Most competent sales professionals all understand the traditional sales cycle, but all to often – they ignore stages of the “buying cycle.”
Unlike a consumer, who gets to make purchase decisions to suit their whims, the business product buyer is making a decision for an entire group, and so it’s even more important for the salesperson to respect the stages they need to go through to reach their ultimate decision. The salesperson who has the patience to respect each stage and who can facilities the buyer’s move from step to step usually wins the deal.
Here are the typical stages the online business product buyer goes through on their path to purchase (or to “no thanks”) with a description of each.
Stage 1: Identifying the Problem or Growth Opportunity
Before the business buyer is even thinking about products, they’re either faced with a problem that needs to be solved, or they see a growth opportunity and want a solution to help them scale or access that opportunity. If a salesperson reaches a buyer at this point, it’s usually through a cold call – because the buyer is not year clear abut what they’re looking for, other than hey need a solution.
Stage 2: Initiating Interest in Finding a Solution
At this point, the buyer wants to hone in on some solutions. They’ve started their online research process, they’re reading white papers and comparisons, talking to colleagues, and even submitting requests for more information from vendors.
From the salesperson’s perspective – good quality leads can be had starting with Stage 2 of the buying process through Stage 4. It’s important for the salesperson to keep in mind, however, that Stages 2-4 are longest stages in buying process (depending on company size and the type of purchase) and they can’t be rushed. This is a point where too many salespeople are hasty or impatient, and if they’re pushing a sale, they’ll more often than not meet with resistance. Sometimes this resistance is disguised as silence – no response from your prospect.
Stage 3: Getting Educated on the Solution Landscape
The buyer has now honed in on a solution and they’re starting to compare your products to your competitors’, evaluating various features, and thinking about who will provide the best value for their money. It’s common for many business buyers to try and make a shortlist of vendors who will be among their candidates. Needless to say, if you’re not on that short list, you probably won’t get the chance to compete.
Stage 4: Validating Choices
Once the buyer feels they have an adequate pool of viable solution providers, they’ll weigh in their own company requirements - features, benefits, drawbacks, pricing, and various other service level arrangements that each vendor might have. Many times, this requires vendor participation (i.e. meetings, conference calls, product demos, etc.) depending on the pool of providers they’re considering. The buyer is now going through a process of elimination to narrow the pool of candidates, based on their specific requirements. These requirements may vary, depending on the buyer types within the account. (Be sure to check out the article “The Buyers Behind Your Lead.”)
Stage 5: Rationalizing the Decision
If you’ve made it this far in your buyer’s process, your participation is invariably needed for the buyer to make the most informed decision. Often, a buyer will ask for precise pricing, customer references, and a have a whole slew of other hoops they’ll make you to jump through before making their ultimate choice. Once they’ve received all your deliverables, they are assessing, based on their best educated requirements, which solution will best fit their needs and provide the best value for their dollar. The other influencers in the organization are weighing in on the final decision at this point.
Stage 6: Deciding to Buy or Not to Buy
This is it, the moment of truth - the buyer decides to buy or not to buy your solution based on their research and experience at each previous step. If you were involved in each step of their buying process, and you had the privilege of working with the prospect respectfully each step of the way, odds are that you will be the winner in the outcome. Every stage of this process can be influenced to some degree, and the best salespeople always find a way to get into the victory column more often than not.