What is buying behaviour?
This article focuses on B2B companies and this text will therefore be relevant for the producer market and other companies trading with each other.
For the sake of clarity, let's start from one end, with the definition of what buying behaviour actually is. The term is used in the world of sales and marketing and refers to the behaviour of customers. Buying behaviour can be analysed in the decision-making process when the customer is about to buy a product or service from your company.
Why B2B should do a buyer behaviour analysis
Only by analysing your customers' buying behaviour can you better understand their thoughts, motives, needs, dreams, fears and issues. This helps you to help them make the right decision to buy one of your products or services.
Those who are very good at spotting the buying behaviour of their customers know very quickly what to sell to each customer and how to sell it to each customer.
Buying behaviour model
Note! That buying behaviour can be very different from B2C and B2B world, as the decision-making process is almost never about impulse buying, but more about consideration buying. Similarly, there are also typically multiple roles involved in B2B trade.
If you know these different types of buying behaviour as a seller, you have a smart move in your pocket, because you know who to talk to when, and how best to communicate to each person - as they typically have different interests in the purchase.
Let's get an overview of the different roles here:
- The initiator
Is the person who takes the initiative to contact your shop - Consumers
Is the person who will use the product or service - Influent
Is the same as an influencer, who (for example) on social media can influence the customer's thinking about the purchase is good or bad. It can also be a colleague or other in this context who can influence the decision. - Decision maker
He or she makes the final decision on what to buy and what not to buy - Dispatchers
Is the person who orders and pays for the goods
Your main job here will be to find out who the decision-maker is, as well as who the consumer (i.e. the person who will use the product) is - they are typically the people you can see as "real" customers. If you capture this, then you can target sales at them more effectively.
