IN PRAISE OF THE BUYING CYCLE
One of the exercises I use during coaching engagements is a breakdown of the client's customer's Buying Cycle.

Using the Buying Cycle, we can understand so much more about marketplace dynamics and about what I like to call "marketing synapses"—those moments when someone in the marketplace is receptive to a quality marketing message from you.

The goal is to use strategic techniques to uncover these synapses and tactical deployment to get maximum value from them.

This may be something your company already does. If so, you've learned the value of the Buying Cycle over the Sales Cycle as a vehicle for understanding your marketplace. But if you don't, I thought I would share how that exercise goes.

The drill is based on the principle that small "synapses" occur throughout the Buying Cycle—little events all along the way that are opportunities to present a marketing message, and by so doing gain competitive advantage. Its purpose is to uncover these events and determine if and how you should try to control their marketing value.

THE FOUR KEY ELEMENTS
There are four key elements to understand at any point in the cycle:

1. Who are the actors?

2. What action are they taking?

3. What is the best possible outcome for you from the action?

4. If that best outcome occurs, is it of any value to you?

We begin by breaking down the dynamics of the Buying Cycle to the most granular degree possible. Sometimes it requires research, sometimes not—depending on the type of product and the degree of knowledge the client already has. Once we've done that, we then create a chart of those four key elements, and examine where potential for driving good message exists.

Here's a hypothetical example.

Acme builds industrial canning equipment, which is integrated into an overall automated canning assembly line. It is one piece of equipment in a series of equipment (labelers, packers, sealers and so forth).

Early on in the Buying Cycle, a very simple step occurs. The technical specifications for Acme's canner are handed to the prospect to ensure that it meets required standards, and can be integrated into the assembly system. From the point of view of the Sales Cycle, this is a no-brainer, two-event process: the handoff of the specs, and then the call saying the equipment is up to specification and an advance to the next meeting.

THE BREAKDOWN
But from the point of view of the Buying Cycle, this is a more complex set of dynamics, some of which may have marketing value. Here's the breakdown.

The three shaded areas are those parts of the Buying Cycle that are invisible to the sales cycle; Acme has determined that two of these have marketing value:

1. Well organized and complete specifications create a positive impression on the reviewer—developing a position as a "buttoned down" company.

2. An enthusiastic response from the reviewer creates positive brand in the prospect.

Now, these two are both focused on the same actor: the reviewing engineer. The marketing strategy is to position the company in the mind of that reviewer, such that when he turns his review in, he accompanies it with some kind of "extra" enthusiasm for Acme. That enthusiasm is the marketing message you're going after; coming from a highly credible source, it will add positive branding in the mind of the prospect contact.

A manageable marketing challenge for which we can deploy reasonable tactics.

(Incidentally, this brings up another subtle strategic point: how often do people with no qualifications to carry your company's marketing message—such as the reviewing engineer in this scenario—end up in fact being the primary medium for your message at some point in time? And what do you do to control that less than optimal marketing moment? More about that soon.)

THE TACTICS
What might Acme do? If their sense is that it is a useful synapse, they might create an overall reviewer's package, delivered in a branded binder, containing checklists, tabbed sections for placing each reviewed product (including the competition's), and so on. In this way, not only will the reviewer have something enthusiastic to say ("these guys really do a good job organizing their information"), but he will deliver something that is loaded with Acme's identity (imagine your competition's specifications recorded on a checklist that carries your logo).

If Acme determines that the ultimate marketing value of this synapse is not sufficient to warrant such elaborate preparations, they can deploy some less ambitious tactic—even if it's just ensuring that the quality of the delivery of the specifications are excellent (organized, perhaps a table of contents, a good cover letter, clear contact information and so forth). Something (anything!) other than sending a technical specs sheet as a Word document with a two-sentence email cover message—anything other than being just one more member of the herd.

I've used a very small event—a minor synapse—here because they are often the hardest to uncover. It's easy from here to apply this to more significant events. But the primary intent here was to show that for marketers, focused as we must be always on customer not company, prospect not product, the Buying Cycle is a rich and rewarding source of opportunities to reach and manage our marketplace.

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