Latest / Customer Journey with Fexingo: Touchpoints, Mapping, and Multi-Channel Marketing / The Touchpoint Journey Maps Miss in B2B Procurement
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this moment in B2B sales that almost never shows up on a journey map, and it's the moment that actually decides whether you win or lose the deal. Luna: I feel like you're about to name something I've definitely overlooked. What is it? Lucas: The internal pitch. When your champion inside the buying company takes your product to their own procurement team. That's a touchpoint you don't control, often don't even see, and yet it can make or break a six-figure contract. Luna: Right, because the champion isn't just your fan. They're basically selling on your behalf to a bunch of people who've never heard of you. Lucas: Exactly. And most journey maps stop at the demo or the proposal. They treat the sign-off as the finish line. But the real finish line is the internal procurement review, and that's where deals go to die quietly. Luna: Have you seen a concrete example of this? Because I love a specific number. Lucas: I was reading about a mid-sized SaaS company that sells project management software. Their average sales cycle was ninety days. They mapped the internal journey their champion had to go through, and they found the champion was spending two to three weeks gathering data to justify the purchase to procurement. Luna: Wow. That's a third of the cycle just on internal bureaucracy. Lucas: So they created a one-page business case template. It had the ROI model, the security answers, the implementation plan, even the negotiation thresholds. They gave it to every champion at the start of the sales process. Luna: And what happened? Lucas: Their average cycle dropped to sixty days. A thirty percent reduction, just from equipping the champion to navigate their own company's procurement process. Luna: That's a massive win. But wait, why would marketing think to map that? It's not a touchpoint you own. Lucas: That's the blind spot. Journey maps tend to focus on the moments you control: your ads, your website, your emails. But the customer's journey doesn't stop when they leave your site. It continues inside their own organization. Luna: So you're saying the internal pitch is basically a second sales process that happens without you in the room. Lucas: And that's why so many deals stall. The champion is motivated, but they're not prepared to argue your case to a skeptical procurement manager who cares about compliance, pricing, and risk, not features. Luna: So what does marketing actually produce for this touchpoint? Is it just the business case template? Lucas: The template is the big one. But there's also the collateral that gets repurposed. Think about it: your champion is going to take your pitch deck, your data sheet, your security whitepaper, and they're going to forward them to procurement. If those documents are full of jargon and missing the financial justification, your champion looks unprepared. Luna: So you need to create materials that are designed to be forwarded internally, not just consumed by the decision maker. Lucas: Exactly. This is where marketing and sales enablement have to work together. You're essentially writing a script for someone else's internal meeting. Luna: I love this because it flips the usual journey map on its head. You're not just mapping the customer's path to you; you're mapping your path through them. Lucas: And that's the deeper lesson. The journey isn't a straight line from awareness to purchase. It's a branching path that goes through departments, approval chains, and hidden vetoes. Luna: Before we go further, I want to point out that this episode is exactly the kind of conversation we're able to have because we keep it ad-free. If you've found value in our marketing deep dives and want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep this going. Lucas: And we genuinely appreciate anyone who does. Now, back to the internal pitch. There's another layer here: the ethics of mapping internal politics. Luna: How do you mean? Lucas: When you map the champion's journey to procurement, you're essentially mapping the power dynamics inside your customer's company. You're figuring out who has influence, who has veto power, who needs to be persuaded. Luna: That could get manipulative pretty fast. Lucas: It could. But the line is drawn when you're providing your champion with tools to navigate their own internal process versus trying to bypass or undermine decision makers. Luna: So what's the ethical way to use this insight? Lucas: The ethical way is to focus on transparency and value. Your business case template should help your champion make a genuine case for why your product is the best choice, not just a case that manipulates numbers to hit a budget threshold. Luna: So you're arming them with honest ammunition. Lucas: Exactly. You're helping them communicate value clearly. And that's good for everyone. Procurement gets a stronger business case, your champion looks competent, and you get a decision faster. Luna: I want to go back to the example. The SaaS company cut thirty days off their cycle. What did that do to their win rate? Lucas: They also saw a fifteen percent increase in win rate, because fewer deals were dying in that internal review stage. The template wasn't just speeding things up; it was preventing deals from stalling out entirely. Luna: That's a compelling number. I'm guessing most marketers don't even have this touchpoint on their map. Lucas: Most don't. And it's not just about the B2B space. Even in B2C, think about the family member who has to convince a spouse or a partner before making a big purchase. There's an internal pitch there too. Luna: Oh, that's interesting. Like the person who researches a new car or a vacation and then has to sell it to their partner. Lucas: Right. And marketers rarely map that. They map the research phase, but not the persuasion phase that happens at the kitchen table. Luna: So the internal pitch isn't just a B2B phenomenon. It's a human one. Lucas: And once you see it, you can't unsee it. The question for every marketer is: what are you doing to equip that internal advocate, whether it's a B2B champion or a B2C spouse? Luna: So what's the first step for someone listening who wants to start mapping this? Lucas: Start by interviewing your last five lost deals. Ask the champion directly: what happened after you presented the proposal internally? You'll be surprised how often the answer is, 'I didn't have the data to convince procurement,' or 'The CFO shot it down because they didn't see the ROI.' Luna: That's a low-cost, high-impact insight. You're literally mining your own sales history for the missing touchpoint. Lucas: And then you build the template, the one-pager, the internal FAQ. You turn your marketing collateral into something your champion can use in that meeting. Luna: I love that. It's not about adding more touchpoints to your map; it's about adding depth to the ones you can't control. Lucas: Exactly. The internal pitch is the hidden handshake between your champion and their own company. If you're not preparing them for it, you're leaving deals to chance. Luna: So, as a takeaway: if you're a marketer, think about the moment your customer has to sell you internally. What are you giving them to win that argument? Lucas: That's the question. And if you can answer it, you'll see your win rates climb and your sales cycle shrink. It's the most overlooked touchpoint in the entire journey.