Pushing A B2B Buyer Through A Funnel With Product And Service Explanations Doesn't Result In Sales!
By Perry Rearick, Chief Editor, Follow Your Buyer
Yes, you read that right. B2B solution providers, and me for many years, spoke about pushing prospects through a sales funnel with persuading messages about our products and services. But that doesn’t work. Sure, sales will come in, but this creates a false understanding of how buyers make purchasing decisions, and we end up with a false sense of confidence in our own persuasive skills.
According to research done by Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, only 5% of B2B buyers are in the market to buy. That means that 95% are somewhere in the earlier stages of the buyer’s journey. If you’re not effectively engaging this 95% of buyers in a meaningful way, the chances of them becoming your customers when they are ready to buy are very low.
Solution providers don’t move buyers into market with clever messaging about themselves and their products and services. Rather, buyers move themselves into market when they gain an understanding of a need they have. And they gain this understanding by following the 8 stages of the B2B buyer’s journey according to Nic Read and Stephen Bistritz in their book, “Selling to the C-Suite”.
- Understand Current Issues
- Establish Objectives
- Set Strategy
- Explore Options
- Set Vendor Criteria
- Examine Alternatives
- Plan Implementation
- Measure Results
Think about it this way. If your marketing material is mostly, or perhaps only, explanations of your products and services, you are only going to engage 5% of your prospects, at best. And if those 5% of buyers happen to know and trust you, you may have a chance to speak with them.
We often operate in a “we don’t know what we don’t know” state. Among the 95% of prospects that we’re not engaging with content that meets them where they are in the buyer’s journey, there are an unknown number gaining trust in our competitors. And when they are ready to buy, guess who they turn to?
If you’re still relying heavily on features and benefits marketing content, it’s time for a reset. Get some help on how to create a marketing strategy that engages prospects throughout their buyer’s journey and begin to grow market share beyond what you believe is possible.
I hope you have a great week!