Bonus workbook: B2B buyer journey template (click to download)
In this article, I’m going to show you why the root reason behind miserable results of B2B marketing is the fundamental mismatch between the way companies market and sell, and the way that modern B2B buyers buy.
I’ll then guide you through the steps to create a buyer-centric approach that we use to land qualified, in-the-market, five and six-figure opportunities with 20%+ of target accounts.
You’ll discover:
- Seven stages of a modern buyer journey (with a real, 47-step example)
- Step-by-step process to map your buyer journey (including 45 questions to ask in customer research)
- A guide to identifying the priority actions and content to influence buyers at each stage of the buying process
After reading this article, you will finally understand why so many B2B marketing programs fail, and how to start marketing the way your best customers actually buy.
How most B2B companies market, and why it doesn’t work
1. They promote gated content and webinars, then send leads to sales
Why it doesn’t work:
A download or a webinar registration is NOT a buying intent.
Six figure buyers don’t download an e-book, and get “nurtured” into an opportunity with a 5-email sequence—nor do they “hop on a 15-min call” just because a random rep sent them a generic cold email.
They start buying when the issues or opportunities become a strategic priority, ask their trusted network for recommendations, and buy from people they know, like and trust.
2. They drive cold, low-intent traffic, via ads or emails, to a landing page promoting a demo or a trial
Why it doesn’t work:
If you’re running ads on social media, or sending emails to your list (or a cold audience), you are effectively wasting 97% of your budget.
Why?
These are not intent channels, and only a small percent of your market is actively buying.
And even when you do target buyers in the market right now +only focus on capturing the existing demand), you will:
- Come too late into the buying journey, after your competitors have been positioning themselves and influencing the buying committee and their purchase criteria
- Be perceived as one of many, a commodity
- Have low win rate, and high cost of sales. In practice, most of the deals closed at this stage are smaller in size.
3. They promote content and company news on social media
Why it doesn’t work:
The vast majority of B2B brands use social to drop links to their website, promote events, and publish company news that delivers 0 value to buyers. The engagement and reach of these posts is extremely low, and impact even lower.
You need to reach buyers where they are, and share native, stand-out content they will share in places you cannot get to.