Let’s start with a definition. I’m not talking about your sales process. I’m talking about the buying process: the steps every buyer goes through before they commit to a product or service.
Those steps have barely changed over the years. In real life the process is neither linear nor circular. It is a maze. For clarity, I describe it here as four phases in a row.
Phase 1: Awareness
The first phase is the most important one. It is not about making buyers aware of your product, or even of the benefits your product brings. It is about making them aware of the value they could have.
An example: when I worked with corporate payment cards, it became clear that in the SME segment our biggest competitor was not another corporate card. It was the employee’s own card. Companies simply didn’t see how employees paying with private cards blurred their view of working capital, and with it their options for financing.
Phase 2: Show the gap
Once the buyer sees that a different reality is possible, you need to show the gap between where they are and where they could be. Quantify it if you can, because numbers make the difference concrete.
Ideally the buyer works out the gap with you. If they won’t, you can still do it with realistic assumptions.
Phase 3: Why you
Now the buyer compares options against their requirements. This is where you show that you are the best choice. References carry the most weight here, and the earlier your company is in its journey, the more they matter.
Phase 4: The decision
When the buyer agrees that they need a change, can see its value in numbers and trusts you as a partner, closing the deal is rarely difficult. From here, it is up to delivery and customer success to keep the promise and delight the customer.
Why the phases matter
Nothing in this process says the salesperson has to carry the buyer from the first phase to the last. That is the point.
The Revenue Generation Framework™ uses these phases as the backbone for supporting the buyer along the way. When marketing, sales and customer success plan together, the buyer moves comfortably from one phase to the next, and sales steps in where it adds the most value.