Understanding the B2B customer's goal-oriented purchase journey and the optimal seller's support : context of major industrial investments
Silakoski, Veera (2023)
2023
Kauppatieteiden maisteriohjelma - Master's Programme in Business Studies
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-11-23
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202311099539
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202311099539
Tiivistelmä
In the recent years the business-to-business buying environment has changed significantly making the buying harder than ever. This has aroused a need for being more customer centric and understanding customers’ purchase journeys better. It has forced sellers to concentrate on the ways they can support their customers purchases more efficiently and ultimately support the value created through optimal goal attainment.
This research aims to understand better what B2B customer’s goal-oriented purchase journey is like. This includes the stages of the purchase journey, key persons involved, touchpoints along the journey, individual and organizational goals guiding the purchases, and customer’s view on valuable seller’s support for optimal goal attainment. The context of the study is major industrial investments which refers to major industrial machinery investments in the board and paper manufacturing industry. The theory for the study is built by utilizing customer journey literature and traditional B2B buying literature to create conceptual model for the B2B purchase journey. The purchase journey background and factors influencing it are viewed and the concept defined in more detail. Also, the importance of goals as the guiding force during the purchase journey is presented and the suppliers valuable support for optimal goal attainment recognized.
The research was conducted by utilizing qualitative methodology. More precisely the abductive research logic was utilized. The method was chosen due to its capability get profound understanding and to build on existing knowledge. The data was collected with 14 theme interviews and analyzed with thematic analysis.
Based on the analysis of customer interviews it can be stated that purchase journey in the context of major industrial investments consists of five stages: need recognition, information search, comparison of alternatives, investment approval and selection. The key persons were recognized, and it was noted that the importance of commercial persons is higher in the end of the journey whereas the technical experts are very involved during the whole journey. The touchpoints where the customer and seller communicate were mainly controlled by the supplier and the customer. The role of different goals was also noted: the organizational and individual goals can be divided to operational and financial goals. Operational goals are more situation specific whereas the financial goals usually remain the same during the purchase. Lastly there were three direct key factors recognized to have influence on the optimal seller’s support: customer-seller relationship, way of working and seller’s competencies. Also, there were recognized to be two key indirect ways to support the customers: by directly supporting the third parties, and developing seller’s internal processes.
Based on the results it can be stated that if the sellers understand how their customers’ purchase journeys consist, they can offer them more individualized and valuable support for the optimal goal attainment. This again will create a possibility for the supplier to differentiate themselves based on better customer satisfaction and value which helps in building sustainable customer-seller relationships.
This research aims to understand better what B2B customer’s goal-oriented purchase journey is like. This includes the stages of the purchase journey, key persons involved, touchpoints along the journey, individual and organizational goals guiding the purchases, and customer’s view on valuable seller’s support for optimal goal attainment. The context of the study is major industrial investments which refers to major industrial machinery investments in the board and paper manufacturing industry. The theory for the study is built by utilizing customer journey literature and traditional B2B buying literature to create conceptual model for the B2B purchase journey. The purchase journey background and factors influencing it are viewed and the concept defined in more detail. Also, the importance of goals as the guiding force during the purchase journey is presented and the suppliers valuable support for optimal goal attainment recognized.
The research was conducted by utilizing qualitative methodology. More precisely the abductive research logic was utilized. The method was chosen due to its capability get profound understanding and to build on existing knowledge. The data was collected with 14 theme interviews and analyzed with thematic analysis.
Based on the analysis of customer interviews it can be stated that purchase journey in the context of major industrial investments consists of five stages: need recognition, information search, comparison of alternatives, investment approval and selection. The key persons were recognized, and it was noted that the importance of commercial persons is higher in the end of the journey whereas the technical experts are very involved during the whole journey. The touchpoints where the customer and seller communicate were mainly controlled by the supplier and the customer. The role of different goals was also noted: the organizational and individual goals can be divided to operational and financial goals. Operational goals are more situation specific whereas the financial goals usually remain the same during the purchase. Lastly there were three direct key factors recognized to have influence on the optimal seller’s support: customer-seller relationship, way of working and seller’s competencies. Also, there were recognized to be two key indirect ways to support the customers: by directly supporting the third parties, and developing seller’s internal processes.
Based on the results it can be stated that if the sellers understand how their customers’ purchase journeys consist, they can offer them more individualized and valuable support for the optimal goal attainment. This again will create a possibility for the supplier to differentiate themselves based on better customer satisfaction and value which helps in building sustainable customer-seller relationships.