The industrial buy cycle consists of a methodical and deliberate series of four stages: Needs Awareness, Research, Consideration & Comparison, and Procurement. In each of these stages, buyers engage in different behaviors and use a wide variety of information sources to locate suppliers and support their buying decisions. Although the industrial buy cycle has been around for as long as products have been bought and sold, the way purchasers go through the four stages has changed.

Today, online methods dominate the four stages—from conducting research on the Internet, to contacting suppliers and requesting quotes online, to comparing supplier offerings using contentfound online, to submitting purchase orders.

GlobalSpec recently conducted an Industrial Buy Cycle Survey of engineering, technical, manufacturing and industrial professionals who have influence on their company’s processes for buying products and services. The survey included questions about the length of the buy cycle, the sources buyers use to obtain information, the amount of content buyers review before making a purchase decision, how various factors influence purchasing decisions, how many suppliers are evaluated before making a purchase decision, and more.

Marketers must understand theIndustrial sales buy cycle to their marketing efforts, with specific online marketing programs that will help you reach potential buyers atall stages of the buy cycle, particularly the early stages where suppliers must be visible to their target customers.