The Innovative Seller

10Mapping Your Sales Experience—to Current Customers

YOU HAVE ARRIVED at the last chapter dedicated to the third C, the customized sales journey, and it is a big one. At this stage, intent-based triaging is less important, and organizations are focused on driving adoption, as usage becomes the primary focus. Gartner research reveals that 74% of customers expect more from brands, not only in their products and services but also in how they treat their customers (see the Ramaswami article in the Further Reading section).

An important nuance that many teams miss is that customers' priorities and initiatives can change even after they've purchased a tool or product. In fact, they almost always do. Changes in headcount, the stock market, or other random events can all lead to your main point of contact leaving or a new VP coming in to change things up.

Here are some sobering statics:

• 50% of B2B customers change their priorities within 12 months of purchase (source: Gartner 2022);
• 75% of B2B customers say that their initiatives are constantly evolving (source: McKinsey & Company 2017); and
• 60% of B2B customers say that they are willing to switch vendors if their current vendor does not adapt to their changing needs (source: Salesforce 2023).

When you are designing the sales experience to this stage, you want to make sure that you build processes that capture and address these changes. This is why your customized sales experience cannot end at the contract but instead here at usage. ...