Stop Losing to the Competition and Start Building Customized Sales Journeys

Many sellers have a backward approach when building their buyer journeys. They are not customizing their sales journeys to fit the customer. Instead, these sellers try to squeeze all buyers into a journey that matches what they want their internal processes to look like. 

Sales journeys that are not structured with modern buyer behaviors in mind will result in more lost deals over time. Many of your buyers will instead opt for your competition. Not because they offer a superior product but because they prioritize experience and make the buying process easier. 

Stop losing to your competition and evolve your processes to match what buyers are looking for. Build and implement customized sales journeys that fit modern buying behavior and create buyer-centric experiences.

Businesses have used traditional frameworks like MEDDIC and BANT to develop their sales processes for decades. The problem, however, is that these sales methodologies of the past are often too linear for today’s buyer. B2B sales does not follow a linear framework but it is more predictable than you think. 

Think of your own behaviors as an everyday consumer. How frustrating would it be if every checkout experience was a hassle? You would be more inclined to buy from a different business that can offer an easier and faster buying experience. Modern B2B buyers are the same. To keep up, sellers have to innovate and start building customized sales journeys that can adapt to their buyers.

Now, imagine two ideal customers. One has educated themselves on your product and pricing, while the other was referred to you by a colleague. While the end goal is the same for both buyers, how you guide them to a closed deal should look different. How you customize your sales journey to meet the buyer where they’re at will determine their experience. If you can’t provide them with a good experience and your competition can, you will lose every time. 

We’re hearing more and more that the current buying and purchasing processes are not ideal. 77% of B2B buyers say that their last purchase was difficult or too complex.  It’s time to start looking through those processes and figure out how to create buyer-centric experiences, not seller-centric experiences. 

Customizing sales experiences to a specific buyer is not a case of infinite variables. Thankfully, we don’t need to over-customize everything. Two key pillars narrow in on the true scope of making this idea of customized sales journeys actionable. In this article, we will outline the two sides of how to execute this as a sales rep or a leader.

• How to build a customer journey for an ideal experience
• How to implement strategies at each step to fast-track or move back

How to Build and Implement Customized Sales Journeys

Mapping out the ideal journey

Building a customized sales journey begins with mapping out your ideal customer journey as if you were buying from yourself. Through this customer journey mapping, you can better understand what qualities of your customers best determine their buying behavior. In terms of variables, customized sales journeys have two main ones that you need to think about: education and teams.

What is your customer’s education level? 

Your buyer’s education level will be key in determining where they start their customized sales journey. Someone who comes in cold will be looking to you to provide them with basic information at the first step. If someone reaches you and is already educated on your offerings, they may look to you for something different. They could want you to affirm what they’ve already learned or may have higher-level questions. They could even be ready to progress to pricing. Understanding what to do with vetted vs. cold buyers is the first step in customizing your sales journey. 

Most B2B buyers conduct their own research, with 77% saying it’s the first step they take. Getting a gauge on how far along they are in that research will be important in customizing the sales journey. You’ll need to establish how you can learn that information while assisting with information gathering asynchronously. This could be an email before every first call asking where that buyer is at on the education spectrum. That first touchpoint automatically sets the tone for customizing that journey for a good buyer experience. 

But don’t think of it as a completely different process for every education level. Your buyers end up in the same sales process toward a deal; they’ll just start at different stages depending on education. 

Related Content: Building Sales Processes for Cold, Educated, & Vetted Prospects

Which team are you speaking to?

Next, you’ll need to understand what team you’re speaking to. This helps with crafting conversations that reflect the correct values. Traditional sales methodologies involve identifying champions and decision-makers. The idea of a single economic buyer is outdated.

In today’s B2B buying environment, you’ll be part of a more complex decision-making process. In this process, you’ll have two teams: the end-user team and the impact team. The end user team cares about functionality and day-to-day use. The impact team will focus more on the ROI and the impact on the business. 

When creating customized sales journeys, it’s important to use this understanding of team priorities to enhance the buyer experience. When meeting with the end-user team, you may want to consider inviting someone from the team to do a proper demo. On the other hand, when you meet with the impact team, you’ll want to be more prepared with case studies and relevant information on what the impact will be on the business.

Related Content: Engineering Your Sales Process for Speed Using NTENT

Customize to fast-track or move back

Companies don’t linearly move through your sales process. Your teams can often be at different levels in the journey. This is why pipeline reviews can often offer only a shortsighted view. They determine where the company is based on where the furthest person ahead is in the deal. Even if one team is ready, the company could still be at step 2 if the other isn’t on board yet. 

If a customer says that they use your competition, they know your pricing, and they are interested in making a switch, what does their sales journey look like? Would they move as fast as a team that knows what they need but not if you’re the right fit? Customized sales journeys have to have strategies at each level to move buyers through at the appropriate speed for them. This way you can effectively work with buyer teams throughout the process all the way to renewal.

The level your buyer is at will help you determine how fast they progress through their specific journey. Customized sales journeys will need to account for this and be able to adjust. This means being able to fast-track those who are more educated. You’ll also need to be able to move people back a step if they’re not ready to move forward. Adjusting those speeds will help put buyer experience at the forefront and keep them moving toward a closed deal.

Related Content: Best Sales Technology for Insights Into Your Buyer’s Journey

Break Away From Linear Processes With Customized Sales Journeys 

Staying at the forefront of an ever-evolving sales environment means adopting strategies built for modern buying behaviors. That’s why the future of B2B sales is customized sales journeys. Outlined in Jake Dunlap’s book, The Innovative Seller, are four key principles to help sellers navigate the modern sales landscape. Of these “4Cs of Innovative Selling,” customized sales journeys is the most explored throughout the book. It is identified as a critical principle in keeping up with and catering processes to modern B2B buyer behaviors. Not prioritizing buyer experience is a common yet costly mistake. It’s through these customized sales journeys that sellers can provide customers with buyer-centric experiences that will keep their customers away from the competition.

The people who are going to win in 2024 and beyond are the ones who provide buying experiences that are specific to the customer. Buyers are smart. They often know what they want from their buying experience and want it done fast and easily. As sellers, we have to improve at providing them with these types of customized buying experiences. If a human is involved in the process, they must add value. 75% of B2B buyers already prefer a rep-free sales experience. Properly building and implementing a customized sales journey will help provide a valuable buyer-centric experience. If you can’t and your competition can, you’ll find it hard to keep your buyers from switching over.