The Buying Process
To put it simply, before a purchase can take place, a customer must walk through a distinctive set of steps. These steps may be achieved very quickly in a consumer’s mind or it may be a longer process, this usually depends on the type of product being purchased. This step by step process each consumer goes through is known as the Buying Process.
If business owners appeal to the consumer’s natural Buying Process, they can have more than a shot in the dark when marketing to their target audience. In order to start the Buying Process, you must create or wake your customer up to a problem or need that they have. By waking your customer up to a problem, you create value and creditability within your brand. If the value you created with the customer is strong enough, they may never consider the competition. When crafting communications to your customers, keeping the Buying Process top of mind is key. Doing this will help you determine how to craft your message based on where in the process your customer may be. Even though there may be a different message within each stage, always make sure that you are answering, “What’s in it for the customer?” and “How can my product/service help them?”.
By successfully targeting messaging through each step, you allow your marketing to successfully take customers through the first few stages of the Buying Process and then hand them off to the sales team. This will alleviate work from the sales team, allowing your business to run efficiently and expand its lead pool. The effective comprehension of the Buying Process will allow your business to run better, faster and reduce personnel expenses.
Key Takeaways:
- The Buying Process consists of six defined stages every person moves through in order to make a purchase decision. Understanding these steps and how to tailor messaging is the key to a converting a lead to a sale.
- In order to successfully move people through the Buying Process you must identify your ideal customer and identify where they are.
- People can be blissfully oblivious to their problems. Create value and creditability by waking customers up to a problem, amplifying their problem, and then providing a way to solve their problem with your product or service.
- Research shows that a single person can only form meaningful relationships with, on average, 100-200 people a year. Marketing can accomplish what a good salesperson can do one-on-one, but on a scale of one-to-many.
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