Leveraging the Buyers Journey in a Services Business

by Bill Poole | Apr 11, 2022 | Marketing, Resources

Much has been said about the Hubspot Buyer’s Journey Simply stated, the buyer’s journey is the process that a buyer goes through in making a decision to buy. Hubspot’s definition: The buyer’s journey describes a buyer’s path to purchase. In other words, buyers don’t wake up and decide to buy on a whim. They go through a process to become aware of, consider and evaluate, and decide to purchase a new product or service. 

There are 3 stages in the Hubspot Buyer’s Journey:

1. Awareness Stage: buyers become aware they have a problem.
2. Consideration Stage: The buyer defines the problem and considers options to fix it.
3. Decision Stage: buyer evaluates and decides on the right provider to administer the solution.

Here is an example of a buyer’s experience that I had:

• Awareness:  I value my sleep, but some nights I sleep better than others. What can I do to fix that?
• Consideration: What are some different things I can do to improve my sleep?  Eat earlier?  Ensure I exercise daily? Have a glass of wine in the evenings?  Have 2 glasses of wine?  Maybe I shouldn’t have wine at all?  Wow, what can I do to know what works and what doesn’t?  I think the first step is to find something that can give me some data to help me!  I don’t particularly like wearing a watch, but there are watches that can monitor my sleep with data.
• Decision: Given my phone has everything I need on it, and I don’t like wearing accessories, my decision is based on finding the simplest watch that has the app that best tracks my sleep.  I landed on a simple version of the Apple Watch.

What a great framework for a B to C marketing professional to align with in order to sell more to their target persona!

Leveraging the buyer’s journey for a B to B services decision is a bit more complicated.  Decisions in this environment are more complex,  involve more decision-makers, and are typically long-term engagements.

Then how can a B to B services organization leverage the buyer’s journey decision-making psychology? Ideal Client Experience is the perfect framework.

The rest of this blog will  take a look at how an Ideal Client Experience is an effective framework to manage decisions that:

• Involve multiple Stakeholders
• Are more complex
• Are typically long-term decisions with the opportunity to expand the services.

Before we do that, let’s remember one fundamental difference in B2B organizations and that  is that there is a significantly higher investment in sales than there is in a B2C organization.  In B2B, marketing is fundamental to the Awareness stage, but then the sales reps do the heavy lifting from there.  On the other hand, despite arguably retail, sales reps do not even exist in many B2C organizations.

Multiple Stakeholders

The fact that there are multiple stakeholders means that there are multiple people going through their own buyer’s journey. A properly crafted Ideal Client Experience includes strategies to engage and leverage the buyer’s journey for all stakeholders involved in a decision given the nature of the service.

For example, a decision for a CRM typically involves sales and marketing or at least it should be given there ought to be alignment and visibility between sales and marketing. That said, it would never be implemented without a “yes” from IT and finance.

Given this decision is typically initiated by sales or marketing, the primary message is typically crafted around their goals and challenges. However the Ideal Client Experience needs to include strategies to engage with all of the key stakeholders and help them navigate their buyer’s journey.

More Complex Decisions

In addition to including multiple stakeholders, B to B services decisions are much more complex, especially when the business has a strong value proposition. The challenges that are addressed are typically much more comprehensive and complicated.

Structuring the part of the Ideal Client Experience that aligns with the Consideration and Decision stages of the buyer’s journey ensures that:

• The impact of all challenges are explored in the needs assessment phase.
• The business outcomes are properly communicated in the proposal phase.

The Outcomes Inventory is a great framework for this. 3 high-level outcomes that a CRM would deliver should be:

• Revenue Growth
• Client Satisfaction
• Sales, marketing, and IT efficiency

The Assessment part of the Ideal Client Experience should be highly structured with an objective process to show how these 3 outcomes are being affected by the current situation. Then, the proposal should clearly state how the future vision/proposal will impact these outcomes.

Having a repeatable, objective process inside of the Ideal Client Experience helps make a complex decision simple by connecting the complexity to the business outcomes.

Expanding Services

B2C decisions typically have more limited opportunities to create future revenue streams. I also suppose items with consumables (water filters) are somewhat of an exception. I assume my Apple Watch decision might lead to additional Apple products, but the opportunity for future revenue in services organizations can be HUGE. This part of the Ideal Client Experience goes beyond the traditional buyer’s journey as we know it.

For a B2B services organization, the signing of the initial contract is just the beginning from 2 perspectives:

1. Onboarding – The need to create a very positive initial experience to manage change in the client organization and offset buyer’s remorse.
2. Client Success – The opportunity to increase value for the client by expanding/cross-selling services.

So, the Ideal Client Experience needs to be structured to ensure a smooth transition and position the business to expand services.

Onboarding

As Joey Coleman says, “Buyers decide in the first 100 days whether they will continue to do business with you or not.”  Treating the onboarding process distinctly different from the process to deliver ongoing services is critical to the success of a services engagement. A change management strategy is critical in turning client satisfaction in this stage into long-term client loyalty.

Client Success

With many organizations, when the contract is signed, the client is turned over to operations while the sales reps turn their focus to finding more clients. No matter how good an organization is from an operational perspective, the possibility for expansion of services is limited.

Both sales and operations are critical in this stage to expand services to drive revenue growth. Integrated into this stage must be a framework for:

• Staying connected with the client’s business, their goals, and their challenges.
• Reinforcing the value being delivered in the current engagement.
• Creating additional value for the client via expanding services.

In the end, Ideal Client Experience is a fantastic framework to leverage the buyer’s journey for differentiating, driving additional client value, and increasing revenue.

How To Create Lead Magnets That Drive Revenue Growth

by Bill Poole | Feb 24, 2022 | Marketing, Resources

Every growing business needs a stream of leads from ideal prospects. One way to create leads is with lead magnets.

A lead magnet is information of value to a prospect that captures their attention and motivates them to exchange contact information.

In Revenue Growth Engine I highlight the problem of the filter. In today’s world, buyers are subjected to thousands of messages each day. Advertisements, email, and social platforms all compete for attention. We have adapted (survived!) by filtering out everything except for one thing: ideas that are valuable to us.

The only thing that gets through the filter are ideas that are related to the outcomes we want to achieve. These can include ideas and answers related goals we have or problems we want solved.

A Lead Magnet Example: My Trek To Mount Everest Base Camp

For example, I am currently training to go on a trek to Mount Everest Base Camp. This has opened up a long list of questions for me:

– What kind of jacket do I need to buy?

– What do I need to do to train?

– How can I avoid mountain sickness?

All of these questions and more are on my radar. As I go about my day, I successfully filter out thousands of messages. But as you can guess, an email that comes in about “The 10 Best Jackets for Severe Mountain Environments” or a social post about “How To Train to Hike at Elevation” will catch my eye. Furthermore, I’m spending time on Google almost every day searching for answers to these questions.

Let’s consider my concerns about training to hike at 18,500 feet. You’ve probably heard of “The couch to 5K.” I needed to do a dad-bod-office-jockey to 18.5K mountain man in less than 120 days. The outcome that I want is to get to Mount Everest Base Camp without the Sherpas having to call a helicopter in because I can’t keep up. I want to avoid being injured. At a more emotional level, I want to avoid being embarrassed in the eyes of my family, friends, and colleagues who know I’m going on this trek.

When it comes to solutions to my problem there are plenty of companies offering personal training, diet plans, and supplements. A smart company understands my real need isn’t for these products. My radar is attuned to ideas that will help me achieve my outcome of successfully getting to my mountain destination without embarrassing or hurting myself!

A smart company creates a lead magnet that captures my attention by addressing the outcomes I want. While looking for answers to my dilemma, I found a guide titled something like this: “How New Hikers Can Train For a Mountain Trek At High Elevation—Without Getting Hurt or Embarrassing Themselves.”

I saw this on the web during one of my searches. In exchange for my email address, they sent the lead magnet to me. Of course, the company that offered the advice also sells personal training plans, diet plans, and supplements. Since downloading the report they have made these offers to me by email. I also recognize their offers through retargeting ads that I see in Google ads, social ads, and YouTube ads. It’s not surprising that I reached out for a consultation with their trainer.

Characteristics of an Effective Lead Magnet

How can this apply to your business? Here are a few key characteristics of an effective lead magnet.

1. Must be related to the outcomes your prospects want

The lead magnet needs to be focused on the specific goals your prospect have and/or the problems they encounter hitting these goals. Information about anything else simply will not get through their filter.

How do you find out what’s important to your prospects? Pay attention. Listen to your best clients. Watch the trends of the economy and the industry you serve. Change is the one constant in our world. Any time there is change, there are problems. Focus your lead magnets on these types of topics.

Pay specific attention to the title or headline of your lead magnet. Be focused and specific. This is what will capture the prospect’s attention.

2. Must be useful enough for the prospect to give you contact information

The information needs to be useful enough for the prospect to give you contact information. You don’t have to give away a book. (Although, this is exactly what we do. You can get a free copy of Revenue Growth Engine by clicking here.) You do need to give away something substantial enough for someone to give you their contact information. This could be a special report, an ebook, a webinar recording, or an online course.

Remember, your offer may be free but in the eyes of the prospect it is not completely free. You are asking the prospect to give their contact information and a piece of their privacy in exchange for the information. This contact information has value to both you and the prospect. It’s important to remember this when you are creating your offer.

Fortunately, these days prospects know they can unsubscribe from email lists. While this has confounded many marketers, I think it actually helps boost conversion rates when someone knows that they can opt out if they get hammered by emails after filling out a form.

What Lead Magnets Could You Create?

Lead magnets can be used in all of your top-of-funnel activities. They can become calls-to-action on your website and blog. They can be served up in paid advertising to targeted audiences on Google and social platforms. They can be shared by salespeople.

To get started, think of the top 5 goals and/or challenges your clients face. (If you don’t know, ask!) Then begin brainstorming titles for content that answers those questions. This creates a menu of ideas from which you can build special reports, guides, webinars, live streams, checklists, and all types of lead magnets that will break through your prospects’ filters and generate leads.

Part of what we do at Convergo is help companies create a Focused Message Plan. This is a strategic approach to understanding the desired outcomes of each decision maker and influencer in your Ideal Prospects. This helps ensure that your company has helpful and relevant information to not only create leads but guide buyers through the entire journey of becoming a 100% sold client.

To learn more about how Convergo could help you create a Focused Message Plan and effective Lead Magnets schedule your complimentary explore meeting.