The Disrupted Buyer’s Journey: How will you respond?
I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I feel something terrible has happened ~ Obi-Wan Kenobi
Travel restrictions, shelter in place, work from home policies, flights grounded, cruises cancelled, buses and trains idling in empty terminals. Many well-planned itineraries and routine commutes have been disrupted, not the least of which is the journey your buyers have been on.
If you designed your sales process stages, activities, content and exit gates around an understanding of how buyer’s make purchasing decisions it is time to pause and think about whether you and your buyers are still aligned. Priorities, plans, and budgets are all being reviewed. Workplaces and ways of engaging and communicating are being reshaped. In many industries all bets are off, and what was true as we started this year can no longer be assumed. I don’t know of any business that is not evaluating strategic plans for the year, clamping down on spending, and reviewing pipeline and forecasts. Here are a few fundamental questions worth revisiting as we take on these challenges.
Why will someone buy?
How have our buyer’s priorities shifted? Is our core value proposition still valid, and are we a “must have” or a “nice to have” solution for our buyers? Do we fall into the “essential” (acute care, public service, utilities, groceries and liquor stores)” or “non-essential” (fine dining, tattoo parlors, haberdasheries and hairdressers) bucket?
Has our ideal customer profile changed? Are certain sub-verticals more likely to need our solutions than others? What about buyer personas and the power base inside our customers? Are there tweaks we can make to our solutions to remain relevant and compelling?
Why buy now?
What is top of mind for our customers and buyers, and what are they likely to spend money on for the rest of this year? What will they budget for in 2021? Is our solution aligned with their immediate short-term spending plan? Using Stephen Covey’s model, are we in the urgent and important quadrant, or do we fit in the important but not (or no longer) urgent category?
As marketers and sales teams look at where to invest we need to consider how the concept of Demand Creation has been turned upside down. Many buyers may well agree that we have something that solves an important business challenge for them, but their definition of need versus want may have narrowed considerably. Messaging around service, partnership, and support rather than clear calls to action are already emerging as best practice during these pivots.
Why will they buy from us?
Once we identify a set of newly qualified opportunities and timelines, why will someone buy from us? Are we still clearly differentiated from our competition, and what can we do to maintain our unique position? Have we positioned ourselves as valued, empathetic partners or do we come across as desperate, opportunistic predators waiting to pounce? What can we offer to both retain our customers and engage new ones (free trials, extended contracts at reduced cost, financing or payment terms). You may not have to help me in my time of need, but when the dust settles I will remember those who did help, and they will be my first stop for any new business.
How will they buy, and how will we sell?
The “generic” buying cycle of identifying need or interest, researching options, committing to deeper evaluation, selection, negotiation and implementation seems unlikely to change dramatically. The questions that will reshape our engagements are more nuanced. How will we, as buyers and sellers, decide where we are really spending our time and money? How much will buyers be willing to invest today in research and identification of a solution to purchase when constraints begin to ease? Short term calls may shift to sharing information and positioning ourselves for a future commercial discussion (rather than relentlessly trying to move deals forward). The volume of qualified opportunities, length of buying cycles, urgency of need and available budgets have undoubtedly shifted. BANT is more important now than ever as a filter for our forecasts. We may not like the answers we get from triaging our pipeline, but the sooner we gain clarity, adapt and pivot the more likely we will emerge leaner and stronger as the global crisis ebbs.
Our response defines us
Reality for many in sales is that our pipelines look more like long, narrow knitting needles than broad, full funnels today. “Committed” deals are stalled or disappearing. Our “most likely” number is not so likely anymore. A week or so ago I shared a quote from a Rabbi responding to a congregant who was feeling untethered and uncertain: “It is not that we have lost our sense of certainty. We have lost our illusion of certainty. We never had it to begin with. This could be unsettling, or amazingly liberating.” When it comes to forecasting, despite advances in AI and machine learning, we never had certainty to begin with.
I have seen and heard more examples of great leadership, intelligence, and human connection over the last few weeks than I have in many years. Engaging as an understanding partner and being in service as we navigate change with our customers and prospects is what I consider True North. Those who stand strong and help each other lean in and overcome fear and anxiety have my deepest respect. We all need to understand the new world for our buyers and associates, and together we will find the opportunities that emerge. It is time to listen closely, take bold action, learn, pivot and pivot again as more insights are gained. As Yoda said to Luke in the swamps of Dagobah, “Do, or do not. There is no trying!”