In a previous post, I talked about the endless waiting game that has become the B2B purchasing process. Customers we surveyed at MLC this year told us that they’re generally 57% through the purchase process before they even contacted a supplier for serious conversation.

Of course, you want them to pick up the phone sooner so you can direct them to buy from you. This leads us to the question: if customers are calling suppliers later than they used to, what have they been doing and what can you do to facilitate earlier contact?

Our data suggest customers are doing information search on their own. In response, you should find channels to teach them something memorable about your offering and emphasize non-price benefits before they even call.

Now before going into more details, we do recognize that different industries have different purchase cycles and practices and in some sectors information-gathering is more of a challenge than in others. Major purchases take longer and group dynamics can slow things down. Our drivers are “true drivers” in the sense that we’re shining a spotlight on things you can change after accounting for all those “outside of my control” environmental factors.

Here’s a laundry list of action items to get an earlier sales conversation going:

• Make your customers smarter by teaching them something they didn’t know. It doesn’t have to be bleeding-edge, but it must be a confidence-building “aha” moment. You can deliver it using the most influential channels customers indicated in our survey: testimonials, events and exhibits, WOM, company website and trade publications.
• Hug a tree, write one less white paper. White papers ranked 12 out of 17 channels in terms of influence score and near bottom among established information sources. Customers want to see how your brilliant ideas can work in their context and can fail to appreciate the usefulness of something novel until it has worked in their context.
• Lower the switching cost (or at least the perception of it). At MLC we have described positive switching costs in terms of building the “lobster trap” – an easy-in, hard-out mechanism designed to catch unsuspecting crustaceans (read: customers).  If you want to give customers a chance to appreciate your value, you first need to get them in the door – and that means reducing the costs of switching from their old provider.
• Generate positive WOM and channel it well. Know someone at the customer’s company who can put in a good word for you? Have a loyalist willing to advocate on your behalf? Would a blogger write a post about your revolutionary technology? Understanding your customers’ information consumption habits is crucial in directing positive WOM for maximum impact.

MLC members, don’t forget to join us for MLC’s Annual B2B Executive Retreat where we will discuss this and other emerging issues facing the B2B purchasing process in detail.

Update: In the comments, Bryan asks for the rank ordering of marcom channels in terms of effectiveness. Here it is – looks like I counted wrong, and white papers actually rank 12 out of 17:

Related posts:

1. 2011: The Year of the Customer Purchase Process
2. B2B Buying is Risky Business
3. Congratulations, Marketing Communication Process: You’ve Been Approved!
4. Inside the Buying Brain
5. B2B Marketers – How Do You Manage Online WOM?