5 Reasons Why the Buyer’s Journey is Still Important

Why should you use develop and use a Buyer’s Journey?  Isn’t current thinking that it is non- linear and rather chaotic?  Doesn’t that make the stage-based buyer’s journey irrelevant?

In this article I am going to provide five compelling reasons for constructing and using a buyer’s journey.   The buyer’s journey is non-linear and complex – bordering on chaotic. However, we can take account of that in the structure we use to describe it. To learn how to work the buyer’s journey, read our article on the evolution of the buyer’s journey. This outlines how it has evolved and recommends an approach.

The Nature of B2B Purchasing

One of the largest movements in B2B Marketing over the last few years has been the shift of focus to the buying team.    There several are good reasons for this!

  • B2B purchasing is a dynamic, collective effort conducted by a cross-functional team, often with divergent roles and needs.
  • It is complex and non-linear. Buying is not a simple, orderly progression though well-defined stages. It is often cyclical and irregular.
  • Tech purchasing is often disruptive, as the innovation it delivers alters the way that industries or businesses operate.

It’s worth noting that many B2B systems don’t account for all or perhaps any of the above. Much of traditional B2B Martech operates on the premise of a linear progression with a single contact, often through stages that do not align with the buying process!

Recently there has been a trend to see these factors as reasons to ignore the buyer’s journey completely. The logic of this argument is the model is too linear to reflect the many possible paths.  We disagree and have found a structure that works well in capturing the sometimes chaotic nature of purchasing.  However, this is only the first of several reasons why we think adopting a buyer’s journey makes sense.

Here are the five reasons why we think using the buyer’s journey is important.

1.      Understanding and tracking account progress

The factors above have given rise to the adoption of ABM as a practice. This was accompanied by a new ABM-friendly Marketing funnel – the Demand Unit Waterfall.  This focused on engaging as much of the buying team as possible, rather than a key individual. That shift of focus requires us to get comfortable with anonymity in the buying process and reduce reliance on buyer declaration.  We need to interpret multiple buying signals from across the buying team to gain a better understanding of the buying context. Being able to visualize the progress you are making against an account is vital, and whilst you can do that solely from the Sales stages in the CRM, doesn’t it make sense to track on the terms of the buyer also?

2.      The Post Lead Era and the MQA

Together these constitute a change so profound that Forrester analysts have described the current phase of B2B Marketing ‘The post lead era’.  Whether you agree or not with that label, targeting buying teams and qualifying accounts (Marketing Qualified Accounts) rather than contacts is becoming common practice. 

As part of this shift, many Marketing organisations  include 3rd party intent data. The interpretation of this data includes the scoring of accounts rather than individuals in the lead management process.  Helpfully, the buyer’s journey provides significant context for both lead scoring and interpreting intent data.

3.      Eliminating Friction

Another requirement that is readily apparent to many B2B tech Marketers is need to eliminate friction across the buyer’s journey, a fundamental part of SaaS business thinking.    The SaaS principle of ‘low friction in, high friction out’ that is vital to build subscriptions and maximize renewals is undoubtedly gaining wider influence, with the practice of identifying and eliminating friction points across the buyer and customer journeys becoming more common.

4.      Higher Expectations

Higher buyer expectations are driven by buyer’s experiences as consumers and more millennial buyers in the buying process.  Online B2C purchases have raised the bar substantially by creating intuitive, streamlined and personalized buying experience across the touchpoints of choice. 

5.      The Increasing Complexity of B2B Buying

Less obvious to Marketers, but painfully apparent for buying teams, is the continued increase in the complexity and difficulty of purchasing.   Gartner document this in some detail in the Big Book of Buyer Behavior, published in 2020.  The report contained research showing:

  • The average complex technology purchase involves between 14 and 23 people
  • 74% of buyers rated buying efforts as “complex”
  • 50% of buying team time was spent with independent third parties
  • Only 27% of buyers surveyed achieved a high-quality deal

The term high quality deal needs expanding upon and the report defines it as one that meets three conditions.   Value achieved was as expected; the purchase is considered to be a premium solution and the ambitions for the project were not compromised.

The same report concluded that the buyer’s journey is “less of a journey than a set of buying jobs that need to be completed” and that vendors need to “appeal to the buying team, not the individuals on it”. 

If these reasons make sense, or you are already committed to using a buyer’s journey the next article explores how to create the optimal structure.