What B2B Buyers Need
A look at typical B2B customer needs, broken down by phases of the buying journey, which include Explore, Evaluate, Purchase, and Experience.
A look at typical B2B customer needs, broken down by phases of the buying journey, which include Explore, Evaluate, Purchase, and Experience.
B2B marketers, raise your hand if you’ve heard this one before: “Understand and meet the needs of your prospects at every phase of their buying journey.”
Hopefully you didn’t look too strange raising your hand!
You probably know that viewing the customer journey from your buyers’ perspective will help you build strong relationships and thereby improve your performance. But, how do you really understand your prospects’ needs and what are some typical needs in general?
To understand your specific customers’ and prospects’ needs:
The industry resource B2Beacon describes how to do this in more detail.
To understand typical B2B customer needs, let’s break it down by phase of the buying journey. According to B2Beacon, there are four phases when viewed from the customer perspective: Explore, Evaluate, Purchase, and Experience.
EXPLORE PHASE:
What Customers Need…
What They’re Thinking…
The data supports this… According to a 2013 Chief Marketing Officer Council study, the best source of online content for B2B buyers while researching products and services is:
EVALUATE PHASE:
What Customers Need…
What They’re Thinking…
PURCHASE PHASE:
What Customers Need…
What They’re Thinking…
EXPERIENCE PHASE:
What Customers Need…
What They’re Thinking…
At first…
Over time…
Again, these are just high-level, typical needs for B2B prospects and customers. The main point here is to start with your customers’ needs and use them as the basis for your content and outreach plans. Needs vary greatly by phase so it’s critical to know where your customer is in their journey to give them the right content.
You can learn more about these phases and the right content for each on B2Beacon – a new educational initiative from ClickZ in collaboration with B2B agency BusinessOnline and 30 leaders in digital marketing.