After the sale is com­pleted, it is time for the win­ning ven­dor to assure the suc­cess of the customer’s pur­chase. Why? Because it is impor­tant to develop that new cus­tomer into an advo­cate, a fan, a believer. It may shorten sub­se­quent sales cycles with that cus­tomer, and we know from our own research that a pre­ferred ven­dor can be very influ­en­tial in customer’s pur­chase decisions.

Suc­cess­ful cus­tomers are also where case stud­ies come from, and case stud­ies help ven­dors win more cus­tomers. It’s a vir­tu­ous cycle; the cus­tomer gets atten­tion to make sure the pur­chase is liv­ing up to or exceed­ing their expec­ta­tions, and the ven­dor gets some of the best mar­ket­ing pos­si­ble – pos­i­tive word of mouth.

Step One: Desire
A pur­chase always starts with a desire. Mar­keters can work to make sure their brand is asso­ci­ated with that desire, or even cre­ate the desire.

Step Two: Inquire
As cus­tomers start look­ing into options to sat­isfy the desire, a ven­dor has a chance to not only be there, but to shape the desire as well.

Step Three: Refine
As the decision-making process nar­rows, the ven­dor who has shaped the dis­cus­sion can start to edge out competitors.

Step Four: Short­list
As the com­peti­tors drop down to a nar­row field, under­stand­ing what the cus­tomer really wants to accom­plish is a cru­cial advantage.

Step Five: Per­suade
Remem­ber that peo­ple, even peo­ple mak­ing a busi­ness pur­chase deci­sion, have an emo­tional side and need assur­ance that they are not expos­ing them­selves or their com­pany to unac­cept­able risk.

Step Six: Nego­ti­ate
New play­ers may be intro­duced at this stage, and be sure that every­one on either side of the trans­ac­tion is fol­low­ing up.

Step Seven: Buy
After the cel­e­bra­tion, it’s time to start delight­ing that cus­tomer and turn­ing them into advo­cates who will come back for more, and bring oth­ers along too.

At each step on the path to a pur­chase, Mar­ket­ing and Sales peo­ple can use all kinds of strate­gies, tac­tics and tools to engage cus­tomers and win the sale. Whether your com­pany needs to do more with brand­ing, posi­tion­ing, thought lead­er­ship, online rep­u­ta­tion man­age­ment, social media, online adver­tis­ing, con­tent mar­ket­ing, search engine opti­miza­tion, mobile or local, Media­tive offers a com­pre­hen­sive suite of mar­ket­ing ser­vices to engage and retain cus­tomers. Con­tact us to start a no-obligation, no-hassle con­ver­sa­tion about your mar­ket­ing demands.

Want more? See Mediative's white papers highlighting our research into online marketing and the buying process.


Biography / Resume : Karl joined Mediative’s service delivery team in 2008. A year later, he moved to the company’s research department where he conducted online surveys, eye-tracking studies, one-on-one interviews and usability testing. Most recently, he transitioned to the marketing department. Before Mediative, Karl worked in sales and marketing. In 1997, he caught the digital bug and became the original “webmaster” for Roland Canada Music. Around the same time, he began teaching the relatively new topic of Internet marketing to college and university students. Karl’s insatiable curiosity and drive to get to the core and substance of every situation has served him well in his various roles at Mediative.