B2B customer journey mapping – Where do you start?

No matter what kind of business you run, understanding the path that your customers have to navigate in order to buy your product is a crucial element of B2B sales.

Journey mapping – the process of unpacking how a customer goes from identifying a problem to implementing a solution – may sound overwhelming, but there are some ways that you can simplify that process.

From working hard to understand your customers to thinking about how you can simplify their journey, here’s where you can start with B2B customer journey mapping.

Identifying + understanding your customer

The foundation of this process should be in working to understand your customers more generally. While some approaches try to treat customers in B2B contexts as purely rational and business-interested, this is never entirely true.

Business customers are still ultimately people, and they will have certain attitudes, preferences and preconceptions that may not align with a rational perspective entirely. By carrying out qualitative research, you can start the journey mapping process with a basic understanding of your customer, which can then be fleshed out by focusing on their specific needs and pain points.

Identifying general pain points

Next, you can start to look into general pain points. What do your target customers struggle with in their business lives, especially in the context of the product or service you sell? Are they overwhelmed by the options that are sold to them as potential solutions?

Do they struggle to find services that are broad enough in their scope? Are the available options too expensive, or not high quality enough? It can be helpful to have assistance from an agency like Fluid Commerce from even these early stages, to make sure you’re putting your resources in the right avenues of research.

Break down the journey

Once you understand a bit more about your customer, you can focus on the journey they go on to implement your product. This will start with a specific or general problem that they have, before going on towards a research stage where they look at potential solutions.

The next stage – deciding on a solution and signing some kind of contract or making a purchase – is important but by no means the end of the journey. The onboarding process, of actually implementing the solution, using customer support, and then hopefully benefiting from the product enough to renew it, is also a part of the journey that requires extensive attention.

One step at a time

Approaching each of these stages of the journey separately but with an appreciation of how each one influences the other, can be difficult at times. Take it slow, and try to get into the mindset of your customer.

More than that, engage with your customers and make sure that your journey map actually lines up with their experiences, and isn’t a projection of what you think is happening.

You should constantly be updating this journey map, rather than treating it as a static document that represents a constant reality. Your customers’ needs will change, and you have to make sure that your business is able to adapt to meet those changes.