I came across an interesting blog post in Forbes today about the importance of using social media to help not only get involved in, but manage, your customers’ journey.
Customers begin their buying process way before they contact vendors that they are interested in. Think about the amount of research you personally have done before deciding which vendor to contact about any product or service you purchased recently. Personally, I’ve sent inquiries out to email lists for groups I belong to as well as put out inquiries on Facebook to get recommendations from like-minded people in my community who can recommend solutions to my problems.
Customers are also using web search to become more educated before deciding who to contact. Web search provides access not only to vendor websites and product/service information, but also community board, blog posts, and rating sites.
Being armed with all of the above information can help short circuit the qualification process as a buyer and your buyers know that.
By understanding what your customers are looking for at each step of their research process, and providing it, you can ensure that you are included in their short list of providers they will contact.
And the best way to get a deep understanding of how your customers are navigating their buying process is to talk to both customers you have won as well as those you lost. By conducting ongoing win-loss analysis, you can ensure that you understand the various points in their research and purchase process, what information that were looking for and what criteria they used to qualify vendors. All of this information is vitally important to making sure that your marketing efforts are hitting the target.
What do you know about the information your customers is looking for, and where? You may be surprised…