Navigating the “Oh-So Complex” B2B Buyer Journeys
The path to purchase in the B2B world is rarely straightforward. With numerous stakeholders and varying factors, no two buyer journeys are alike. Despite this, many revenue teams assume their audience’s journey is predictable and repeatable, leading to untargeted or irrelevant campaigns. Understanding the complexities of B2B buyer journeys is crucial for successfully navigating the B2B marketing and sales landscape.
Personas and the Overall Buying Group
First, we need to identify who will be involved in the purchase. Since no two buyer journeys are ever the same, the personas taking part in the decision-making process will engage at different times and levels.
- The Key Buying Group: These individuals play a role in driving the initiative throughout the journey. They are directly involved in evaluating and selecting a product or service. For example, an HR manager might lead the evaluation of a new HR solution.
- The Ultimate Approvers: These decision-makers provide final approval on a purchase. They ensure the purchase aligns with business goals and budget. A CFO, for instance, may need to sign off on a significant investment.
- The Influencers: These can be end-users or experts who shape the decision by providing valuable input. An IT specialist might influence the choice of a new tech solution based on technical requirements.
Various factors strongly influence the buyer journey:
- Trigger Event: The catalyst for the journey, such as a new project or regulatory change. For example, new compliance requirements might trigger the need for updated software.
- Company Size: Influences the number of stakeholders, length and complexity of the decision-making process. Smaller companies may decide quickly, while larger firms involve multiple departments.
- Deal Size: Larger deals involve more rigorous evaluation and extended timelines. Smaller deals are quicker and less formal.
- Risk Level: High-risk purchases involve detailed assessments and more stakeholders. Implementing a new enterprise system, for example, requires thorough evaluation.
- Industry: Unique buying processes and requirements vary by industry. A healthcare provider’s procurement process differs from that of a tech firm.
- Market Type: Niche markets often have more complex buying processes due to less familiarity with the solutions available.
Buyer Journey Examples
Let’s look at some specific cases to illustrate the diversity of B2B buyer journeys.
Example 1 – Generic:
Many marketers assume a straightforward buyer journey, but this often overlooks the complexities involved.
In this example, we can see that the trigger event starts with the key buying group and initiates a buying journey that involves influencers and ultimate approvers at different times and various engagement levels.
Most people will assume that the above model fits most scenarios. However, in reality, this would be neglecting all the other attributes that make up unique buying journeys.
Example 2 – Small Company:
In a small company, a trigger event like a strategic shift initiated by the CEO can lead to a swift decision-making process, with influencers consulted as needed. The ultimate approver requires assistance from the key buying group to help investigate potential solutions and input from influencers to evaluate solution criteria before final sign-off.
Example 3 – Larger Company:
A large multinational might face technical issues with software for example, triggering a journey involving an HR specialist (influencer), the HR Manager (key buying group), and the Chief Human Resources Officer (ultimate approver). This process is more prolonged and involves multiple layers of approval.
These examples show how different attributes, like company size and trigger events, can significantly alter the buyer journey.
Don’t Miss Out: Why Buyer Insights and Understanding Buyer Journeys are Essential
The whole point of investing in understanding your audience’s journey is to avoid falling behind and missing out on opportunities. Failing to do so can result in internal misalignments and opportunity losses for your business.
Some of the benefits of investing in understanding your audience better include:
- Improved Sales Planning: Sales teams can benefit from Buyer Insights by aligning with prospects’ needs and journey stages, ensuring no potential sales are overlooked.
- Enhanced BDR Focus: BDRs can prioritize leads and accounts more effectively, focusing on opportunities with the most potential. A solid understanding of buyer journeys helps avoiding wasted efforts on less promising leads and accounts.
- Sales Cycle Efficiency: If your Sales Team blindly chases after opportunities, this can lead to longer sales cycles due to incomplete or missing information. Insight into the buyer journey enables Sales Team to understand how to best approach their audience and provide relevant information at the right time to the right people.
- Targeted Engagement for ABM Campaigns: Effective Account-Based Marketing requires precise targeting and insights to be able to reach the right buying group at the right time. This requires a good understanding of your ICP, your personas and the buying journey, allowing you to avoid missing out on opportunities.
- Aligned Sales and Marketing Goals: As mentioned in our blogpost on Buyer Insights, one of the clear benefits of Buyer Insights and journey understanding is that marketing and sales teams can unite and collaborate efficiently as a revenue team that works towards the same objectives.
- Optimized Marketing Budget Distribution: There is no time and money to waste. Insights into the buyer journey allow for marketing resources to be allocated effectively across different stages, helping avoid overspend in certain areas.
- Insightful Demand Generation Campaigns: Short- and long-term demand generation strategies should be based on the buying journey to capture relevant opportunities before they slip through the cracks.
- Content Production Blueprint: Build a solid foundation for creating and planning relevant content that addresses the personas’ pain points and goals. This way, you can ensure your content team hits the mark every time.
- Competitive Edge: Ignoring who your buyers are and how they make decisions within the buying group means you might miss out on differentiating your offering, leaving you vulnerable to competitors who cater to their audience’s needs.
- Brand Perception: To establish trust and credibility with your audience, it is important to maintain alignment between Sales and Marketing teams. Neglecting to dive deeper into Buyer Insights increases chances of misalignment and thus of a negative brand perception.
Ultimately, failing to invest in understanding your buyer journeys are more than likely going to stunt your revenue growth due to struggle in effectively addressing opportunities and converting prospect accounts into loyal customers.
Conclusion
No two B2B buyer journeys are alike. Recognizing the unique attributes of the personas involved and the journeys themselves is crucial. Assuming you know the buyer journey without thorough research can lead to missed opportunities.
Flexibility, responsiveness, and continuously adapting strategies are key to staying competitive in the B2B landscape. This starts with in-depth research to accurately map out the buyer journey.
Understanding these journeys is also a crucial starting point for adopting an Account-Based Approach, enabling you to target and personalize content effectively for your audience.
Not sure where to start? Our consultancy specializes in helping businesses understand and optimize their buyer journeys. Contact us to learn how we can help you unlock new opportunities.
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