The Buying Cycle

Is your sales strategy aligned with how your customers make purchasing decisions? Are you confident that you’re executing the selling activities that create value for your customers at each stage of their buying process?

It’s all too easy to let your selling strategy get weighed down by procedures and techniques. We’ve seen many account strategies collapse because they became so complex that they forgot the basic fact that decisions are made by people. All people—whether influencers, decision-makers, purchasing agents or evaluation committees—progress through discrete phases when they make decisions. By understanding these stages and how to influence them, you’ll find it easier to form practical account strategies that move sales forward.

Effective selling begins with an understanding of how people buy.  All of Huthwaite’s sales improvement initiatives have at their core the buyer’s perspective—embodied in the Buying Cycle™.

Below is a look at the stages of the Buying Cycle and brief descriptions of the role of the sales professional at each stage.

Changes over Time: At this point, prospects have not yet recognised a need for change. Sellers (and their marketing departments) can help jump start the buying process by delivering provocative and compelling prospecting messages that help buyers appreciate potential challenges and opportunities.

Recognition of Needs: During this stage, potential buyers become dissatisfied with their existing situation and begin to realise a need to solve a problem or exploit an opportunity. The role of the seller is to uncover the source of dissatisfaction and increase the buyers’ perception of its intensity and urgency.

Evaluation of Options: Once they’ve agreed on the need for change, buyers then start considering alternatives for resolving their dissatisfaction. Here, the sales professional’s job is to help buyers understand how the selling organisation can best address their needs. The excellent seller will influence the criteria the customer organisation uses to evaluate competing vendors in his or her favour.

Resolution of Concerns: Next, buyers tentatively select a vendor, but before signing the contract they will assess any associated risks and consequences. Sellers need to uncover these concerns or fears and help resolve them.

Decision: At this point, the deal is agreed upon and the contract is signed.

Implementation: After the sale is made, the customer organisation begins to introduce, test and install the seller’s solution. Buyers expect to receive the value promised by the seller and to realise a return on their investment. The seller’s responsibility is to help the customer adopt the solution and overcome any implementation challenges.

Changes over Time: The cycle does not end just because the customer organisation is implementing a solution. Inevitably, there will be changes in the account—contacts may turn over, company strategy may change, reorganisations or mergers may occur. Each of these changes offers opportunities for the seller to strengthen the relationship by helping buyers anticipate and address additional problems and opportunities.