One of the biggest challenges for B2B marketers today is how they help their prospects navigate an increasingly complicated environment. Unlike in the B2C space, B2B buying cycles are lengthy and complex, often involving multiple different stakeholders with different priorities.

According to Gartner, more than three-quarters of B2B buyers (77 per cent) described their last major purchase as difficult. What's more, the typical process will involve between six and ten decision-makers, all of whom will be bringing up to five pieces of information to the discussion that they have collected independently. 

Therefore, understanding how to tailor your marketing and sales strategy throughout these various journeys is critical to positive outcomes. It's important that you're presenting the right information to the right people at the right times, and there's no single path to success.

However, the more you know about what your typical buyer's journey looks like, the better you can prepare a winning strategy.

What does the B2B buying journey look like?

In most cases, the B2B buying journey will progress through several distinct stages. This begins long before they get in touch with prospective suppliers. Usually, businesses will have begun the process by identifying a problem or need within their organisation, then starting to set out requirements for a solution before they begin gathering information on their options.

Once they are actively looking for solutions, there will be several key stages they go through. This begins with awareness, where they will first come into contact with a brand, typically by a web search. This then moves through interest to education as they learn more about the solution, then finally consideration, when they begin to focus on their final decision.

However, increasingly, much of this will be done independently before ever reaching out directly to a business. According to 6sense, buyers are typically 70 per cent of the way through the process before they have contact with a provider. It noted the average length of the cycle was 11 months, with direct engagement only occurring after eight months.

Adapting your strategy for every stage of the journey

Every piece of communication should be tailored carefully to each stage. For example, social posting is often regarded as one of the best ways to increase awareness of a brand's identity and culture, but it's not as well-suited to more in-depth education about key features of a product or how your brand solves problems.

For this, tools like thought leadership and case studies will be needed. All of this also needs to be paired with a strong SEO strategy to ensure prospects actually find your content, as the vast majority of journeys start with a Google search.

Much of this activity should be focused on digital channels. McKinsey notes that two-thirds of the buying process is now done digitally, while Forrester found that 74 per cent of business buyers conduct more than half of their research online, even when the final purchase is made via offline channels.

However, it's important not to see this as a replacement for face-to-face interactions. For larger purchases especially, this is an invaluable way to help build trust between provider and customer. Therefore, knowing when to reach out and take this next step is vital.

Getting sales and marketing in alignment

Another key consequence of these long, complex buying cycles is that there is no longer a clear handoff point between marketing and sales professionals. It is not a case of handing over a list of leads from marketing to sales  - particularly when buyers are conducting so much independent research before the first point of contact.

Therefore, it's important these two departments work closely together to ensure they are delivering the right assets to prospects. For instance, if there are particular aspects of a product or service that buyers remain unclear about when customers get in touch, this should be fed back to marketing so that strategies can be adjusted accordingly.

Similarly, marketing leads should ensure sales pros are fully aware of what materials they have already distributed so as to avoid repetitive or conflicting messaging. Good communication isn't just limited to talking to customers - it also requires internal cooperation at every stage.