Buying Process and the Internet

I remember holding a quota for internet access in the b2b space in the mid 90’s. No one would buy it. “Don’t want to destroy employee productivity” is all I heard. Wow. That was not very long ago.

We are now experiencing the advent of social media over the internet. Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn, amongst many other sites, proliferate the sharing of information amongst the masses. The “word is out” and you and your company better be paying attention!

So when we examine this change in technology and social behavior, how does this affect your sales process? Let’s remember the prospect’s buying process:

1. Unaware of any need and blissful.
2. Starts to realize a problem or challenge.
3. Determines a need and begins to evaluate solutions.
4. Performs research on potential solutions. Interviews potential providers.
5. Makes a selection.
6. Finalizes contracts.

At Step 1, you can use social media to create a need. Social media can be used to bring prospects “out of their office” to engage with you over webinars, test drives, pilots, lunch and learns, etc. Post your event at your favorite social media site, and watch them show up. In a recent assignment, after deploying social media concepts, 30% of our attendees to an existing webinar schedule were new prospects for my company. Social media, in this view, is the best way to move a prospect from Step 1 to Step 2.

CHALLENGE: Do you or your company have a “Social Media Guidelines Policy”? If not, you should. Your brand and reputation are at stake. Your image no longer goes out to the public through your marketing department and your cold calls. Anyone can write anything on the internet. Be careful! Also, do you know the social media sites where your prospects gather? You should. Go find them there and get to know them. DON’T make sales pitches!

At Steps 2-4, your prospect’s knowledge is fed by the internet. They are smart when you engage with them at this stage. How smart are you? Do you know your competitors cold? What is the name of the competitor’s sales representative on your account? Do you know and understand the business challenges before your prospect and his/her’s company? Are you following your competitor on Twitter? Use the internet and social media to your own advantage. Be smarter than your prospect and your competitor!!

HUMOR: I’ve used SurveyMonkey, a wonderful tool, to survey clients and prospects. It’s a great way to use the internet to understand the prospect’s buying behavior. And it generates leads. In one campaign we wanted to better understand the motivation behind buying for themselves or for their organization. We wanted to find our way to the decision-maker for bringing our services onsite, rather than serve the individual. So we asked the question, “Would you prefer individual or group training?” Several responses came back similar to, “I prefer group training because I don’t want to learn by myself.” Ugh! Of course! Be careful in how you word your survey questions!