In the last action guide, we discussed applying your Market knowledge to create Buyer Personas. Now, let's focus on mapping a Buyer Journey for those personas.
Why Map the Buyer Journey?
Up to two-thirds of the buyer journey occurs before we even know a potential customer is considering our product. Buyers often identify problems, define solutions, and evaluate options independently, relying on referrals, reviews, thought leadership, websites, and peers. How can we engage with buyers when much of their decision-making happens before they contact our sales team?
A clear view of your buyers' journey allows you to participate in it. Mapping the buyer journey allows marketing and sales teams to enhance, encourage, and accelerate their purchase.
What To Do Now:
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Learn How Buyers Make Decisions: Interview both lost and won buyers. Ask questions like, "Why did you decide to look for a solution now?" and "What process did you follow to research potential solutions?" Collaborate with your sales team to conduct regular Win/Loss interviews to gather and update this information.
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Document the Journey: Use the Buying Process Worksheet to capture your findings. Your goal is to document how personas engage, evaluate, and set criteria at each stage of the buying process. Follow this example as a guide.
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Align Marketing and Sales Tools: Define how your marketing and sales tools can support each stage of the buyer's journey. Specify objectives, activities, tools, and collateral using the Marketing Assets Worksheet, tailored to your organization.
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Consolidate and Present the Journey Map: Choose a format—visual slides, infographics, or full documents—based on your audience. Clearly convey how personas move through your buying process and at what stages, so your team understands the importance of tailored engagement.
Mapping the buyer journey will empower your team to engage with customers earlier and more effectively, ultimately leading to increased customer acquisition and revenue growth. Let's take this crucial step to boost your market success.