It takes more than eight touchpoints, on average, to close a sale.
That’s your rep following up after a demo, the prospect reading a case study, skimming a one-pager, looping in legal, asking for a pricing breakdown… and still not being ready to sign.
The challenge with long B2B sales cycles isn’t just staying top of mind. It’s knowing which touchpoints to use — and when.
Is this the moment for a technical spec sheet? A two-minute video for their VP? A quick check-in call before they vanish into QBR chaos?
In this post, we’ll break down how to map touchpoints to the buyer journey so you’re showing up with the right message at the right time.
We’ll also share how Bigtincan helps you make it all happen, faster.
What are sales touchpoints?
Sales touchpoints are the moments when a buyer directly interacts with your sales team, from the first cold email or discovery call all the way to the contract negotiation.
They’re a subset of broader buyer journey touchpoints, which can include things like reading a blog post, visiting your website, or attending a webinar.
Those early-stage, brand-level moments are typically handled by marketing. Sales takes over once there’s a live conversation, a response to outreach, or some kind of intent signal. Every rep-driven interaction from that point on is a sales touchpoint.
These touchpoints tend to follow the arc of the buyer journey: awareness, consideration, and decision.
But that journey isn’t always linear, and it definitely isn’t the same across every company or customer segment. That’s why we’ve left the chart blank — you’ll need to map it based on your actual customers.
Tips for improving sales touchpoints (for sales teams)
- Start with the stages you own.
Marketing covers awareness. Your job starts in the consideration phase, when there’s enough interest to justify a conversation, and continues through to a final decision.
- Recognize the patterns.
No two deals look the same, but they often follow similar beats. Maybe mid-market prospects ask for a case study before pulling in a VP. Maybe legal always slows things down. Start documenting what’s common across your ICP, and use that to build playbooks for each stage.
- Make it feel custom — without making it up from scratch.
Personalization doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel. Drop in a relevant stat, a line that shows you listened on the last call, or a piece of content that answers an actual question they raised. The best touchpoints feel helpful, not pushy.
- Time your follow-ups around their world, not yours.
Don't just send a follow-up two days after your last email because your calendar told you to. Pay attention to what’s happening on their side: end of quarter, leadership changes, budget cycles, board meetings. A perfectly timed touchpoint (“Saw your CEO’s announcement — congrats!”) beats a generic nudge every time.
- Give context.
Instead of just forwarding a whitepaper isn’t enough, tell them why it matters. (“Page 4 speaks directly to the challenge you mentioned about onboarding time.”) That tiny bit of context shows you’ve been paying attention and justifies the send.
- Every touchpoint needs a CTA.
Don’t leave the buyer wondering what to do next. Include a clear next step, whether that’s booking a call, sharing a doc with their team, or reviewing pricing. Even a soft nudge (“Would it help to bring your CTO into the next call?”) gives the conversation direction.
Want to see how strategic content can actually move deals forward?
Download Strategic Content Operations for a practical framework from Robert Rose on building a content engine that helps sales sell and buyers buy.
Why is buyer journey mapping necessary?
Let’s be honest: most teams aren’t delivering the experience buyers expect. In our study with Heinz Marketing, only 32.5% of respondents said they were doing a good job of creating a competitive buying experience.
That shows up in missed revenue. Deals that stall. Prospects who ghost after the demo.
So what’s going wrong?
Most sales motions are still seller-led
We know that today’s buyers don’t move in neat, linear steps. They show up to sales calls with half their research done, a few internal stakeholders already in play, and very little patience for filler.
But too many teams are still operating like it's 2015, pushing everyone through the same funnel stages, with the same assets, in the same order
That’s why journey mapping matters. You’re not just drawing a line from point A to B. You’re building a system that reflects how your best-fit buyers actually buy, and then placing the right touchpoints along the way to help them move forward.
Personalization is table stakes
And journey mapping lets you scale that personalization.
Let’s say you're selling to a mid-market IT lead. If they’re in the consideration phase, your follow-up shouldn’t be another generic deck. It should be a case study on how you helped a similar team cut down security incidents by 40%. Or a 2-minute video that answers the exact implementation question they asked during the call.
Reps practicing guided selling should also take this opportunity to build on what buyers learned in the awareness stage,not repeat it. Ask questions that check for understanding. Fill in any gaps. Then give them the content that moves them closer to a confident decision.
When you map the journey based on real data (how long deals typically take, which assets close the gap, what objections come up when) your touchpoints improve.
It may help to start mapping with a generic template or playbook, but make sure to study your customers and use the data to customize touchpoints according to their behavior.
The more data you have, the more precise you can get. And the more precise you get, the better the buying experience is for the customer.
The real goal is to reduce friction
The best journey maps don’t just outline steps. They anticipate what’s going to slow buyers down, and proactively clear the path.
For example:
- If legal always adds two weeks to enterprise deals, bake that into the journey and prep your champion early.
- If buyers regularly hesitate after pricing, trigger a follow-up email with an ROI calculator or a quick success story.
- If your ICP is a new market entrant, consider adding onboarding walkthroughs before the close, not after, so they can picture what your product will do for them.
That kind of foresight builds trust and shortens sales cycles.
Outreach methods that move deals forward
Once you’ve mapped the buyer journey, outreach stops being guesswork. You’re no longer throwing messages into the void — you’re meeting buyers where they are, with the kind of touchpoints that help them make progress.
For B2B sales outreach, the main focus of your outreach should be during the consideration stage. This is when buyers are weighing their options, comparing vendors, and looping in more stakeholders. Your job here is to stay top of mind with touchpoints in the right format, message, and timing.
Here’s how that looks across common channels:
- Phone calls
Modern buyers are less inclined to pick up or interact with cold call outreach efforts, so phone calls shouldn’t be your first touchpoint. A call works better after some initial engagement. Use a call mid-journey to clarify the buyer’s priorities or answer any questions.
Email is still a great touchpoint channel, assuming you make sure it’s personal and relevant. Reference a specific action they took or challenge they mentioned. Don’t just say “checking in.” Link to content that answers a question they’re likely asking at that stage: a case study, a product comparison, or a short explainer video.
Scatter LinkedIn InMail messages or post interactions between phone calls and emails. This is a nice, light-touch way to engage with your prospects without overwhelming them. Note: This only works if your sales team has a digital presence that will instill more confidence in the prospect when they see your InMail. These touchpoints should be shorter than your emails, and the main CTA should be to schedule a call or demo.
Timing
Once you’ve mapped your buyer journey and figured out the right mix of outreach, there’s still one major variable: when those touchpoints land. This is where a lot of teams fall flat.
Modern buyers aren’t just distracted — they’re inundated. Between vendor emails, internal meetings, and Slack overload, your message has to hit at the right moment and with the right context. Otherwise, it will simply disappear.
Some tips on timing for sales touchpoints:
Front load your efforts
Focusing most of your touchpoints on the earlier stages of the buyer journey will enrich the lead quicker. This will speed up the sales process and prepare your buyer-facing teams with all the lead info they need.
That said, you don’t want to bombard people. Instead, aim to build a comfortable cadence. For example:
- Day 1: confirmation email with a helpful resource
- Day 3: LinkedIn touchpoint (engage with their post or send a quick note)
- Day 5: personalized email based on what they downloaded
Let your data guide the pace
Timing isn’t one-size-fits-all. A SaaS company selling to enterprise CIOs will need a very different cadence than a company selling to mid-market HR leaders. Use your historical data to reverse-engineer your timing strategy:
- How many touches, on average, before a lead converts to MQL?
- How long is the window between MQL and SQL?
- How many touches before Closed Won/Lost?
This will serve as a good baseline to start with and help you understand how many touches should be used and the timing between each one.
How to build your own touchpoint map
If you’re just getting started with journey mapping, you don’t need to overcomplicate it. A simple rule of thumb is to start with 10 well-paced touchpoints across multiple channels over 5 to 6 weeks.
Think of it as building a thoughtful sequence that mirrors how your buyers evaluate options.
Here’s a basic example for a mid-funnel prospect:
- Email 1: Follow-up with a case study related to their industry
- LinkedIn touch: Like or comment on a recent post
- Email 2: Product explainer video
- LinkedIn message: Direct invite to an upcoming webinar
- Call 1: Check in after the webinar, offer custom pricing info
- Email 3: Competitive comparison guide
- Call 2: Reinforce urgency around timing or limited slots
- …and so on
Tailor cadences by buyer type
Break your cadences down by buyer type or industry. Group similar personas and ask:
- What objections do they typically raise?
- What kind of content resonates most?
- What’s the usual sales cycle length?
Then build cadences that fit. For example:
- Tech (fast-moving): 2 emails, 1 call, 2 LinkedIn touches, webinar invite
- Healthcare (risk-averse): 1 intro call, 3 emails with compliance-focused content, peer testimonial, Q&A session
Map content to each touchpoint
Match content to what that buyer is likely thinking about at that moment:
- Early on: industry trends or thought leadership
- Mid-journey: ROI calculators, comparison guides, use case videos
- Near close: customer testimonials, security docs, or procurement FAQs
When you map it all out (cadence, channel, content) your outreach starts to feel less like a sales sequence and more like a conversation that’s actually worth having.
Make your sales touchpoints work harder
Every sales touchpoint is a chance to move the deal forward. The right touchpoint at the right moment can:
- Speed up the sales cycle
- Build trust without more meetings
Make your brand feel like the obvious choice
It’s not about spamming prospects. It’s about creating a path that helps them make a decision, with content that feels like it was made just for them.
Yes, every buyer’s different. But when you use data to guide your timing, your content, and your cadence, you get better results with less effort.
Tools like Bigtincan Engagement make this easier by showing you what’s working, what’s landing, and what your next move should be, so your reps can spend less time guessing and more time closing.
With Bigtincan, you can:
- Use insights from MeetingsAI for better post-call follow up, by referencing what the prospect brought up during the call
- Continuously monitor buyers’ engagement with content, so you’ll know exactly when it’s time for another touchpoint
- Connect to where your team are already working in Gmail, Outlook or Salesforce, so it’s easier for sellers to connect with customers
- Get intelligent content recommendations and templates based on email context
- Use Genie Assistant to draft personalized emails in seconds
See how your team can turn every touchpoint into progress with Bigtincan.
