When was the last time you thought about your customers?
How do my customers buy things from me? What are they thinking, considering comparing when they decide to engage me in a project? How do they decide if I am the right fit for their organisation? What was the purchase process?
Back in the day (many moons ago, before the internet – yes that long ago) I use to work for a radio group. If someone wanted to buy radio advertising, they would have to ring up the office and ask some questions…’ How much does it cost?’
We politely answer that our sales representative would visit and set up the face to face meeting. We’d then go along ask some questions, prepare a tailored proposal to meet their specific needs, calling back a week later, and securing the sale. It was called the 2-call sell.
Fast Forward to now…Our customers don’t need to ring up and ask about how much something costs, how it works, or when we can start? All this information is available at our fingertips. The internet has made it easy to find, without even the requirement to talk to anyone in your company.
So as a business; How can you make sure potential customers understand your business and how you can help them? How do you make it easy for them to buy your services or products?
I say put yourself in their shoes. Think about the psychology of purchasing your product. The image below represents the Purchase Funnel that most people go through to buy something. Think about the last major thing you bought…..I promise you will have gone through this process to buy it.
Source - Yours Socially
Think of a Washing Machine…
It starts making a noise - you think to yourself ‘it might be time to think about a new machine,’ (Awareness)
Then it breaks or starts making an incredibly loud banging – you think to yourself yep I must get a new machine (Purchase Intent Trigger)
You go online and start looking at what machines are out there? What size do I need? Who stocks them? What is the price? Which brands have the best reviews etc (Research and Familiarization)
You decide on the spec you want and then go to the main sellers to compare their offers – price, delivery slots, availability etc (Consideration)
You decide who to buy from and buy it. (Purchase)
All businesses need to make it easy for their customers to go through this purchasing process. Here are some things you can do.
Make sure you are on the internet with interesting articles are your product. Build up a general awareness of what you do and how you can help. Get them to know like and trust you. You need to be there when they start to look.
Answer some of the main questions they are concerned about or thinking about when considering buying your product or service. Cover the main things they will be researching, the questions they need to know the answers too. Answer their needs.
Develop your credentials, comparison charts, reviews and reputation to help build up a favorably positive position. You want to look and be better than your competitors in the areas that are important to the customers. (For some it will be price, others deliver, others result etc)
Make the way they can buy as simple as possible – think Amazon 1 click buy it now.
The easier you can make your sales funnel the more likely you are people are to buy from you.
Why not review the current process? How closely does it follow what your customers need and what from you? How simple have you made it – could it be simpler? How much is it focused on what you need as a business rather than what they need as customers?
If you need some help – just give me a shout. You know I love this stuff.