The Buyers’ Journey Is a Lie

The concept of a buyer’s journey is dead and, frankly, was misunderstood and taught incorrectly for decades.

It’s about the Buyer’s Experience through your journey. 

How was dinner at ____?

How was your vacation to ____?

What was it like flying during the summer of 2022? 

Nobody is asking you about your journey. They are asking about the experience. 

In short, follow the money.

1. A reminder, what we build is a hypothesis and we should expect it to change/be different over time and growth, and economic climate.
2. Build the flow based on a PO going from Stage 1 to Stage 2, etc. Not the people.
3. If your feedback is telling you its different, would it make sense to rebuild based on that feedback? (Even if it means we don’t like what we see/hearing?)
4. Build the exit criteria based on the personas. 
   1. IT Approval (Which means: confirmed IT Pains, and they agree we solve them).
   2. IT Approval (Which means confirmed Security Team Pains and they agree with solving them).
   3. Security Team Approval, etc… 
   4. End User Approval
   5. And so on…
5. This means having strong Exit Criteria from one stage to the next. The exit criteria are things like:
   1. First meeting conducted
   2. Demo Conducted (Not a Stage Name)
   3. Meeting with ____ department conducted
   4. Approval from ____ department head
   5. Timeline confirmed
   6. Proposal Sent (Not a Stage Name)
   7. Contract out for redlines
   8. Discussed and understood how the decision is made
   9. Discussed and understand the approval process once the decision is made
   10. Discussed and understood the contracting process
   11. Confirmed we will have signed contract by <date>.
6. Now, the challenge is making sure you don’t create field creep in the CRM. 
   1. We recommend these be drop-down or simply check boxes

As you can see, this type of information helps your sales reps follow a process as well as ensure a great experience for your prospects and customers. 

Final Tip: One exit criterion is often overlooked in each stage. The next meeting will be on <date> or I will contact them on <date>.

We hope you have enjoyed your experience.