57% of the buyer’s journey is complete before a customer’s first contact with a supplier. Here’s why you should care.
This statistic was published by Forrester in 2012 and spread across the B2B sales world like wildfire. CEB popularized it in books and online, many lifelong sales experts worked to debunk it, and most just simply ignored it.
But it’s true. And anyone who purchases consumer goods online (i.e. all of us) knows that this self-service purchasing behavior is impacting how everyone buys high-dollar professional services. Yes, that $50 two-person hammock (with free shipping through Amazon Prime!) you just bought is influencing how you — and many others — buy $100,000 consulting or design services.
The Buyer’s Journey is generally thought to have three phases: Awareness (“Houston, we have a problem.”), Consideration (“We know the problem and have a good idea what the solution is.”), and Decision (“We’ve found a few solution-providers that can fix our problem. Time to call them. Ugh.”)
This is a huge challenge for professional services firms who believe that they are in control of this whole process, especially the “Awareness” step, which includes the clear definition of the initial problem.
What this means to you and your professional services firm is not that selling is less important, but that marketing — and specifically insightful, client-centered marketing — is more important than ever. This shift places the responsibility of “Awareness” and much of “Consideration” on the shoulders of your website, your social media channels, your informative videos, and any other bits of information you can get in front of your prospects.
74% of business buyers told Forrester they conduct more than half of their research online before making an offline purchase…
… and it’s not going back to billboards and brochures. Ever.
I’m compelled to clarify that person-to-person, relationship-based sales and marketing isn’t going away anytime soon for professional services — if ever. What it does mean is there will probably be fewer opportunities for communication, as buyers obtain very detailed information without a phone call or meeting, and fewer face-to-face interactions increase the importance of every single one.
The point of this statistic is, hopefully, to show you that your company most likely underestimates the role of marketing in the entire sales process, and also underestimates your ability to impact the early, problem-definition “Awareness” step.
You might know that your customer — or prospective customer — needs a screwdriver for that job when they come looking for a hammer, but statistically, your chances of convincing them otherwise are slim.