In “How Customers Buy… & Why They Don’t: Mapping and Managing the Buying Journey DNA,” Martyn R. Lewis introduces us to a brave new world of sales that may leave you as stunned as you are excited. Welcome to a world that is intensely interconnected, while at the same time saturated with disconnect. Never has there been more opportunity, Lewis says.
Lewis has 15 years of research backing his ideas. His process is reflective of DNA testing for ancestry, and his conclusions generate the excitement of new discovery. Businesses must look beyond their own way of doing, Lewis says, and consider how customers actually buy now and in the future. “This is not another new selling methodology, nor is it a replacement for good sales and training,” he says. “It is rather an evolutionary and somewhat radical refocus on what is actually going on in the customer’s buying journey.”
Lewis delineates three generations of customer creation that have brought us to our current incarnation of the selling/buying equation. In order to understand it, he suggests going back to the first days of commerce. At that time, an early sales person might have exchanged small bits of metal, seashells or a cow for three goats. Exchange was done face to face.
The second generation differed only slightly from the first. Buyers usually knew what they wanted and where to get it. Change finally came in the early 20th century, thanks to new methods of communication, namely telephone, fax and television. During this time, the sales process became a more complex interplay of buying and selling. Three things typified this iteration: greater choice for the buyer, remote transaction and the transaction taking place over time.
“Customers new buying methods have completely changed the buying/selling equation."
The third generation can be summarized in a single word: internet. The biggest and best brochure in the world, the internet’s ability to communicate via technology has, of course, changed buying and selling. This has also brought a new set of issues. These include the myth of a single decision maker and the struggle to implement change within an organization. “Customers new buying methods have completely changed the buying/selling equation,” the author says. During the first and second generation of sales, salespeople held the keys. Now the very idea of a sales process is outdated.
Lewis has codified the DNA of the business consumer buying journey. It’s a process that enables Lewis and his team to analyze a model, and in doing so create a map for a particular buying journey. The strands can vary among markets but, for any particular market, when considering a unique offering the code remains the same. The model has six strands, which allow sellers to identify elements of that market’s buying journey.
Strand 1: Triggers. The trigger is an activity or event that creates a need for the customer to enter into a buying journey. Triggers may be internal dissatisfaction or prompted by ideas from outside the organization.
Strand 2: Steps. The second strand involved detailing every activity in the customer buying journey. First is to ensure your intent to complete the journey. Once determined, you can proceed in a rational way.
Strand 3: Key Players. Key players may include people who do not work within the company. They may be consultants and key players in other organizations. The idea of a single decision maker is rare in today’s business world.
Strand 4: Buying Style. Buying style, in this context, refers to the very specific and consistent manner to which people and organizations go about their purchasing. Lewis compresses all the variables into two polarized scales that could be used to determine buying style. Simply put: choice versus value, and solution versus product. In exploring how customers buy, Lewis first explores the two scales and then creates a four quadrant buying scale.
Strand 5: Value Drivers. These drivers are the motivation for the buyers to move forward. They are the pot of gold—the reason why someone would get involved.
Strand 6: Buying Concerns. In the final strand, the author isolates nine faces of buying concerns that may slow down or halt a buying journey.
“How Customers Buy” is a valuable resource for understanding and creating a new business world. In it, Lewis has provided us with new means to view customers, sales and marketing.