The buyer’s journey report

Much of the buyer’s journey happens behind closed doors. So how do you find the buying behaviors that are traceable and make them work in your favor? Intent can’t tell you everything, but layering buying behaviors, from multiple sources lets you know when someone’s in-market, how close they are to buying, and how you can make sure you’re top of mind while they’re looking. To test this theory, we mapped the buyer’s journey.

Using technographics, we found any company that installed HubSpot, Stripe, or Shopify, over a 90-day period. From there, we analyzed nearly 1,000 companies to find the relevant intent signals each company showed in the 90 days leading up to installation. Those intent signals include engaging with competitors, custom keywords, hiring relevant roles, or attending events. From there, we used the timeline from the first sign of intent to install and the different intent signal types to visualize the buying process.

How does buying intent change from beginning to end? How does what you’re selling impact buying behavior? Are competitive signals further in the buyer’s journey? And what can marketers do to turn data like this into a competitive advantage?

To measure the trends, we split the buyer’s journey into 4 stages. Each stage makes up 25% of the buying cycles. In other words, if the visible buyer’s journey is 100 days, Stage 1 is days 1-25, Stage 2 is 25-50, and so on.

The buyer’s journey as seen by intent

Across nearly 1,000 companies a few trends were universal:

• Action-based intent increases by 60% from Stage 1 to 2, 36% from stage 2 to 3, then drops heavily in the final stage of buying.
• Competitive engagements peak approximately 80% of the way through the buying cycle.
• Most signals peak then fall, except competitive signals which continuously grow.
• Hiring is prioritized about 60% of the way through the buying cycle.

Key findings and what to do about them

52% drop in Stage 4 – but competitive signals grow

Third-party intent across the public web drops by 52% in the final stage of the buying cycle. But competitive signals are stronger than ever. Why?

By now, buyers have narrowed down their picks. Instead of hiring, reading content, or interacting on social, they’re likely meeting with vendors, chatting with colleagues, and getting approval internally. This reduces the number of visible activities.

Why Stripe has 4x the competitive engagement

Buyers looking for Stripe engage with competitors 4x more than buyers looking for HubSpot. There are a few potential reasons:

• Decision-makers for HubSpot have likely used them or a competitor before and have a preferred option. Even if they do research, there are two prominent brands in the space.
• There’s less commitment involved when evaluating Stripe compared to evaluating a CRM. If one doesn’t work out, it’s easier to switch or take the trade-off of less functionality for a lower price compared to a bad CRM choice that could lead to months of work.

Buyers take 32 actions before buying

Out of 32 intent signals:

• 24 are custom keyword engagements
• 4 are competitive engagements
• 3 are hiring signals
• 1 are event attendances

Keep in mind, this number varies depending on your market. HubSpot had more signals than Stripe for example. And it’s based on third-party intent across the public web. Combining this with sources like first-party intent or review site data, you’ll get even more visibility. However, that doesn’t mean these numbers can’t play a role in your strategy.

46% of hiring happens in the third stage of buying

Hiring plays an important role in buyer intent. Companies spending the resources to grow a team often need new tech to set them up for success. Whether new teammates have tools they love from a previous job or a brand new team is being built, tech installs are almost inevitable.

If a company is expanding its SDR or BDR team, they likely need sales engagement tools. If they’re building out a content team, they might need to add or update their CMS. The trick is catching this and getting there first.