The Buying Process
and Buyer Behavior
Concepts and Practices
Customer Strategy
Defined
“A customer strategy is a carefully conceived plan that
results in maximum customer responsiveness. One
major dimension of this strategy is to achieve a better
understanding of the customer’s buying needs and
motives.”
8-2
Strategic/Consultative
Selling Model
FIGURE
8-3
8.1
Complex Nature of
Customer Behavior
• Individual customers perceive the product in their own
terms
• The customer is a person,
not a statistic
• Companies that fully accept
this basic truth are likely to
adopt a one-to-one
marketing strategy
8-4
Consumer versus
Organizational Buyers
• Consumer buyer behavior refers to the buying behavior of
individuals and households who buy goods and services for
personal consumption
• Business (organizational) buyer behavior refers to the
organizations that buy goods and services for use in the
production of other products and services that are sold,
rented, or supplied to others
8-5
Differences Between Consumer and
Organizational Buyers
FIGURE
8-6
8.2
Types of Organizational
Buying Situations
• New-task buy
• Salespeople rely on consultative selling skills
• Straight rebuy
• Salespeople constantly monitor satisfaction
• Modified rebuy
• Salespeople can provide service/anticipate changes
• Systems selling
8-7
Types of Consumer
Buying Situations
• Habitual buying situations
• Variety-seeking buying situations
• Complex buying situations
8-8
Achieving Alignment
• The buying process is a systematic series of actions, or
a series of defined, repeatable steps, intended to
achieve a result
• Salespeople need to be clear on how decisions are
being made
• Acquire specific information rather than make
generalizations about the buyer’s decision-making
process
8-9
Steps in the Buying
Process
FIGURE
8-10
8.3
Steps in the Buying
Process
• Need awareness
• Salespeople can create value by determining problems
and identifying solutions
• Evaluation of solutions
• Salespeople can create value by providing useful
information
• Resolution of problems
8-11
Steps in the Buying
Process
• Purchase
• Salespeople create value by arranging financing or
supervising delivery and installation
• Implementation
• Value creation involves timely delivery, superior
installation, accurate invoicing, or follow-up contacts by
the salesperson
8-12
Understanding Buying
Processes
• Transactional buyers
• Salespeople can eliminate any unnecessary costs or
delays
• Consultative buyers
• Salespeople focus attention on needs awareness/help
customer evaluate solutions
• Strategic alliance buyers
8-13
Buyer Resolution
Theory
• Why should I buy?
(need)
• What should I buy?
(product)
• Where should I buy? (source)
• What is a fair price? (price)
• When should I buy? (time)
8-14
Customer Strategy Model
FIGURE
8-15
8.5
Basic Needs—Maslow
FIGURE
• Physiological: food, shelter
• Security: free from danger
• Social: identification
with social groups,
friendship
• Esteem: desire to feel worthy in eyes of others
• Self-actualization: need for mastery, self-fulfillment
8-16
8.6
Group Influences
8-17
FIGURE
8.7
Group Influences
• Role: expectations associated with position
• Reference groups: categories of people you see
yourself belonging to
• Social class: group with similar values, interests,
lifestyles
• Culture: influences of group with common language,
environment, also subcultures
8-18
Discussion Question
Overgeneralizing based on demographics can be dangerous.
Remember, prospects act as individuals, not stereotypes.
Some predict the demise of demographics in marketing.
• How would this impact customer analysis?
8-19
Perception: Customer
Need Formation
• “Facts are negotiable. Perception is rock-solid.”
• Selective attention: We tend to screen out
certain messages . . . information overload
• Buyers conditioned by social-cultural
background and need to use various selective
processes
• Salespersons should encourage client to discuss
“perceptions” of products
8-20
Buying Motives
• A buying motive is an aroused need, drive, or desire
that stimulates behavior to satisfy the aroused need
• It’s helpful to discover the “dominant buying motive”
or DBM
• Four basic motive types—emotional, rational,
patronage, and product
8-21
Emotional and Rational
Motives
Emotional
Rational
• Acts due to passion or sentiment
• Acts on reason or judgment
• Emotional appeals common
• Relatively free of emotion
• If two products are identical, the
salesperson who “connects” has
the advantage
• Salespeople gather, interpret,
and disseminate customerspecific information
8-22
Discussion Questions
• What types of purchases would be
dominated by emotional buying
motives?
• What types of purchases would be
dominated by rational buying motives?
8-23
Customers Can Make
Better Decisions Using:
See the
Website
8-24
Discussion Questions
• What sort of role would information
provided by sources like Consumer
Reports play in a customer’s decision?
• How can a salesperson use this
information to his/her advantage?
8-25
Patronage and Product
Motives
Patronage
• Buy from a particular firm
Product
• Past experience positive
• Buyer believes one product
is superior to others
• Relevant elements: superior
service, product selection,
competent sales staff
• Preferences for: specific
brands, quality, price,
design/engineering
8-26