Market Core · Customer Journey · Module

What moves people forward

What actually causes progression between stages, established by asking buyers rather than by inferring from what was clicked.

The idea

How it works

What is measurable and what is causal diverge sharply here. A buyer who read three articles and then bought may have been moved by a conversation with a colleague that appears nowhere.

Triggers are the most actionable finding. Most journeys do not start because of anything the organisation did; they start because something changed for the buyer, and knowing what changes the timing is worth more than knowing what changes the message.

Working with it

In practice

  1. 01

    Ask what made them act now

    The trigger is the single most useful thing a buyer interview produces.

  2. 02

    Find who else was involved

    Internal champions and sceptics move deals more than content does, and neither shows in any system.

  3. 03

    Identify the evidence they needed

    What convinced them, and at which stage. It is frequently one specific thing.

  4. 04

    Distinguish cause from correlation

    Something present in every won deal may also be present in every lost one. Check.

One level in

The components of what moves people forward

A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.

  1. The triggers

    What made the buyer start, and what makes the timing urgent.

    Learn
  2. The evidence needed

    What convinced them at each transition.

    Learn
  3. The people

    Who intervened internally, on both sides.

    Learn

Something present in every won deal may be present in every lost one too. Check before calling it a cause.