There are two aspects to a Buyer’s Journey as they consider a solution purchase:

1. Buying Decision: getting internal buy-in from colleagues, bosses, and budgets to decide to make a change, figuring out how or what will be included in the change, and agreeing how to move forward.

2. Solution Purchase: choosing a solution and vendor.

INSIGHTthought is concerned primarily with decoding and mapping the Buying Decision aspect in the Buyers Journey. This is the part of the Buyers Journey that buyers and sellers face every day and that the sales model and methodologies largely ignore.

The sales model focuses on needs assessment and solution selling. A Buying Decision is a change management activity. They are two different activities, done at two different – and opposite – points along the buying journey.

Sales models do not have the capability to facilitate the buyer’s behind-the-scenes issues and activities to ensure they get the necessary buy-in to bring in an outside solution. But your reps need this skill, because in the gap between the selling and the buying is where we lose our buyers, and they lose us.