What is Buying Process?
In B2B sales development, the buying process is the series of stages a target account moves through from recognizing a problem, researching solutions, and evaluating vendors to deciding, purchasing, and adopting. For SDR teams, mapping this process is critical to timing outreach, tailoring messaging to each stakeholder, and progressing opportunities from first touch to qualified pipeline and closed-won revenue.
Understanding Buying Process in B2B Sales
For SDR and outbound teams, understanding the buying process means knowing who is involved at each stage, what questions they are asking, what information they need, and what internal approvals they must secure. This is especially important in B2B, where complex deals often involve large buying groups and long timelines. Recent research shows typical B2B purchases involve 8-11 stakeholders and take around 10-11 months from initial exploration to decision, especially for higher-value solutions.6sense.com
The modern buying process is increasingly digital, non-linear, and self-directed. Buyers conduct the majority of their research independently through search, peer networks, review sites, and analyst reports before they ever speak with a sales rep. Multiple studies find that buyers now complete roughly 70% of their purchasing research and requirements definition before engaging with sellers, and most first contacts are initiated by the buyer, not the seller.landbase.com This means SDRs are often entering deals late unless they proactively identify and engage accounts earlier in their journey.
Modern sales organizations operationalize the buying process by defining discrete customer-centric stages (e.g., problem identified, options explored, requirements defined, shortlist created, business case built, decision made). They map these stages to internal lifecycle stages (MQL, SAL, SQL, opportunity, etc.), qualification criteria, and specific SDR responsibilities. Outreach cadences, call talk tracks, email sequences, and enablement content are designed to match the information needs and risks the buyer is trying to resolve at each step.
Over time, the B2B buying process has evolved from a mostly linear, seller-led motion with one or two decision-makers to a collaborative, committee-based journey with many parallel research paths. This complexity creates friction: Forrester reports that a very high share of B2B purchases stall before completion and that most buyers end up dissatisfied with their chosen provider, while Gartner finds that more than two-thirds of buying teams experience unhealthy internal conflict during decisions.forrester.com As a result, leading sales development teams focus not just on generating interest, but on helping buyers navigate their own process, build consensus, and reach confident decisions.
In practice, mapping and aligning to the buying process enables SDRs to multi-thread into accounts, anticipate next steps, and orchestrate coordinated touches across phone, email, and social. It also provides a common language for SDRs, AEs, and marketing to discuss deal health, forecast accuracy, and where to focus resources to remove friction and accelerate revenue.
Key Benefits
Higher Quality Pipeline and Conversion
When SDRs align outreach to the real buying process, they focus on accounts with clear problem recognition, budget, and active evaluation. This improves qualification, reduces unproductive meetings, and increases conversion from first conversation to sales-accepted and sales-qualified opportunities.
Better Personalization and Relevance
Knowing where a prospect is in their buying process allows SDRs to tailor messaging, questions, and content to the buyer's current concerns. Instead of generic pitches, reps can speak directly to stage-specific needs like building a business case, comparing vendors, or planning implementation.
Shorter Sales Cycles and Less Deal Slippage
A clearly mapped buying process reveals typical bottlenecks-such as security reviews, legal approval, or executive sign-off-that often stall deals. SDRs can help AEs pre-empt these obstacles by engaging the right stakeholders early, resulting in smoother internal approvals and shorter cycle times.
Stronger Multi-Threading into Buying Committees
Because B2B buying groups often include 8-10+ stakeholders, mapping the buying process helps SDRs identify economic buyers, champions, technical gatekeepers, and end users. This enables multi-threaded outreach that builds consensus instead of over-relying on a single contact who may not control the decision.
Improved Forecasting and Cross-Functional Alignment
When revenue teams share a common view of the customer buying process, stage definitions become more objective and tied to buyer verifiable outcomes. Marketing, SDRs, and AEs can align campaigns, SLAs, and success metrics, which makes pipeline forecasts more reliable and easier to manage.
Common Challenges
Limited Visibility into Buyer Activities
Much of the buying process now happens in digital channels outside direct seller control, from anonymous website visits to peer research. SDR teams often struggle to know when a buying journey has started, causing them to miss the early research phase when preferences are being formed.
Entering the Conversation Too Late
Because buyers complete most of their research and vendor shortlisting before talking to sales, SDR outreach often begins after the customer already has a preferred vendor. This late entry reduces influence over requirements and pricing, leading to lower win rates and more competitive bake-offs.
Stakeholder Misalignment and Internal Conflict
Buying committees frequently include stakeholders from finance, IT, operations, and the business unit, each with different priorities. Gartner reports that roughly three-quarters of B2B buyer teams experience unhealthy conflict during decisions, which can stall deals or result in no decision.gartner.com
High Rate of Stalled or Abandoned Purchases
Complex internal approval steps, competing initiatives, and unclear ROI can cause deals to stall despite initial interest. Industry research indicates that a large share of B2B purchases never progress to completion and many buyers are dissatisfied with the providers they ultimately choose, signaling friction throughout the process.forrester.com
Fragmented Data and Tools Across the Journey
CRM, marketing automation, intent data, and sales engagement platforms often hold separate pieces of the buying story. Without a unified view, SDRs can't easily see which contacts engaged with which content, when new stakeholders emerged, or how close the account is to a decision.
Key Statistics
Best Practices
Document Customer-Centric Buying Stages by Segment
Interview customers, AEs, and SDRs to capture the real steps buyers take from problem recognition to renewal in each key segment. Turn these into 5-7 clear buying stages with buyer verifiable outcomes (e.g., business case approved) and align them with your internal lead and opportunity stages.
Map the Full Buying Committee and Roles
For your ideal customer profile, define typical stakeholders (economic buyer, champion, technical evaluator, legal, procurement) and what each cares about at different stages. Train SDRs to prospect into these roles proactively and track stakeholder coverage as a key opportunity health metric.
Use Intent and Engagement Signals to Time Outreach
Leverage tools that track account-level intent topics, website behavior, and content engagement to detect when a buying process is likely underway. Prioritize SDR outreach to accounts showing surging interest, and tailor messaging to the topics and pain points they are actively researching.
Design Stage-Specific Sequences and Talk Tracks
Build separate cold calling and email sequences for early-stage education, solution exploration, and late-stage validation. Ensure each sequence has messaging, questions, and assets that match what buyers need at that point-for example, ROI calculators for business case building or implementation guides for final evaluation.
Align SDR and AE Handoffs to Buying Milestones
Define clear criteria for when SDRs should convert a lead to an opportunity and bring in an AE, based on buying signals like a confirmed project, timeline, or executive sponsor. Use shared discovery templates so information from SDR conversations maps directly to the buyer's current stage and next steps.
Continuously Refine with Win/Loss and Pipeline Analysis
Review closed-won and closed-lost deals regularly to identify where in the buying process deals stall or accelerate. Update your stage definitions, stakeholder maps, and outreach plays based on real patterns, and coach SDRs with examples of what effective engagement looks like at each step.
Related Tools & Resources
Salesforce Sales Cloud
A leading CRM platform used to track accounts, contacts, opportunities, and stages aligned to the customer buying process, giving SDRs and AEs a shared view of pipeline health.
HubSpot Sales Hub
An all-in-one CRM and sales engagement platform that lets teams define deal stages, automate sequences, and measure engagement across the buying journey.
Outreach
A sales engagement platform that orchestrates multi-step email, call, and social sequences tailored to different stages of the buying process and tracks contact-level engagement.
Salesloft
A sales engagement and dialer platform that helps SDRs run stage-specific cadences, log conversations, and analyze which steps move buyers forward.
Gong
A revenue intelligence and call analytics platform that captures and analyzes buyer-seller conversations to reveal where deals stall and how messaging performs at each stage.
ZoomInfo
A B2B data provider offering company and contact data, buying committee insights, and intent signals to help SDRs target the right accounts at the right moment in their buying process.
Partner with SalesHive for Buying Process
Through SDR outsourcing, SalesHive’s US-based and Philippines-based teams run coordinated cold calling and email outreach that’s sequenced around key buying milestones-such as new leadership, funding, technology changes, or regulatory triggers. Using AI-powered personalization tools like eMod, we adapt messaging to buyer role and stage, surfacing relevant proof points, case studies, and offers that help prospects progress their internal decision.
Because there are no annual contracts and onboarding is risk-free, companies can quickly test and scale programs that are explicitly designed around their unique buying processes. SalesHive’s reporting then feeds insights back into your revenue operations, showing which personas, messages, and triggers most reliably move target accounts from early exploration to qualified meetings and active opportunities.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between the buying process and the sales process in B2B?
The buying process describes how the customer moves from problem recognition to decision and implementation, while the sales process describes the internal steps your team takes to engage that customer. Effective sales development teams design their sales process to mirror and support the buyer's process, using buyer actions-not internal activities-as the primary indicator of stage.
Why is the buying process especially important for SDR teams?
SDRs are often the first human touchpoint in a buyer's journey, so they need to know what the buyer has already done and what comes next. Understanding the buying process helps SDRs time outreach, ask better discovery questions, deliver relevant content, and hand off to AEs at the right moment, which increases meeting quality and opportunity conversion.
How can I tell where a prospect is in their buying process?
Look at both explicit signals (like a prospect stating they are evaluating vendors or have a project approved) and behavioral data (such as repeated visits to pricing pages, downloads of ROI content, or RFP requests). Combining conversation insights with digital engagement and intent data gives the clearest picture of stage and next best action for SDRs.
Can we influence the buying process, or is it fixed?
While you can't fully control a prospect's internal steps, you can influence their path by educating them on best practices, sharing decision frameworks, and helping them build a compelling business case. SDRs who guide prospects with helpful questions and resources often shape requirements and vendor criteria in ways that favor their solution.
How often should we update our view of the buying process?
Review your buying-process assumptions at least quarterly, and more frequently if you are selling into rapidly changing markets. Use win/loss analysis, feedback from SDRs and AEs, and changes in average cycle length or stakeholder makeup to refine stages, qualification criteria, and outreach plays.
What role does technology play in managing the buying process?
CRM, intent data, and sales engagement tools help you capture buyer signals, orchestrate multichannel outreach, and measure movement through stages. However, technology is only effective when it's configured around a clear, customer-centric buying-process map and consistently used by SDRs and AEs.
