Producers are familiar with the sales cycle: Developing a product or service, packaging it with competitive messaging, marketing it, distributing it, and selling it.
It is an interesting dichotomy in our consumer culture, however, that while we personally enjoying buying things, we usually dislike being sold things. For example, imagine your excitement at the idea of shopping for a new car. Then imagine your apprehension when you’re at the dealership and the salesman starts his pitch. When you’re buying, it’s a pleasure. When you’re being sold-to, it’s a hassle.
So how can producers get on the same side as their consumers? Or, more specifically, how can technology firms get on the same side as their customers to sell their technology products/services faster, to more people, and in bigger deals?
BY MANAGING THEIR CUSTOMERS’ BUYING CYCLES.
Unlike the sales cycle, which generates all the advertising and clamor of a market, the private buying cycle is the process a consumer goes through in:
- Identifying a desire (or need),
- Educating one’s self on the options to fulfill that desire,
- Selecting the best solution, and
- Acquiring that solution with a purchase (or loan, if necessary).
Enterprise sales occur at just the very end of a big-ticket buying cycle (e.g., acquiring enterprise software), and big tech firms can improve their sales success, customer service, customer loyalty, and even partner relationships by providing additional services further into their customers’ buying cycles. Even fintech, Internet, mobile app, and other software solutions smaller than an enterprise license can benefit from managing their customer experiences to this approach.
Managing customers’ buying cycles means not waiting until the sales stage to engage them, but helping them earlier in their buying process, for example:
- Instilling desire, or informing them of subsequent needs, via cross-selling, up-selling, and education
- Providing consolidated market research as an education forum for purchases
- Bringing providers such as VARs, support partners, vertical integrators, etc. into the support network to more tightly align the selection process with the purchase process (ensuring the sale and “stickiness”)
- Matching customers’ individual goals and qualifications to best fit not just the initial purchase, but a larger service offering
Such buying-cycle services prior to purchase helps draw more potential customers into the evalutation stages, plus establishes communications and trust such that technology firms can up-sell and cross-sell more effectively.
A New Service to Define Your Niche
Managing customers’ buying cycles opens an entirely new realm of service for technology firms, allowing you to further differentiate your offering. In addition, by introducing intelligent cross-sales into the buying cycle, firms have an opportunity to promote partners and extend their professional services as well.
Jones Communications supports the entire customer life cycle—delivering marketing strategy and deliverables to boost business development, accelerate sales, and elevate customer experiences.