Terms

Buying Process

What is the Buying Process?

The buying process refers to the series of steps a consumer goes through when deciding to purchase a product or service, including recognizing a need or problem, searching for information, evaluating alternatives, making a purchase decision, and reflecting on the purchase post-purchase. Understanding this process is essential for sales and marketing professionals, as it allows them to effectively guide potential customers towards making a purchase by tailoring their strategies to meet customer needs at each stage.

Key Stages in the Buying Process

The consumer buying process involves five essential steps:

  1. Problem Recognition: Identifying a need or problem that triggers the decision to purchase.
  2. Information Search: Gathering information from various sources to make an informed decision.
  3. Evaluation of Alternatives: Comparing different products or services to find the best fit.
  4. Purchase Decision: Deciding on a product and proceeding with the transaction.
  5. Post-Purchase Evaluation: Reflecting on the purchase decision and the product’s performance.

Understanding Consumer Decision-Making

Consumer decision-making is influenced by internal and external factors including emotional responses and cognitive biases like confirmation bias and post-purchase rationalization. Effective marketing strategies address these influences by:

  • Creating Awareness: Using brand campaigns to trigger problem recognition.
  • Providing Information: Offering detailed, trustworthy content to aid in the information search and evaluation stages.
  • Facilitating Decisions: Utilizing sales personnel and persuasive marketing to guide the purchase decision.
  • Enhancing Satisfaction: Ensuring quality follow-up services to confirm the consumer’s choice in the post-purchase phase.

Optimizing Your Sales for the Buying Process

Here are some practical tips to enhance your sales approach:

  • Develop comprehensive brand campaigns to build awareness and trust, focusing on external stimuli during the problem recognition stage.
  • Create content funnels to provide potential customers with the information they seek during the information search and alternatives evaluation stages. Be a trustworthy source of information and present consumer-generated content like reviews.
  • Prepare to overcome objections by knowing your competitors and highlighting the superior benefits of your product during the purchase decision stage.
  • Engage with customers after the purchase through follow-up emails, discount coupons, and newsletters to ensure satisfaction and encourage repeat business during the post-purchase evaluation stage.

Aligning Marketing Strategies with the Buying Journey

Aligning marketing strategies with the buying journey involves tailoring your approach to each stage of the consumer decision-making process. Start by identifying and influencing consumer needs and wants, making your brand known through various marketing channels. During the information search stage, provide accessible and trustworthy content, including consumer-generated reviews and testimonials. As consumers evaluate alternatives, highlight your product's unique benefits and utilize professional sales staff and distribution channels to communicate these advantages.

When it comes to the purchase decision, offer quality warranties and customer service to facilitate the process. Finally, engage with customers post-purchase to ensure satisfaction and address any concerns, fostering loyalty and repeat business.

Other terms

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Sales and Marketing Alignment

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Sales and Marketing Alignment

Customer Data Management (CDM)

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Customer Data Management (CDM)

Dynamic Territories

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Dynamic Territories

Marketing Attribution Model

Learn about marketing attribution model, including types of marketing attribution models, & key benefits of attribution modeling.

Marketing Attribution Model

Analytical CRM

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Analytical CRM

Outside Sales

Learn about outside sales, including strategies for successful outside sales, benefits of employing outside sales, & comparing inside and outside sales.

Outside Sales

Technographics

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Technographics

Objection Handling in Sales

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Objection Handling in Sales

Lead Velocity Rate

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Lead Velocity Rate

B2B Intent Data Providers

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B2B Intent Data Providers

Pipeline Coverage

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Pipeline Coverage

Click-Through Rate

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Click-Through Rate

Email Deliverability Rate

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Email Deliverability Rate

Escalations

Learn about escalations, including understanding escalation triggers, key strategies for managing escalations, & escalations vs. standard operations.

Escalations

Workflow Automation

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Workflow Automation

Application Programming Interface

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Application Programming Interface

Call Disposition

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Call Disposition

Marketing Play

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Marketing Play

Average Order Value

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Average Order Value

Sales Qualified Lead

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Sales Qualified Lead

Sales Compensation

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Sales Compensation

Sales Enablement Content

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Sales Enablement Content

Customer Buying Signals

Learn about customer buying signals, including identifying common buying signals, interpreting non-verbal cues, & effective response strategies.

Customer Buying Signals

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

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Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

Event Tracking

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Event Tracking

Trusted Advisor

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Trusted Advisor

Net New Business

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Net New Business

Sales Dashboard

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Sales Dashboard

Subject Matter Expert

Learn about subject matter expert, including roles and responsibilities of a subject matter expert, & importance of a subject matter expert in business.

Subject Matter Expert

Brand Equity

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Brand Equity

Multi-Channel Marketing

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Multi-Channel Marketing

Average Customer Life

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Average Customer Life

Guided Selling

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Guided Selling

Sales Pipeline Velocity Formula

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Sales Pipeline Velocity Formula

Demand Generation

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Demand Generation

Salesforce Administrator

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Salesforce Administrator

Closed Question

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Closed Question

HubSpot

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HubSpot

Conversion Path

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Conversion Path

Unique Selling Point

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Unique Selling Point

Trademarks

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Trademarks

Email Verification

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Email Verification

Lead Generation Funnel

Learn about lead generation funnel, including key components of a lead generation funnel, & strategies for optimizing your funnel.

Lead Generation Funnel

Proof of Concept

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Proof of Concept

Video Messaging

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Video Messaging

Pay-per-Click (PPC)

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Pay-per-Click (PPC)

X-Sell

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X-Sell

B2B Buyer Intent Data

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B2B Buyer Intent Data

Inside Sales Metrics

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Inside Sales Metrics

Sender Policy Framework

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Sender Policy Framework

No Cold Calls

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No Cold Calls

DevOps

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DevOps

Call for Proposal

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Call for Proposal

Product Qualified Lead

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Product Qualified Lead

Win/Loss Analysis

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Win/Loss Analysis

Sales Key Performance Indicators

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Sales Key Performance Indicators

Business Intelligence

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Business Intelligence

Day Sales Outstanding

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Day Sales Outstanding

Customer Data Platform (CDP)

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Customer Data Platform (CDP)

Key Performance Indicators

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Key Performance Indicators

Channel Partner

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Channel Partner

Logo Retention

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Logo Retention

Search Engine Results Page

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Search Engine Results Page

Data Enrichment

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Data Enrichment

Complex Sale

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Complex Sale

Account-Based Analytics

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Account-Based Analytics

Data Visualization

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Data Visualization

Order Management

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Order Management

Digital Contracts

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Digital Contracts

Value-Added Reseller

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Value-Added Reseller

Business to customer

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Business to customer

Cost Per Click (CPC)

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Cost Per Click (CPC)

Marketo

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Marketo

Lead Scoring Models

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Lead Scoring Models

Forward Revenue

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Forward Revenue

Network Monitoring

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Network Monitoring

AI-Powered Marketing

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AI-Powered Marketing

Inbound Lead Generation

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Inbound Lead Generation

Business-to-Business (B2B)

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Business-to-Business (B2B)

B2B Marketing Attribution

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B2B Marketing Attribution

Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

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Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Customer Experience

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Customer Experience

Call Analytics

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Call Analytics

API

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API

Revenue Intelligence

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Revenue Intelligence

Sales Presentation

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Sales Presentation

Customer Retention Cost

Learn about customer retention cost, including strategies to reduce retention costs, & critical metrics for measuring retention success.

Customer Retention Cost

Content Syndication

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Content Syndication

Rollback Procedures

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Rollback Procedures

Operational CRM

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Operational CRM

Customer Retention Rate

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Customer Retention Rate

Email Marketing

Learn about email marketing, including how to start with email marketing, benefits of effective email marketing, & best practices for email campaigns.

Email Marketing

Bottom of the Funnel

Learn about bottom of the funnel, including maximizing conversions at the funnel's end, & strategies for nurturing bottom-funnel leads.

Bottom of the Funnel

Competitive Intelligence (CI)

Learn about CI, including its key benefits, how to gather and analyze CI data, and tools and tech for it.

Competitive Intelligence (CI)

Sales Champion

Learn about sales champion, including identifying your sales champion, qualities of an effective sales champion, sales champion vs. sales representative.

Sales Champion

Segmentation Analysis

Learn about segmentation analysis, including understanding the benefits, steps to conduct segmentation analysis, & types of segmentation methods.

Segmentation Analysis

Data Mining

Learn about data mining, including introduction to data mining concepts, benefits of effective data mining, & data mining techniques and approaches.

Data Mining

Lead Qualification

Learn about lead qualification, including the importance of lead qualification, key elements of lead qualification, differences between lead qualification and assessment.

Lead Qualification

Enterprise Resource Planning

Learn about enterprise resource planning, including benefits of implementing ERP, key components of ERP systems, & ERP versus traditional software.

Enterprise Resource Planning

Ramp Up Time

Learn about ramp up time, including reducing ramp up time, factors impacting ramp up duration, & strategies for effective ramp up.

Ramp Up Time