The Buyer’s Journey has changed. Have you changed with them?

Every veteran salesperson knows the phrase, “A-B-C: Always Be Closing”. That quote comes from Glengarry Glen Ross, a 90’s movie about the survival of the fittest in the sales jungle. The ABC sales tactic worked somewhat well at the time but has since been left behind along with the fashion phase of bicycle shorts.

From the dawn of the internet, consumer behaviour has changed at a phenomenal rate. Information is readily available at the buyer’s fingertips, with no time to be wasted waiting for a call back from a sales representative. Buyers are informed, educated and empowered in this new world of purchasing. The ABC tactic alone doesn’t cut it anymore. This begs the question: has your internal process changed? Before you answer that, let’s start with a few other questions to help you better understand what change looks like.

Let’s start with this: have you researched your potential home buyers as much as they are researching you? Have you taken the time to educate them not only on your product but about the overall industry? Is one of your business goals to become a thought leader that buyers want to go to for expert advice. If you have said “no” to any of these questions, you may want to read further.

If you take a look at the image below, you will see how the Buyer’s Journey has evolved over time. As a refresher, the Buyer’s Journey is the decision-making process buyers go through as they evaluate and consider a new service or product. Marketing played a much smaller role in Buyer’s Journey in the past. Now, as the consideration phase of the Buyer’s Journey has extended with modern buyers, marketing now covers well over 70 percent of this process.

Marketing is more than just pushing out a few ads and seeing what sticks. It is an opportunity to engage, communicate and learn with your potential consumer. The more you are involved in their space, the better you will become in understanding where your buyers are and what they want from you. This is the golden opportunity many brands are missing out on. Buyers are not going directly to you to obtain the information they want. Instead, they find the information themselves. If you are not in their space to answer their questions, someone else will be.

I would assume by now you want to know how do you find and engage with the modern buyer and become partners instead of outsiders looking in. Here a few tips:

• Know who your potential buyer is. Get to really know who they are, what they want, and how they consume information.
• If you don’t share content, start doing so now. Not only from your internal team but partner with the right vendors who have connections with your ideal buyer. Try to avoid sharing content that is only directly about yourself. That will put you ten steps backward with your consumer.
• Invest in becoming an industry leader through information sharing and communicating innovative ideas to help your potential buyer.
• Take your time to build a deep, trusting relationship. Show your buyer that you care about helping them make the right choice that fits their needs. Be a guide, not a sales pitch.
• Have the patience to know that if you actually take the time to do it right, the buyers that fit your brand will, by choice, come to you to buy.

These tips can get you started on your journey to success. This relay between marketing and sales is changing, but the end goal is still the same. If you embrace change and try new ways to connect to these modern buyers, you will achieve success.

If you would like to speak with someone more about this please contact Marcia at marcia@socialmd.ca .