The B2B buying process is the series of steps a business goes through when purchasing products or services from another business. The B2B buying process tends to be more complex than consumer purchasing, as it often involves multiple stakeholders and larger budgets. As a sales operations professional, it’s important to understand this process in order to effectively support the sales team.
Typically, the B2B buying process contains six key stages:
- Problem recognition – The customer realizes they have a need or already wants to improve an existing process or solution. This is where marketing and sales teams aim to raise awareness of their offerings.
- Requirements building – The buying team puts together detailed requirements and specifications for what they need.
- Vendor research – Prospects research potential vendors who can meet their requirements.
- Initial vendor contact – Interested prospects engage with potential vendors via inquiries, demos, etc. Sales ops supports by tracking prospect interactions in the CRM.
- Proposal evaluation – Prospects assess proposals and narrow down their options through demos, questions, etc.
- Vendor selection – The prospect ultimately selects a final vendor based on factors like price, capabilities, and relationship.
Understanding this lengthy, complex process allows sales operations professionals to properly equip the sales team with the right tools, information, and support needed to guide prospects from awareness to closed deal.
