What is Outside-In™?
In no uncertain terms, buyers are buying differently. Long gone are the days of the single decision maker or when individuals could be managed through a sales process. Today’s buyers are more empowered, more informed, more overwhelmed by choice, and often feel they lack the time and resources to commit to a purchase. A new approach is needed for sales and, ultimately, for revenue generation and all customer-facing activities.
Outside-In™ is our research-backed perspective on why you must focus on the buying journey lifecycle to sell effectively. By inverting the traditional focus on the steps of a sales process, Outside-In™ uses the voice of the customer to determine how all customer-facing roles can be aligned with, engage in, and stay engaged throughout the buying journey, allowing an organization to guide customers toward a successful purchase and beyond.
What is the Blueprint for Success?
The Blueprint for Success is our proven approach for implementing and adopting Outside-In™ Revenue Generation. The process comprises three phases: Scope & Strategy, Development, and Adoption. It begins by aligning stakeholders around the “why,” mapping your market’s entire buying journey lifecycle, and then developing the optimal strategies your customer-facing roles need to influence it.
Once that strategy has been created, organizations can enable the approach with the right training and technology while supporting and managing the change.
mPath™ is our continuous, consultative, and coached engagement structure that guides clients through the Blueprint to develop, enable, and drive adoption of an Outside-In™ Revenue Generation Framework. Below is an overview of the three phases and sub-steps, as well as how our different services work together to support the process.
However, this structure is not one-size-fits-all. While these three phases are essential to Outside-In™ success, we offer as much or as little as your organization requires to adopt the approach. Some organizations may have already mapped their buying journey, surfaced best practices for engaging in their market, or implemented and adopted an effective technology stack.
In cases like these, we are happy to use or build on existing knowledge, training, and resources, helping you take the most efficient route to close the gaps and ensure Outside-In™ success without reinventing the wheel.
Market-Partners Inc. is committed to getting you the results you want, faster, and with less risk. That is why we have also made the Blueprint for Success available for free as a detailed guide for developing, deploying, and enabling Outside-In™ Revenue Generation. Click here to download the step-by-step eBook, including step-by-step instructions, best practices, and more.
DOWNLOAD THE BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS
1. Scope & Strategy
Before any project gets underway, it is paramount that key stakeholders are first aligned to the “why.” This includes business drivers, scope, constraints, and desired results. Once aligned, our team of expert researchers can then begin mapping the entire customer buying journey lifecycle. We use in-depth customer interviews, a robust process, and proprietary analysis methods to unlock actionable insights.
A comprehensive report is then prepared to illustrate the target market’s entire buying journey with the details of each step, the value drivers, buying concerns, and overall buying style. This process provides significant new insights and perspectives for every organization as they learn what really happens when a customer moves from interest through the stages of commitment to acquisition and adoption.
Based upon a clear understanding of the buying journey lifecycle, we then lead our visioning workshop, wherein stakeholders imagine and align around a better future for the business using these findings. During this workshop, we also facilitate the development of a Market Engagement Strategy. This is a critical stage for determining how the company will go to market and the new responsibilities of customer-facing roles.
We then work with you to prioritize initiatives, create ramp and adoption plans, and ensure alignment on next steps.
Before any project gets underway, it is paramount that key stakeholders are first aligned to the “why.” This includes business drivers, scope, constraints, and desired results. Once aligned, our team of expert researchers can then begin mapping the entire customer buying journey lifecycle. We use in-depth customer interviews, a robust process, and proprietary analysis methods to unlock actionable insights.A comprehensive report is then prepared to illustrate the target market’s entire buying journey with the details of each step, the value drivers, buying concerns, and overall buying style. This process provides significant new insights and perspectives for every organization as they learn what really happens when a customer moves from interest through the stages of commitment to acquisition and adoption.Based upon a clear understanding of the buying journey lifecycle, we then lead our visioning workshop, wherein stakeholders imagine and align around a better future for the business using these findings. During this workshop, we also facilitate the development of a Market Engagement Strategy. This is a critical stage for determining how the company will go to market and the new responsibilities of customer-facing roles.We then work with you to prioritize initiatives, create ramp and adoption plans, and ensure alignment on next steps.
2. Development
With the overall Market Engagement Strategy determined, both the Market Messaging Matrix and Outside-In™ Customer Buying Journey Navigator can be developed.
We facilitate the process by which the optimal sales, marketing, and business activities are determined and aligned with each step and participant in the buying journey lifecycle. The notion of a sales process is left behind as the entire focus shifts to how the organization actively supports and manages the Customer Buying Journey.
The Market Messaging Matrix and Outside-In™ Customer Buying Journey Navigator provide a totally customer-centric roadmap—a simple yet powerful foundation for effective, scalable, predictable, and managed revenue growth.
This critical stage lays the groundwork for a consistent and effective Outside-In Revenue Generation™ framework. That is why we not only architect, develop, and deliver the required training, but also surround our work with project and change management services to ensure smooth and rapid adoption of the framework. As part of these services, we help lead workshops to ensure the required new responsibilities are assigned, enabled, and managed.
Similarly, technology must be configured and aligned with the framework.
With the overall Market Engagement Strategy determined, both the Market Messaging Matrix and Outside-In™ Customer Buying Journey Navigator can be developed.We facilitate the process by which the optimal sales, marketing, and business activities are determined and aligned with each step and participant in the buying journey lifecycle. The notion of a sales process is left behind as the entire focus shifts to how the organization actively supports and manages the Customer Buying Journey.The Market Messaging Matrix and Outside-In™ Customer Buying Journey Navigator provide a totally customer-centric roadmap—a simple yet powerful foundation for effective, scalable, predictable, and managed revenue growth.This critical stage lays the groundwork for a consistent and effective Outside-In Revenue Generation™ framework. That is why we not only architect, develop, and deliver the required training, but also surround our work with project and change management services to ensure smooth and rapid adoption of the framework. As part of these services, we help lead workshops to ensure the required new responsibilities are assigned, enabled, and managed.Similarly, technology must be configured and aligned with the framework.
With the overall Market Engagement Strategy determined, both the Market Messaging Matrix and Outside-In™ Customer Buying Journey Navigator can be developed.We facilitate the process by which the optimal sales, marketing, and business activities are determined and aligned with each step and participant in the buying journey lifecycle. The notion of a sales process is left behind as the entire focus shifts to how the organization actively supports and manages the Customer Buying Journey.The Market Messaging Matrix and Outside-In™ Customer Buying Journey Navigator provide a totally customer-centric roadmap—a simple yet powerful foundation for effective, scalable, predictable, and managed revenue growth.This critical stage lays the groundwork for a consistent and effective Outside-In Revenue Generation™ framework. That is why we not only architect, develop, and deliver the required training, but also surround our work with project and change management services to ensure smooth and rapid adoption of the framework. As part of these services, we help lead workshops to ensure the required new responsibilities are assigned, enabled, and managed.Similarly, technology must be configured and aligned with the framework.
When it comes to adoption, starting with your early adopters is key. They are not participating in a “pilot”; rather, they are willing to help establish benchmarks for early results. Their experiences are used to assess launch readiness, helping us review and refine the appropriate level of change management.After the rollout, fulfilling the ramp and adoption plans from the Scope & Strategy phase, our team stands ready to provide continued support and help further optimize the approach.We believe in bringing together both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the system. Analytical dashboards provide inarguable data and facts, while feedback from the front line—and especially from customers—reveals the story behind the numbers. Measurement and optimization should be continual processes that identify emerging best practices, market trends, and pinch points that represent opportunities for refinement.
Over the past 25 years, Market-Partners Inc. has been researching how businesses and individuals actually go about buying. Our perspective on what constitutes a “buying decision” extends beyond deciding to issue a purchase order or pull out a credit card. In fact, it encompasses the entire lifecycle by which a business or individual becomes aware of an offering, develops interest in it, commits to acquiring it, and then adopts it.
Our work has clearly shown that you may have the best product available, with unquestionable value to your customer, but this alone does not lead to success. Revenue comes only when a customer buys something—not from customers who are interested or may buy one day, but from those who fully navigate the complex journey required to move an organization from interest through commitment and acquisition.
Yet that journey, along with the buyer’s underlying needs and expectations, remains largely unknown to many organizations.
We find that most sales and marketing departments have become very adept at positioning their offerings and presenting value propositions that can pique a prospect’s interest. However, after gaining that interest, the buyer is left to navigate the journey alone. Little consideration is given to how customer-facing roles could more meaningfully support prospects in their buying activities beyond reinforcing those same value propositions.
As a result, many buyers either delay engagement or see no reason to engage with your organization at all while making a purchase decision.
The good news is that our research also shows that buyers within a particular market buy in remarkably similar ways. These recognizable patterns form a map of what we call “Customer Buying Journey DNA.” While the elements, or strands, of Customer Buying Journey DNA are common to all buyers, the DNA itself is unique to a particular market. In fact, we would now argue that the very definition of a market should be a group of buyers with common Customer Buying Journey DNA.
We published these findings in the best-selling book, How Customers Buy… & Why They Don’t.
Armed with a deep understanding of a market’s specific buying journey, all customer-facing roles can be aligned to engage in and stay engaged throughout the entire buying journey lifecycle, delivering value and relevance each step of the way. We call this framework Outside-In Revenue Generation™—looking beyond the internal view of how you sell to the external reality of how your customers buy.
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