Customer journey mapping: The buyer’s path in a digital world
Build a net-new audience years before your product ever launches. Yep, understanding customer journey mapping and the real buyer's path can help you do that.
Which would you like first the good news or the bad news?
I’m a pretty positive person, so lets start with the good news.
According to a recent independent global research report from Loudhouse, the vast majority of sales directors across the globe are broadly confident about the outlook for growth and the opportunity to hit revenue targets. For the most part, the world is out of recession and opportunities abound in the modern digital landscape.
Good news for sales directors, then.
So what’s the problem?
You are.
Or more specifically, your internal sales tools are.
We all know customers are more empowered than ever.
The problem is, that while the customer has moved on, most sales departments have not.
And herein lies the rub: most sales organizations are simply not able to match their internal sales processes with buyer journeys.
Customers don’t just expect you to know the basics, they expect you to know the context of their business challenges
Sales departments are expected to have a 360-degree view of the customer, insight into their unique requirements and preferences, as well as a raft of other contextual elements. In fact, the pace of change in the sales world has never been quicker, which amplifies the problem even more as most sales tools have hardly changed at all in recent years.
The research revealed that more than half of sales directors admit their sales technologies haven’t been updated for more than two years. That’s not just a gap, its a show-stopper, jeopardizing future growth.
A whopping 85 percent of sales leaders say their organization is only two years away from a slowdown as a result, and 33 percent say they are just a year away.
While the pace of change has never been quicker, many sales tools have failed to keep up.
The economy may be full of opportunity, but sales growth very much depends on the tools sales departments have to work with, particularly CRM.
The customer data revolution: CRM and CDP roles evolve
CDP solutions offer businesses an answer to the consumer privacy concerns that fueled data privacy laws and the customer data revolution.
Many CRM tools still have a one dimensional focus on managing customer relationships, rather than focusing on customer engagement, hyper-personalization, and customer context
The majority of you reading this will understand what I’m talking about and why this is a problem – chances are you’re already feeling the effects.
For me, one of the most telling statistics from the research findings was that 73 percent of sales directors believe their CRM systems need overhauling now, with 72 percent suggesting that failure to do so will impede business growth, but they’re not moving quickly enough.
The longer companies wait to transform their insight gathering capabilities, the more their growth is compromised.
Given the pace of change, increased customer expectations, and the array of social channels for both listening and connecting, most internal sales processes are blatantly out of sync with modern customer journeys.
The rules of engagement have shifted. It’s time to embrace a more modern approach that matches that of your buyer, or two years from now you’ll be facing a slowdown in sales performance and wondering why your competitors are thriving.
For sales leaders, the old adage that time is money has never been more relevant.
