Take Advantage of the Epiphany Stage

We’ve just completed a new report entitled The Epiphany Stage: The Missing Link in the Buying Process. We were driven to write the report because we see marketers engaging prospects and customers too late in the buying cycle. Marketers are missing opportunities in the epiphany stage, which occurs long before any discussion of products, services, or RFPs—indeed, it occurs before customers have even begun to think about a purchase.

The epiphany stage is the point at which customers come to the realization of an important business need. For example, it could be the moment when the executive team realizes that it needs to enter a new market or develop a new product. Or it could be the moment when the business unit leader sees how the innovative application of a newer technology can solve a previously unidentified business problem. It’s a golden moment for a provider to be there to offer valuable advice and support.

Helping customers realize that they have a business need confers a tremendous advantage. You have the opportunity to create a deeper, more enduring relationship with prospects and customers and to influence the direction of the project before competitors have even entered the process—perhaps securing a role as the preferred provider.

But it isn’t easy.

We have identified three steps to become a master of the epiphany stage:

1. Refocus your thought leadership strategy. In the epiphany stage, thought leadership should be focused on revealing future trends and articulating the business challenges and opportunities that will likely result from those trends. Thus, marketing owns the epiphany stage. It’s up to marketing to create a research network that generates the trends and business challenges that customers and prospects are looking for at this stage.

2. Align the sales and marketing processes with the customer’s buying process. There is typically a big gap in time between the point at which a prospect recognizes a business need and the time when sales typically engages them (in the interest stage). Marketers need to help sales better understand prospects’ internal buying processes so that sales moves from simply reacting to RFPs to helping prospects discover and respond to the most important business issues they face.

3. Change sales’ emphasis from transactional to consultative selling. The goal for salespeople in the epiphany stage shifts from making the sale to building trust. Customers invest their trust in the relationship when they see that a provider is willing and able to provide knowledge and experience that rivals and exceeds their own—in other words, to put the needs of the customer first. That trust increases when the provider does not allow knowledge and experience to be bounded by its own four walls.

ITSMA program clients can read the full report here.

5 Responses to “Take Advantage of the Epiphany Stage”

1. Four reasons to stop measuring marketing « Chris Koch’s Blog Says:
   July 31st, 2009 at 11:48 AM

   [...] pull in prospects through thought leadership, we need to understand that our life’s blood is the Epiphany Stage of the buying process. We need marketing content specifically targeted at that stage, as well as [...]

2. Why marketers must become the new publishers « Chris Koch’s Blog Says:
   October 6th, 2009 at 6:30 PM

   [...] an important trend before others do. For marketers, being timely means having content that matches every stage of the buying cycle, so that you have a chance for an “exclusive” at each [...]

3. Market your technology like a publisher « Tech Marketing Blog Says:
   November 12th, 2009 at 10:41 AM

   [...] an important trend before others do. For marketers, being timely means having content that matches every stage of the buying cycle, so that you have a chance for an “exclusive” at each [...]

4. kenny madden Says:
   February 27th, 2010 at 5:12 PM

   slowly but surely going in the right direction. I would go one step further and make a claim that the traditional sales model itself is at fault. turning to a consulative process won’t make any differnce if you intention os to place product or a solution. I would check out spiceworks and see what our users feel about the sales process today. It’s not pretty.

5. Marketing Strategy and Thought Leadership Marketing | Chris Koch's B2B Marketing Blog Says:
   March 7th, 2011 at 1:07 PM

   [...] Existing customers are also looking for new ideas. There’s no reason you can’t explore the epiphany stage with them more than [...]

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ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. We work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA annual program clients include business leaders such as AT&T, Cisco, Deloitte, EMC, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Tata Consultancy Services, among others. Our comprehensive research, consulting, and training on topics including ITSMA Account-Based Marketing℠, Brand Positioning, and Solutions Development provide the insight and experience companies need to improve business results. ITSMA is based near Boston, and has offices in London and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.