Santa has long since recovered from the stress of the holidays, we've had a great start to the New Year, but at Capterra we're still in the giving mood!
We have a gift for you: a beautifully wrapped package containing pearls of wisdom about your customers’ purchasing behavior.
As every child knows, Santa Claus also has a list — not only with information about who has been good and who has been naughty, but also what the children's wishes are.
He knows exactly how the children behave, what he expects from them and what they expect from him. His job is much easier than yours (apart from the fact that he has to work on Christmas Eve).
Without a clear understanding of your customers' buying behavior—what they want, where in the sales funnel they are, and what they base their buying decisions on—your company risks not making a sale. You're left with an empty plate with a few cookie crumbs and a pile of unanswered questions.
Understanding your customers' buying behavior
By understanding your customers' general buying behavior and their changing behaviors and expectations at each stage of the sales funnel, you can determine how best to generate leads from small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and ensure that they convert into customers.
Let's take a moment to review the stages of the sales funnel by walking one of your customers through it – and since he's a bit underemployed at the moment, the cheerful guy with the bushy beard will step in as his representative:
phases of the sales funnel
Before entering the sales funnel: The SME is in its normal operating routine. Santa checks his list and carefreely packs his sleigh, unaware that thick fog is about to roll in.
Attention: The company discovers a problem that needs to be fixed. A helper elf informs Santa that a bank of fog is approaching that could make steering the sleigh difficult.
Interest: Now the SME must think about how to solve its problem. To create a list of possible solutions, Santa draws on a number of resources - his elves, his experience, his wife and even an eloquent penguin.
Selection: Through research, the SME begins to weed out the options that are not suitable for them. After doing further research into his ideas, Santa comes to the conclusion that fans are not cost-effective, that dehumidifiers take too long and that cancelling Christmas is not a solution to his problem.
Purchase: This is the moment when leads become consumers. They have bought what you have to offer. Santa decides that the most practical solution is to hire a young reindeer with a fiery red bulbous nose to drive his sleigh.
After going through the sales funnel: The company implements your software and you maintain the relationship with them to retain them as your customer. Rudolph the reindeer has come to Santa's aid and becomes his reliable contact person for visibility issues.
This entire process can take an average of two years, so what happens along the way?
Let's look at the upper/middle/lower stages of the sales funnel one by one and discuss the results of the survey Capterra conducted in 2018 among 420 US, French and German SMEs to understand their software purchasing behavior and how you can use this information to your advantage.
Using the malleability at the top of the sales funnel to your advantage
To get leads to bite, getting an idea of the customer's budget and polishing your reviews is key at the top of the sales funnel. (The top of the sales funnel, for the purposes of this article, includes the "attention" and "interest" stages.)
Flexible budgets can be incredibly valuable, but only 20% of SMBs allow some flexibility iran telegram data in their budget for software purchases .
Buying behavior: setting a budget for purchasing software
Almost half of the remaining 80% of the SMEs surveyed set a fixed budget for their technology and software needs from the outset. The other half determine the budget at some point during the interest and selection phase.
While the purchase price played a greater role in the decision in the USA (81%) than in France (76%) and Germany (71%), at least 85% of SMEs across countries stayed within or significantly below their budget when purchasing their software.
Companies that set their budget before starting software research usually do not spend money on additional features in order to stay within their budget.
What this means for you: As leads move through the various stages of the sales funnel, it's important to find out whether your prospects have already decided how much they're willing to spend on the software — and at what point that amount was set — so you don't waste time trying to sell them additional features.
How customer reviews impact the top of the sales funnel
Whether they are found on review portals or in directories (such as Capterra's directory for HR software), customer reviews serve as an extremely valuable source of information and decision-making aid for companies when selecting software.