In a world where customer experience is paramount, aligning your sales and marketing teams has never been more important. One of the best ways to bring these teams together is by creating a customer journey map. This visual tool helps you understand how customers interact with your brand at every stage—from the moment they first discover you to long after the sale is closed.
This guide will walk you through the steps to create a customer journey map that enhances customer satisfaction and boosts sales and marketing collaboration for smoother operations and stronger results.
What Is a Customer Journey Map?
A customer journey map visualises all the steps your customers take when engaging with your brand. From discovering your product or service to post-purchase interactions, the map captures every touchpoint, giving your teams a clear path to improve CX and maintain consistent messaging.
Why is this crucial for your business? Because it helps:
😕 Identify pain points and areas for improvement.
🤝 Improve collaboration between sales and marketing.
📊 Increase conversions and retention by addressing customer needs proactively.
The Buyer’s Journey vs. The Customer Journey
While the buyer’s journey focuses on pre-purchase phases like awareness, consideration, and decision, the customer journey encompasses everything from initial awareness through to post-purchase interactions, including retention and loyalty.
Why does this matter? The customer journey doesn’t end at the sale. By mapping the entire journey, you enable sales and marketing to stay aligned across the entire customer lifecycle, not just during lead generation. Both teams will have a unified view of how to nurture leads effectively and deliver on post-sale promises.
Step 1: Define the Objective and Scope
Before you start mapping, clarify your objective.
- Are you aiming to improve lead acquisition or optimise post-purchase support?
- Will you map the entire customer lifecycle or focus on a specific stage, like onboarding or customer support?
Narrowing your scope helps you focus on key customer interactions and determine which teams need to be involved. For example, if you’re focusing on improving support services, involving customer success teams is critical.
Step 2: Identify Customer Personas and Scenarios
Next, develop accurate customer personas. Personas are essential because they represent different types of customers who interact with your brand. Use data from your CRM, sales reports, and customer feedback to ensure these personas are well-defined and relevant.
Once you have your personas, define scenarios for each one. Each journey map should focus on a specific goal the customer wants to achieve, such as purchasing a product, resolving an issue, or upgrading a service. This helps you visualise each stage from their perspective.
Step 3: Map Out Key Stages and Touchpoints
Now, outline the key stages your customers go through. Common stages include:
- Awareness: The customer becomes aware of your product or service.
- Consideration: They compare different options and assess their fit.
- Decision: The customer decides to make a purchase.
- Post-Purchase: Includes follow-ups, onboarding, and support.
At each stage, list the touchpoints—the interactions customers have with your brand. These could be anything from viewing an ad, downloading a brochure, contacting a sales rep, or interacting with customer service. Mapping these touchpoints ensures that both sales and marketing teams understand where and how customers engage with the business.
Step 4: Capture Emotions, Thoughts, and Pain Points
Every customer journey is an emotional experience. Your map should reflect this. Ask yourself:
- How do customers feel at each stage?
- What are they thinking as they weigh their options?
- Where do they experience frustration or confusion?
For example, customers may feel excited during the awareness stage but frustrated if they encounter a confusing checkout process. By capturing these emotional highs and lows, your teams can smooth out friction points and improve the overall experience.
Step 5: Identify Opportunities and Align with Sales and Marketing
Once you’ve identified pain points, it’s time to align your sales and marketing teams to address these challenges.
- Sales can provide insights from direct customer interactions, helping marketing understand common objections or concerns.
- Marketing can tailor messaging earlier in the funnel to address these issues before customers reach sales.
For instance, if prospects often get stuck at the consideration stage, marketing could provide additional educational content, while sales might offer personalised product demos to move the lead forward.
Example Customer Journey Map: Marketing and Sales Alignment in the Construction Industry
To see this in action, let’s take an example from the construction industry. We’ll focus on a persona called Project Manager Pete, a senior project manager at a large construction company.
Name: Project Manager Pete
Role: Senior Project Manager at a large construction company
Goals: To find reliable suppliers for building materials that meet sustainability standards, keep projects on track, and stay within budget.
| Stage | Marketing Actions | Sales Actions | Customer’s Emotions | Opportunities for Alignment |
| Awareness | Ads and blogs on sustainable building materials. Email newsletters with project case studies. | Monitor website visits, track email clicks, and follow up with leads. | Optimistic about finding reliable, sustainable suppliers. | Sales should receive detailed insights on engaged leads from marketing for timely follow-up. |
| Consideration | Nurturing emails with product comparisons and ROI calculators. | Follow up with leads who downloaded brochures or attended webinars. Offer demos or consultations. | Interested but cautious about cost and availability. | Ensure consistent messaging between marketing and sales. Share availability and pricing information early. |
| Decision | Success stories and testimonials highlighting on-time deliveries. | Provide personalised quotes and negotiate contracts. | Confident but wants reassurance on delivery schedules and costs. | Sales and marketing align on transparency with pricing and delivery timelines. |
| Purchase | Welcome emails with logistics details, delivery tracking, and material use tips. | Oversee delivery timelines and maintain regular communication. | Relieved but still monitoring for potential delays. | Clear, proactive communication between teams to manage expectations and avoid delays. |
| Post-Purchase | Regular emails with maintenance tips. Offers for bulk orders and product updates. | Schedule check-ins and upsell products for future projects. | Satisfied but expecting continuous support. | Align on upsell opportunities and use customer feedback to personalise offers. |
Drive Better Sales and Marketing Alignment with BuddyCRM
Aligning your sales and marketing teams through a customer journey map ensures a seamless experience for your customers. By clearly identifying touchpoints and addressing pain points, your teams can collaborate more effectively, leading to improved lead nurturing, faster sales cycles, and stronger customer retention. A well-crafted map enables both departments to stay in sync, delivering consistent, value-driven interactions that keep customers engaged throughout their journey.
With BuddyCRM, you can easily manage and track every stage of the customer journey, keeping sales and marketing fully aligned. Our CRM solution helps teams streamline processes, improve communication, and ensure a cohesive customer experience.
Ready to improve your alignment and grow your business? Book a demo today and see how BuddyCRM can help you deliver exceptional customer journeys.