Finding Where Considered Purchases Stall

Caterpillar helps global dealers sell generators to engineers, architects, and more. We turned buyer research into a clear path to purchase with a portal where customers could plan projects from first specs to dealer collaboration.

Yellow Cat industrial generator on a dark textured background

Client: Caterpillar
Industry: Industrial Power Generation
Project Duration: 6-8 Months
Core Services: User Buyer Journey & Guided Selling Design

The Challenge

Specifying a generator involves different stakeholders and priorities. Caterpillar needed a clearer understanding of how buyers navigated the purchasing process, where they encountered friction, and how to better connect them with its global dealer network.

Our Approach

We interviewed buyers, specifiers, and dealers around the world to understand needs and map individual journeys. We used those findings to outline a breakdown of the buyer journey and inform the design of a customer portal built around how people actually plan and purchase power systems.

The Result

We delivered a buyer journey playbook and a customer portal design that brings project planning, specifications, and dealer collaboration into one connected experience, with paths for equipment configuration and rental.

Do you know where your buyers stall between your site and a purchase?

Start with our User Behavior Mapping. 2-4 weeks, a journey map, and the three places to fix first.

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The Scope

The project began with journey mapping and research of the people, priorities, and decisions involved in purchasing industrial power systems.

This led to the design of a customer portal featuring saved projects, personalized recommendations, dealer collaboration, and guided paths to equipment configuration or rental.

Services

Buyer Journey Mapping
Stakeholder Research & Interviews
UX/UI Design
Guided Selling & Configuration Flow Design

Tech Stack

FigJam · Miro · Figma · Salesforce

The Work

Purchasing an industrial generator involves multiple decision-makers, each with different needs throughout the process. Most of these purchasers had no clear path from their initial need to a generator purchase.

We interviewed buyers, specifiers, and dealers across global markets to understand their challenges and map a clearer path to purchase.

That research became a buyer journey playbook which informed the design of a connected customer portal. The experience brings project planning tools together, giving buyers a place to save specifications, collaborate with dealers, and move toward equipment configuration or rental.