The Innovative Seller

9Mapping Your Sales Experience—During the Late Stages

AS YOU CONTINUE to the later stages of the customer journey you may be tempted to think that understanding intent and readiness to buy is less important than in the early stages. At this phase, the buyer may be closer to a decision, but many deals stall out or are lost because salespeople don't take care of easing the buyer's fear of purchase or address the plan to get started quickly. We talked about this in the last chapter because we have to be prepared at all steps in the process to talk through the go live and implementation from the first conversation if buyers are ready.

The biggest fear of B2B buyers is making the wrong decision. This is according to a study by Gartner, which found that 63% of buyers said this was their biggest concern (see the Gartner article in the Further Reading section). The study also found that other common fears of B2B buyers include:

• Choosing a product that doesn't meet their needs (58%)
• Overpaying for a product (53%)
• Getting locked into a long-term contract with a vendor they're not happy with (49%)
• Experiencing poor customer service (47%)

As other stakeholders enter the picture, they may have their own agendas and timelines that change from the earlier stages. Even at this stage you need to look for cues from various stakeholders that may be further behind or ahead so you can meet them where they are. You need to think about how your sales journey will ease these concerns at key moments ...