How we define the buying experience: How your target buyers perceive the experience of buying a product or service in your market. The buying experience includes the entire process the buyer engages in as they move from status quo (before they embark on the buying experience) to purchase (the final step that moves someone from buyer to customer).

Gartner's research shows that delivering a great experience to prospective buyers has the biggest impact on whether or not they will buy something. The overall buying experience actually outranks product and price. Benchmarking shows that the experience-first approach works — companies that deliver great buying experiences grow twice as fast as companies that deliver average experiences. This faster growth is a byproduct of the buying experience’s ability to deliver more traffic, higher conversion rates, larger average deal sizes, shorter sales cycles, lower churn and more customer referrals. It’s nothing more than providing buyers with what they want — a great experience — and then watching critical revenue metrics improve as a result.

1. Try and get them to arrive at the buying destination (basket) in 3 clicks or less. Too many apps or websites are complicated and clunky, like the DueTrade slogan - keep it simple. 2. Give them customer service at their fingertips. You can offer a direct chat from customer to customer services to answer any questions and even be helped through the buying process. 3. Use incentives (offers & promotions) to entice customers. You also want to think about adding a digital loyalty programme.

If you work in sales and marketing, job No. 1 is to deliver an experience that exceeds the buyer’s expectations so they buy your product or service. That’s easier said than done, but there are three things you can do to get started: • You need to understand the experience your buyer is currently having versus the experience they want to have. • It’s essential that you design and deliver a buying experience that is grounded in what the buyer wants — or buyer-responsive sales and marketing — which focuses on moving the buyer to the next step by providing them with what they need. • As you design the buying experience, remember that every buyer wants help making better decisions and an easy way to make the buying decision.