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Understanding b2b buyer behavior and journey mapping are critical to providing customers with an exceptional customer experience, especially as younger, digital-savvy buyers become the norm.
Customers search solutions, compare prices, read reviews, and initiate free product trials without being approached by sales reps in order to create an excellent customer experience from start to finish.
Awareness
At the awareness stage, B2B buyers often begin exploring possible solutions for their business needs through multiple channels like LinkedIn ads, webinars and in-person events. Establishing accurate buyer personas helps businesses better empathize with buyers while crafting effective messaging and solutions at each step of their customer journey.
Companies can improve customer experiences by identifying pain points and moments of delight along the buyer journey. For instance, marketing agencies could observe how their new software improves reporting processes allowing them to provide improved solutions in future; such an insight can drive stronger conversions and retention rates.
Consideration
B2B buyers are charged with the responsibility of authorizing large purchases and signing long-term contracts that can span years. Making the wrong choice could cost their company millions and could lead to job loss (even their own!). Therefore, they need to feel confident when making decisions that could have dire repercussions for all involved – they need a firm grasp on making informed choices.
Relationships play an integral part in B2B purchase decisions, according to one study that revealed just one buyer relationship can impact an entire buying process in organizations with multiple stakeholders.
Optimizing the total experience can help a business move customers along their buyer’s journey and convert them into loyal customers. An effective service and onboarding strategy can set buyers up for success with any new product or solution, while account management and customer feedback loops foster future engagement while providing valuable information about addressing any pain points or bottlenecks hindering customer satisfaction.
Purchase
Business-to-business purchases are more complex than consumer purchases, involving complex decisions and relationships among numerous contributors that need to be carefully managed in order for an enterprise to thrive in this arena. Therefore, companies looking to excel must adapt to different patterns and preferences that may exist between organizations in this industry.
These buyers demand greater transparency and authenticity from their suppliers, prioritizing ethical business practices and social responsibility commitment. Younger generations of buyers – specifically Millennials and Gen Zers – bring unique perspectives and preferences to B2B purchasing arena.
Buyers desire relevant, personalized content to keep them informed at every stage of their journey. A well-managed personalization strategy can drive sales while building lasting customer loyalty.
Onboarding
Even during turbulent times, a well-drawn buyer journey map can help align marketing, sales, customer service and product development in an organized fashion. Furthermore, it provides a framework for continuous evaluation and improvement.
Recent survey data indicates that B2B buyers prioritize product information and pricing as the key factors influencing their purchasing decisions, as well as viewing recommendations on ecommerce product pages as important.
B2B buying processes tend to take much longer than those for consumer purchases, typically taking weeks or months of research and comparison before reaching a decision. According to 6sense, vendors that engage buyers early on claim victory 84% of the time; it’s crucial that marketers track and analyze data in order to better understand how buyers discover your content, what steps they take when, etc.
Advocacy
Once a buyer has made their purchase, they will likely require customer support and retention services. Offering such services will keep buyers engaged with your business while also drawing in new ones.
Understanding the different stages of the B2B Buyer Journey can help optimize both business and client experiences, including understanding needs, goals and expectations for each persona identified in your journey map.
B2B customers typically begin their journey by searching search engines for solutions to specific problems. By creating relevant content that draws these buyers in and draws them closer, creating effective top-of-funnel content which increases conversion rate and overall customer experience while offering self-service options, this can also prevent gated content and sales interactions which might prevent buyers from moving forward with purchases.
