Most of the time, selling your product is not about convincing one individual, it can have the participation of 4 or more individuals. I’ll be explaining only the four important participants in the decision-making process here.
Study this diagram:
As you can see, I have denoted Influencer, Buyer, decision-maker and user as different factors.
Let me explain with an example.
Take the case of buying baby products:
1) User:
In this case, the user doesn’t even know what product he/she is going to use. But if the baby shows discomfort using those products, most probably his/her parents aren’t gonna purchase the product next time.
2) Decision Maker:
Most probably (I’m not stereotyping!) moms are going to decide exactly which product the baby is going to use. She would have done the research and might have shortlisted some brands/products that she is definitely going to try out.
3) Buyer:
While the Mom decides what to buy, chances are that it’s the husband who goes out and makes the payment & picks up the product. If his card is not getting accepted, or if there’s no parking slot, the buyer (husband) is going for another shop.
4) Influencer:
I talked about the Moms doing their research. But how do they do it? They might look up the internet for reviews, blogs and videos. In addition to that, they are most probably going to consult with a doctor or her cousin/friend who already has a newborn/toddler with them. Hence the influencers are internet publishers, doctors and other recent moms. If they are not aware of the brand the Mom is enquiring about, the influencers are going to nod “No”.
When it comes to businesses, I can give you another example. For a sales software, the user might be the salesperson, the decision-maker will be the CMO or Sales head, the buyer will be the CFO/CEO and the influencer will be leaders in the industry or some good SEO optimised blog.
Do you know you four? Does your marketing plan include strategies to attract them?
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