Achieving Alignment with the Customer’s Buying Process
8.3 Understand the importance of alignment between the selling process and the customer’s buying process
The foundation of a successful sales effort comes from knowing how buyers buy. If you don’t know what the customer’s decision-making process is and you proceed according to your own agenda, you risk losing the sale. If you have not defined how buyers buy, then you make assumptions that throw your sales process out of alignment with the buyer’s buying process.18 Too often salespeople rely on generalizations about the buyer’s decision-making process rather than acquiring specific information.
The buying process is a systematic series of actions, or a series of defined, repeatable steps intended to achieve a result.19 Organizational purchasing structures and buying procedures can vary greatly from company to company, so you need to be clear on how decisions are being made within each account. In some cases, the steps in the buying process have been clearly defined by the organization and this information is available to any potential supplier. However, this information may not tell you the whole story. Salespeople need to obtain answers to these types of questions:
How urgent is my proposal to the buyer? When will a buying decision be made?
Will any political factors within the organization influence how decisions are made?
Has the money needed to purchase my product been allocated?
Which person or persons in the buying organization will actually use or supervise the use of the product I am selling?20
Customers make buying decisions in many ways, so understanding each individual buyer’s decision-making process is central to success in personal selling. Some buyers will have multiple buying processes. Buying decisions involving a straight rebuy, for example, will likely differ from buying decisions involving a new-task buy.21
Steps in the Typical Buying Process
The term “process” brings to mind a set formula that applies to every situation. But buying decisions are made in different ways, so it would be inappropriate to view the buying process as a uniform pattern of decision making. However, there is a model—a form of decision making that buyers usually apply to their unique circumstances. Figure 8.3 shows the typical stages in the buying decision process: needs awareness, evaluation of solutions, resolution of problems, purchase, and implementation. This model is especially helpful in understanding organizational buying decisions and large consumer acquisitions. Consumers who make habitual buying decisions often skip or reverse some of these stages.22
Figure 8.3 Typical Buying Process Model
In this figure, for purposes of illustration, the Typical Buying Process Model is aligned with the two most popular Selling Process Models. It is important salespeople understand the customer’s unique buying process, where the customer is in that buying process, and then align the sales process to satisfy their customer’s needs.
Needs Awareness
Needs awareness is the first stage in the buying process. The buyer recognizes that something is imperfect or incomplete. The need for energy conservation technology may surface when oil prices rise to higher levels. The need for a customer service training program may become evident when customer satisfaction survey scores decline. Salespeople can create value at this stage of the buying process if they can help determine the magnitude of the customer’s problem and identify a solution. For example, a sales representative may be able to help the buyer estimate the cost of poor customer service and recommend a way to improve service. Customers often need help in determining whether they have a problem large enough to justify the cost of a solution.23
Evaluation of Solutions
Buyers who experience need awareness usually begin searching for information that will help them evaluate possible problem solutions. They realize, at this point, that the problem they face is amenable to some type of solution. In some cases, there are several solutions that the customer needs to study. Salespeople can add value at this stage by providing useful information that helps the customer make an informed choice. In some cases, the value justification can be presented in terms of cost reduction or increased revenues. In other cases, the value justification may be an intangible such as customer satisfaction, improved security, or reduced stress. In business-to-business selling situations, value justification that can be measured is usually the most powerful.
To establish a true partnership with the customer, you need to be sure that you are offering them information that will help them achieve their objectives. If you possess a good understanding of the customer’s buying process, you will know what they are trying to accomplish.24
Resolution of Problems
At this stage of the buying process, the customer is aware of a need and has evaluated one or more solutions. The customer has resolved to do something. However, the customer is likely to have issues and concerns that must be resolved before moving ahead. This is especially true in the case of complex sales.25
Some customers will want the proposed solution put in writing. Competitors may be invited to submit written proposals. A well-written proposal is one way to add value (see Chapter 6). Some customers may request specific information that can be provided only by the supplier’s engineers or accountants. Other customers may insist on visiting the supplier’s manufacturing plant so they can see the production process firsthand. Buyers often need help overcoming obstacles that prevent them from moving to the purchase stage of the buying process.26
PURCHASE
After all the customer’s obstacles and concerns have been overcome, the purchase decision is made. Professional salespeople create value in many ways at this stage of the buying process.27 First, they do whatever is necessary to make sure the purchase is “hassle free.” This may mean working with the customer to arrange the best financing or supervising the delivery and installation of the product. Salespeople add value by becoming a “customer advocate” within their own organizations. This may mean negotiating with various departments to expedite the order. Buyers want to work with salespeople who are able to quickly solve any order fulfillment problems.28
There is no longer any such notion as the customer—there is only this customer, the one whom a seller is dealing with at the moment. Discovering the individual needs of this customer can be challenging.
Source: Javier Larrea/age fotostock/Alamy Stock Photo
Implementation
The first sale is only the beginning of the relationship with the buyer. Repeat sales occur when the supplier has demonstrated the ability to add value in various ways after the sale. Value creation can take the form of timely delivery, superior installation, accurate invoicing, follow-up contacts by the salesperson, or something else that is important to the customer.