We’ve worked with countless B2B companies to understand the makeup of their buying cycles.  With that insight, we’ve simplified the buying cycle into the following stages:

* Awareness – Your audience is trying to better understand a certain technology, product type or service and understand those that provide a related solution.
* Consideration – Your audience understands a certain technology, product type or service and is learning how a range of solution providers meet their needs.
* Validation – Your audience understands the strengths and weaknesses of each solution provider and is determining how each of them has addressed the needs of their respective peers.
* Purchase – Your audience has evaluated the strengths, weaknesses and solutions provided by a smaller set of solution providers and will determine which provider to choose.

With these basics of the buying cycle, you should now identify, on average, how long each stage typically takes for your target audience.  What’s more, you should also identify specific actions that your target audience takes at each stage as well as their behavior throughout the entire length of the buying cycle.

Note: This is post two of a seven-post series entitled, “How to Unlock Future Revenue Potential through Five Powerful Lead Nurture Steps.”  To read more of Mike’s series, just follow the links below…

How to Unlock Future Revenue Potential through Five Powerful Lead Nurture Steps — Introduction: Post 1 of 7

For more lead nurture tips, check out our white paper, “Unlocking Future Revenue Potential through Five Powerful Lead Nurture Steps”