Question

1. Think of a large or significant purchase you made recently. Was it a personal or business purchase? Describe the process and/or steps you went through using the typical buying process model in Figure 8.3.

2. What is the difference between a suspect, a prospect, and a customer?

Answer 1

1. Figure 8.3 is not given. A recent purchase that I made is my car. This was a large purchase of course and was a personal purchase. The factors that went into considering such a purchase was of course the cost of the car, the models available and also the budget at my disposal. The decision making process was thus systematic. So initially there was a need awareness that I needed the car to begin with. The next step was the information search that goes into deciding what cars are available out there in the market and what is suitable for me. I next considered the alternatives avilable for me based on the criteria of price,model,colour,brand etc. This led me to a penultimate step of the final purchase followed by the evaluation of the purchase. So the standard model was followed in making the purchase.

2. A suspect is anyone who can buy the offer. The suspect may not be interested in the product. It can be an individual or organization with a potential need for the service or product. That is a suspect. A prospect is an individual or organization that is a possible customer to buy your product and has gone through a qualification process. A prospect will engage with consistently, while a suspect will only engage as long as it’s safe. They have manifested some strong indicators that they are interested to buy the product and they’re willing to share personal information. A customer is someone who actually buys the product and consistently does so.