What the buyer is doing between your touchpoints and out of sight

4 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

A journey map drawn from a business's own records shows a series of contacts: an enquiry, a call, a quote, an order. Between those points, which is where the buyer spends nearly all of their time, the map is blank. That blankness is not an absence of activity; it is an absence of visibility.

During those gaps people ask friends, read reviews, compare alternatives, discuss it with a partner, look for money, postpone, forget and remember. The decision is largely made there rather than during your contacts, which makes the periods you cannot see the most consequential part of the journey and the least managed.

1. What the buyer is doing between your touchpoints is most of the journey

The proportion.

A process containing four contacts over six weeks is a few hours of interaction and hundreds of hours of everything else. Your influence in those gaps is what decides the outcome. Businesses optimise the hours and ignore the weeks.

2. They are asking somebody they trust

The most influential activity.

A friend, a colleague, a neighbour, a professional. This carries more weight than anything you send, and you influence it only by being easy to describe and worth describing. A customer who cannot summarise what you do cannot recommend you effectively.

3. They are comparing you against alternatives

The competitive activity.

Usually two or three options, assessed quickly and shallowly. What is easy to find and easy to compare matters more here than what is best. Being harder to assess than a rival is a real disadvantage.

4. They are checking you

The verification.

Reviews, listings, whether you look active, whether the details agree. This happens without any contact and you fail it silently. Run the check yourself quarterly, because nothing else will surface it.

5. They are not thinking about it at all

The largest category.

Long stretches where other priorities take over. This is normal, it is not disinterest, and it is why silence after a quote should not be read as a decision. Most stalled opportunities are in this state rather than lost.

6. They are waiting on somebody else

The dependency.

An approval, a partner, a landlord, another trade. The buyer is stalled by something unconnected to you and frequently will not explain it unless asked. Asking what has to happen before they can proceed usually surfaces it.

7. Give them something for the gap

The intervention.

Material that helps them decide, sent during the period rather than as a chase. This is the only way to be present in a space you cannot observe. Prepare four or five items once and reuse them.

8. Ask what happened in the gap

The research.

"What were you doing between our conversation and getting back to me?" Customers answer this readily and the answers populate the blank part of your map.

9. Measure the gaps as well as the contacts

The metric.

Elapsed days between each touchpoint. Long gaps are where buyers cool, and a map with dates makes them visible in a way a sequence of events does not.

Be careful about filling the gaps with contact. The objective is to be useful during a period when the buyer is thinking, not to occupy it. A message every few days converts the gap into pressure and produces the silence you were trying to prevent.

Conclusion

Assume the decision is being made in the periods you cannot see.

Recognise that they are asking somebody they trust, comparing two or three alternatives, checking your reviews and listings, frequently not thinking about it at all, and sometimes waiting on a third party, provide material that helps them decide rather than chasing during the gap, ask customers afterwards what they were doing in it, and record the elapsed days between touchpoints so the gaps appear on the map.