Executive Summary | Cracking the Code
CATALYST RESEARCH SUMMARY
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Cracking the Code
Adapting Your B2B Marketing Strategy for the Complex Prospect Journey
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
There’s an oft-repeated statistic claiming that more than two-thirds
of B2B vendor research is done online before a prospect contacts a
salesperson. However, you rarely see research about the process that
B2B prospects embark upon before they engage with a salesperson.
Catalyst wanted to better understand the pre-sales engagement process:
How research originates, who conducts it and which touch points make
the most difference. We also wanted to identify the pain points that
prospects encounter during this process to better understand the buyer’s
journey. And we wanted to find out whether there was too much emphasis
on reaching C-level decision makers too early in the process, and to
identify other decision makers who might be involved.
For this research, we focused on prospects who purchased capital
equipment, enterprise software and business services, markets in
which Catalyst had significant expertise. Our findings validated that
prospects’ journeys were very complex, involved many parties, were often
exhaustively time-consuming, and were rarely linear. More significant,
prospects’ journeys were not fully understood by both the sales and
marketing teams at sellers’ organizations.
ABOUT CATALYST
Catalyst is a marketing agency that combines complex data, marketing
technology and experience design to drive revenue growth into and through
your sales pipeline. Headquartered in Rochester, New York, our B2B clients
have included ACI Worldwide, Bell and Howell, Canon, Carestream Health,
Heraeus Kulzer, Johnson & Johnson Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Pitney
Bowes, Ricoh, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Xerox, Xeikon, and many others.
Executive Summary | Cracking the Code
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METHODOLOGY
We conducted online focus groups and telephone interviews with mid- to
senior-level managers and executives with purchase authority for major
hardware- and software-related purchases, including solution and service
providers. All had prior purchasing involvement, either individually or as part
of formal purchase teams. Participants were asked these questions:
• How do you choose a prospective vendor for your consideration set?
• What is your pre-engagement research process like? What
successes and challenges do you have?
• What information do you need during this time and is it readily
available? How do you obtain it?
• Who is involved?
• Why would you eliminate a prospective vendor from consideration?
• At what point do you engage a potential vendor? Why then?
KEY FINDINGS
1. It was critical to understand prospects’ sense of urgency in order to
evaluate the amount of time vendors should spend on the prospect.
2. The pre-engagement research process was arduous, often taking
weeks, months or even years. It could include a few people or a
few dozen.
3. For the research process, key decision makers were not the C-suite.
In most cases, it was a subject matter expert. Larger-scale purchases
in particular were designated to research teams.
4. Prospects turned to vendor websites first, underscoring the importance
of an easy-to-use website with the type of content they were looking
for. Depending on where they were in the research process, prospects
looked for different kinds of content and wanted different questions
answered.
5. Prospects nearly always looked for third-party validation to confirm
their opinions.
6. Prospects wanted to avoid a sales call at all costs, but were open to
demos and Q&As with subject matter experts like engineers.
7. Five approaches were identified where vendors could impact
the research process earlier in the exploratory phase. Missed
opportunities included providing credible and deep content, with clear
information about where and to whom inquiries would be going, and
whether follow-ups would be handled by email or phone.
WHY THIS MATTERS
1. Your target audience is telling you that you don’t understand their
journey and who is part of it.
“If the supplier doesn’t have
a full-featured website, we
typically move on to one
that does.”
“We tend to shy away from
overly sales-focused intro
calls. I’ve seen the effects
of a salesperson overselling
capabilities.”
“I pretty much try to avoid a
sales call if at all possible.”
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2. By putting these findings into action, you can insert yourself into the
selling process sooner.
3. If you’re engaged in any demand generation efforts, these findings
should dictate your go-to-market approach, from targeting to content to
the customer experience you create. By tailoring your approach to your
audience more precisely, your demand generation program becomes
more relevant, more effective and, ultimately, more profitable.
THE COMPLEX B2B PURCHASING DECISION JOURNEY
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
To read the full research report, which includes specific steps to impact
the pre-engagement process earlier and a plan for success, contact
Christian Banach at 585.453.8313 or email: [email protected].
MORE ABOUT CATALYST
Catalyst is a marketing agency that helps businesses develop compelling
ways to engage their customers at every stage of the pipeline. We do this by
using analytics to identify best customer targets and empowering the sales
force to focus on those customers. We then apply intellectual curiosity and
inquisitiveness to create the right content and messaging to drive customers
toward purchase.
We call it Science + Soul.
It’s a powerful combination that improves our clients’ marketing, because it
aligns the company’s sales process with the customer’s buying needs and
measurably increases revenue.
800.836.7720 | www.catalystinc.com | [email protected]
© 2017 Catalyst