Opinion: How resellers can manage their buyer's cycle

'For as long as we have been printing on paper, marketing have promoted products. But many marketers including resellers still push the product and ignore the buyers' needs or buying cycle.

The problem with this approach in today's climate is clear. Promoting products will still need to use the internet and print media, but the content and context has changed significantly. 

The internet gave buyers every possible piece of information at their finger tips and marketers uploaded everything to get noticed. 

But unless you are selling to the end user, you are overlooking a fundamental law of selling in the B2B space:  Solve your client's problems.

To survive in the modern age, smart resellers are looking after their customers' needs by ensuring their message is consistent throughout the buyers cycle from marketing to selling to account management. 

Welcome to the concept of the Buyer Management Cycle (BMC).

Understanding and managing your buyers cycle is not only the smarter way to target and improve your revenue performance, but it is likely to improve your efficiencies and thus lower the cost of lead, cost of sale and cost of service.

Buyers now know more about the products and regularly more than the person selling them.  Buyers are now empowered and hold the upper hand when it comes time to purchase, because they can easily draw vendors into price based selling.

In the world of B2B that is a cardinal sin. It is also the main reason why you must understand what you offer, over and above your competitors.  Yes, you will still need to sell a product, but how you engage and attract prospects and keep your existing clients will often come down to their buyer experience and how you managed them.  Naturally your price point is critical but it should not be the reason for a won or lost opportunity.

Symptoms that might indicate you are just pushing your product;

• 1. Your messages, including your website talk about your products "too much"
• 2. Marketing promote the range of products with typical feature and benefit statements
• 3. Your brand carries too much weight to attract new clients
• 4. Marketing and Sales often debate the quality of leads
• 5. Your sales team get caught up in transactional price based selling cycles

This list of symptoms is not exhaustive and in the short term should remain part of your go-to-market mix, but over time your success will be a direct correlation to the value placed on your offering by your clients, not what you promote.  Improving these symptoms will take time and should be part of your medium to long term strategy.

What can you do to improve your messaging;

• 1. Review your buyer criteria
• 2. Review your messaging in ALL collateral including your website
• 3. Leverage the sales language into your marketing message
• 4. Score your leads
• 5. Nurture your prospects who don't buy yet.

While this may seem fundamental, there are many organisations who overlook these key principles and get caught up in themselves more than the needs of their buyers.

In doing so they forget this channel truism: Organisations that focus on buyer needs and language will do better at maintaining higher revenues.'

To learn more about the Revenue Performance Centre log on to  

www.revenueperformancecentre.com.au