• by Hank Brigman , December 22, 2004

Sales professionals, marketing, and C-level executives all have "skin in the game" of increasing conversions and shortening sales cycles; it directly effects their compensation or bonuses. Organizations spend a lot of time, effort, and money to get prospects to select their product or service. Yet few organizations know the most common sequence of customer interactions new customers encounter as they move from awareness of its offerings through to selection. Understanding these "touchpoints" that make up your customers "paths" are critical to improving conversions and shortening the sales cycle.

So what are these paths? They represent the sequence of touchpoints that prospects and customers encounter as they travel through their lifecycle stages with your organization.

In our research we have identified four different types of paths:
* Initial selection - the sequence of touchpoints prospects encounter as they proceed from awareness of your offering, to information gathering or knowledge, through to consideration and finally selection.
* Repurchase - Once a customer, the sequence of touchpoints a customer encounters to repurchase the same product/service.
* Additional purchases - The sequence of touchpoints a current customer encounters through the process of selecting a different product or service.
* Loyalty/Advocacy - The sequence of touchpoints a customer encounters that motivates loyalty and or advocacy

Your organization probably has thousands of different combinations and permutations of touchpoints customers can encounter along their various paths. Understanding these paths is important because it positions an organization to ease, motivate, and guide travel along these paths, and to even shorten the time it takes to travel the paths. The results? Increased conversion performance over a shorter period of time.

So, how do you gain touchpoint path intelligence and turn it into improved conversions? More to come on this topic next week.