The path to purchase for businesses buying professional services.

Early in my career B2B marketing was seen as the poor cousin to B2C. And B2B marketing of professional services the even poorer cousin. Actually, more like a drunk uncle slurring jokes and nodding-off on the lounge – party hat firmly planted to a sweaty head!

Those days are gone. Today, the marketing of professional services to business is mixing it with the best – with firms delivering sophisticated ‘pull’ information and experiences, hyper-personalisation, lead scoring, trigger-based marketing, CX journeys and more. 

Yes, we’ve moved on from boozy lunches and glossy brochures. Well, for the most part.

Underpinning this rise in marketing sophistication is a better understanding of buyer decision-making and influences on the path to purchase. This understanding has come as the buying journey migrates online and technology has enabled data-rich analysis of online activity, sales performance (i.e. buyer decisions) and buyer feedback.

Here, this understanding of how people in business buy professional services is brought to life in a simple path to purchase model – delivering a hefty dose of pragmatism as it reflects the influence of self-interest, personal relationships and other quirks of professional services.

Used as a framework for understanding and influencing buyer decision making – the path to purchase model captures the key battlegrounds of marketing. As a marketer, it puts you squarely in the shoes of buyers and enables you to make considered decisions on branding, prospecting, social selling, proposals and much more. 

Path to purchase model

Trigger 

Can’t get enough of buying compliance services? Find yourself perusing websites for the latest legal services to buy? Didn’t think so! Like you, those buying professional services for business only do so when a trigger creates a problem to solve or an opportunity to exploit. 

And even when triggered to purchase, the buyer will only purchase (i.e. seek external support) when they’re obliged to by a third-party or regulation, want to shift risk, or they lack the right level of expertise or resourcing for the job at hand. More broadly, a buyer may purchase services where it enables a reduction in headcount and a net saving.  

Ongoing and recurring professional services are subject to triggers too, with buyers spurred to change suppliers where there’s a regulatory requirement, poor servicing (real or perceived), changing needs, personnel change and so on. 

Awareness 

You can’t buy something if you’re unaware it exists. Simple as that.  

Most buyers of professional services have a pool of professionals and firms they’re aware of – including those they’ve worked with, those they’ve stumbled across and major brands in the market. For each, the buyer has a perception of capability and client experience offered.

For buyers there’s little proactive canvassing of potential talent. However, they’re generally receptive to professionals offering unique insights on ways they can save or make money, mitigate risk or make life easier. How open a buyer is to growing their awareness (i.e. engaging with a new professional) depends on the urgency and importance they place on the problem or opportunity presented.  

The default position of buyers is to turn to those they’re aware of to meet their service needs. However, if they believe their needs can’t be met, buyers will expand their awareness by researching online, tapping their network for recommendations – or both.  

Commonality 

Whether they’re deciding to take a meeting, short-listing suppliers or making a final buying decision – buyers gravitate to professionals and firms with whom they share commonality. 

Put bluntly, buyers like working with people like themselves and are attracted to a sense of kinship. This commonality comes in many forms, including education and employment, industry expertise and advocacy, interests, personal networks, values and so on. 

Commonality also has considerations for the brand aspiration the buyer holds for themselves and their business. It’s not uncommon for buyers to purchase services from a professional or firm with a recognised status or values, as they seek to establish commonality and present themselves and their business in a particular light. 

It’s the old adage of being judged by the company you keep. 

Trust

Buyers want their problem solved or opportunity exploited and a great service experience. To get what they want – buyers seek professionals who are technically and commercially capable, easy to work with and true to their word. No surprises there!

With the attributes that buyers seek in professionals uncertain and intangible, the buyer has to make a trust assessment – considering their experiences working with professionals/firms, consultations, recommendations, LinkedIn, proposals, firm branding and more. 

Increasingly, online resources (e.g. LinkedIn, firm websites and Google) are the first source for buyers when making a trust assessment – with buyers searching professionals and firms they’re aware of or researching their challenge or opportunity. These online resources are also used to validate claims made by professionals in consultations and collateral.  

Self-interest 

Buyers want their problem solved or opportunity exploited and a great service experience – these are their primary self-interests. However, if they see no material difference in the likely satisfaction of these primary self-interests, then other self-interests (e.g. relationships, kinship, personal brand, ease of purchase, job security, etc.) can sway the buying decision. 

It’s rare that other self-interests will be so strong that buyers are willing to meaningfully compromise their primary self-interests, but it does happen. It’s more common that buyers see little difference in the likely satisfaction of both their primary and other self-interests – and therefore make a decision on price. 

The concept of self-interest is complex as there are usually multiple people making and influencing the buying decision – all with potentially different self-interests. For example, a buying decision could see Legal Counsel seeking to position themselves as superior to a predecessor; a CFO keen to reward a referrer; a CTO wanting to minimise team resourcing; and a lawyer happy with the easy-option of retaining the incumbent. 

The influence of each person’s self-interest depends on who’s driving the buying decision (generally the budget holder), the power dynamic, the structure of the decision-making process and the comparative strength of each buyer’s self-interests. 

Reflection 

During and after service delivery, the buyer considers if their primary self-interests have been satisfied – with this feeding into the consideration of trust for future buying decisions. In other words, the successful delivery of a buyer’s primary self-interests improves trust for future buying decisions and vice-versa.  

Yes, doing a good job will still get you far!

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So, that’s the path to purchase model for people in business buying professional services. 

As simple as it is – there’s a bit to take in. If you do take anything away, I hope it’s to align your marketing activity to the buying journey (not your selling journey) and to never underestimate the influence of self-interest. 

Thanks for reading.