The modern-day marketer has a single mission – reach customers in moments when their attention is at its highest. Remember how P&G used to place its soap advertisements? Right when there was a suspense scene, they would punch in an advert that viewers wouldn’t be able to skip. That helped sell more and even create adverts that had high recall value.
Even today brands resort to this practice of positioning their ads in moments when customers could be giving their undivided attention. Just that the yesteryear soap operas are now replaced by Amazon ads and Google display ads on websites and mobile apps that we regularly use. These ads are designed to leverage the in-the-moment experience and expectation of the buyer.
In fact, Google’s US Search trends study for 2017 has found that the search interest for keywords containing “open now” has tripled in the past two years. Customers are making more on-the-spot buying decisions than ever before. There comes the inevitable need to personalize each stage of the buyer journey, right from the point of contact until the delivery and post-sales service.
The customer travels through various phases before arriving at the final buying decision. The six stages of a customer buying journey are:
- Exploration
- Evaluation
- Purchase
- Expansion
- Renewal
- Advocacy
Microsoft Dynamics 365 helps your marketing team drive home their message at every stage of the buyer journey. It has purpose-built features that help transform the entire buyer experience into one that reaps short-term and long-term benefits.
Here is a quick run through the six stages of the buyer journey and how MS Dynamics 365 can help marketers win more customers.
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Exploration
The first stage of the buyer journey where they start exploring a solution for a persistent problem.
Scenario: A sales manager wants to access more sales opportunities through diverse channels.
How MS Dynamics 365 can help
Connect with customers across social channels
There are countless social media platforms where your customers could be exploring their next buying decision. MS Dynamics helps reach them where they are with platform-specific tools for running multiple marketing campaigns and also monitor them on a single dashboard. The Dynamics 365 Connector for LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms is one such tool meant for LinkedIn campaigns.
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Evaluation
The second stage that follows the awareness of the problem and possible solutions wherein the customer evaluates the available alternatives.
Scenario: A sales manager downloads the CRM brochure or signs up for a demo call
How MS Dynamics 365 can help
Offer a synchronized view of the customers
MS Dynamics 365 quashes a major challenge that every marketer dreads—the challenge of lead duplication, lead rating and sharing the vital lead information with other team members. MS Dynamics 365 for sales teams offers a synchronized view of the customers, track the progress of their conversations and pick up right from where the last meeting ended. CRM workflows make it easy to schedule next actions that will drive the sales process forward.
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Purchase
The stage where the customer’s focus is on the price of the product/service and the ROI it can bring to the business.
Scenario: How much will the CRM cost annually and what percentage of increase will it bring to lead generation and Lead Conversion Rate?
How MS Dynamics 365 can help
Has built-in templates that are ready-to-send
MS Dynamics 365 offers an impressive arsenal of ready-made templates on Excel, Word, Powerpoint, SharePoint and so on that help get things done quickly. You can also create your own custom Word and Excel templates to suit your purpose. The how-to- is explained here. Productivity is the name of the game and MS Dynamics 365 helps your sales team master it like professionals.
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Expansion
A buyer who has made a purchase decision will sometimes want to expand the default offerings with specific customizations and add-ons that will increase its value. That need for capability expansion is felt at this
Scenario: An automotive dealership manager wants to integrate a Dealer Management System with the CRM.
How MS Dynamics 365 can help
Dive deep into buyer needs
Run quick online surveys to identify persistent customer pain areas. Integrate additional third party systems into Dynamics 365 to extend its utility and productivity.
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Renewal
An ideal customer relationship never ends with the sale. It ensues successfully even after the transaction is completed. It is at the ‘renewal’ stage that the buyer is given an opportunity to further renew the relationship with the vendor.
Scenario: A sales manager is invited to a webinar or conference where the latest product updates or renewal in service offerings are discussed.
How MS Dynamics 365 can help?
Provide Artificial Intelligence (AI) for team guidance
MS Dynamics comes with the brilliance of AI which guides teams to innovative business decisions that will transform their customer interactions. It leads to personalized customer interaction and engagement which help sustain the relationship.
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Advocacy
The stage where a business successfully converts their customer into a brand advocate. This is achieved through superior customer experience, premium quality of goods/services and also personalized services.
Scenario: A sales manager wants to capture a positive customer voice about a product or service post sales.
How MS Dynamics 365 can help
Drive social media engagement through multiple channels while maintaining a consistent message tone. Create alerts for customer posts on social media and add them straight to CRM as potential leads or as service case records for action.
Get in touch with our experts to personalize buyer journey.
