Wednesday Wisdom: 4 Dimensions of Prior Experience Buyers Bring to Evaluations

saraboostani

Our buyer experience research has shed a lot of light on how much prior experience buyers bring with them into new evaluations — vendor relationships, past evaluations that ended in success, those that didn't result in a purchase, implementations, failed solutions, solutions that earned promotions, and much else. In our data, the average buyer reports having participated in eight to nine buying cycles over the course of their career.

We've been digging into that vast web of experience, and it was fascinating to see that when run through factor analysis, it separates into four distinct, measurable dimensions of prior experience:

• Shortlist Composition — the breadth of the evaluation set buyers consider viable.
• Field Narrowing — the extent to which the evaluation set is concentrated among familiar vendors and pre-populated from the outset.
• Process Experience — the depth of buyers’ accumulated experience navigating prior buying processes within a solution category.
• Outcome Continuity — whether they ultimately buy from someone they already know, regardless of how open the evaluation appeared.

We're working on a full write-up behind the scenes and wanted to share as we work through it. This is exactly the kind of thing that is just so cool to see come through in the data. More soon!
@Kerry