DISSECTING THE BUYER'S JOURNEY - PART 2

The previous article Dissecting the Buyer's Journey - Part 1 ended by touching on the importance of educating your prospect.

Educating them on all of the important and relevant issues they need to understand.

In order for someone to make a smart buying decision it is imperative that they understand all of the important and relevant issues because it's human nature to want to make the best decision possible.

They want to make the best decision possible, because it's their life.

Think about yourself for a moment.

When you are shopping would you ever say to yourself “I hope I get a bad deal”?

Of course you wouldn’t and your prospect is no different.

So you educate your prospect on all of the relevant and important issues therefore equipping them with the ability to make a smart buying decision.

Whether online or in person when you are educating them you are having a conversation.

Their mental conversation with you while on the buyer's journey is building the relationship which means you are developing and earning their trust.

You are not selling yourself yet, right now your focus needs to be on continuing the conversation ; all the while educating them and helping them in their journey.

You're giving the prospect information that is helping them make smart buying decisions.

If you are the person that helps and educates the prospect, you win their trust.

These are conversations, not ad campaigns.

You build the relationship before you sell.

You develop a relationship the same way online as you do face to face.

You start a conversation.

When they're reading your content, that’s a conversation, a mental conversation.

It's a dialog. It's not a one way conversation.This is how you build a relationship.

How can someone compete against you if you are building trust all the way up for the first three steps in the buyer's journey?

They can’t.

Once you have educated and helped them with the important and relevant issues around their purchase you can now demonstrate how you stack up against this particular issue, this particular problem.

You show them how you stack up in terms of your solution versus other solutions.

First, you educate them as if they're never going to buy from you, and then at the end, you say, "And here's how we stack up against that. Here's how you define your problem. This is how you do it. This is how we stack up against that. Here are all the options. Here's our option verses that option."

By helping first you are building a relationship, because trust is at the heart of any relationship. We must develop trust.

Why?

Because today's consumers are jaded. They're reluctant to trust.

Think about it, if someone has a legitimate complex problem, they need an attorney, a mortgage for their house, a doctor, insurance, etc these aren’t simple solutions/conversations where they go to one website, they read for five minutes, and they make a purchase.

They spend serious amounts of time navigating websites, URL level navigation, key word search, content consumption.

Once they get to the “consider options” phase, now they're going to evaluate companies.

Now, you are in competition with the other options that they know about and let’s say your competition has the same solution or very similar to what you provide.

If you have had the mental conversations with them allowing you to build trust

If you have developed a relationship all the while demonstrating how you stack up against all of those issues, all of those concerns, all of those dangers, and all of those opportunities.

If you have defined what value is in buying a value proposition and you have defined what the buying criteria is.

You are making it extremely difficult for them to buy anywhere else

This series of conversations you are having with your prospect is lead nurture.

Lead nurturing means to keep the conversation going over time, to build a solid relationship.

Now, let's go back to our fishing analogy from part 1 of this series on the Buyer's Journey.

If you're using pixels that give you a cookie and I'm using pixels, that give me a hash, I'm going to win.

I'm going to beat you.

You can only have conversations at the place where you dropped the cookie.

I can have conversations anywhere, any time. I can have any number of different conversations and I can have them simultaneously.

Why?

Because when I own and control the data, I can take it to Google, I can take it to Facebook, I can take it to Direct Mail, I can take it to email, I can take it to a phone call, I can take it to your doorstep.

Being able to control when and where you have these conversations is critical for frame control. Frame control is when the prospect sees the situation through your eyes, through your perspective, the lens that you give them.

When you frame an idea, you control the perspective, you define the value and you set the buying criteria.

Everything then gets compared to you ...

Now, let me ask you a question.

When they get to this stage, do you want to be the company that is compared to, or do you want to have the opposite?

When you have a strong frame, it could be beat, but it is not going to be easy.

It’s important to understand how and why you gain frame control.

When you help and educate the prospect you are building trust and a relationship.

So when they come to the point of deciding, and they land on your website if you have provided proof that you can do what you say then they will believe what you have been saying.

And if they believe in your capability to deliver their desired outcome then how do your competitors beat you?

Once a prospect gets to the point where they know you, they trust you and believe that you can provide the solution to their problem they are a sales ready lead.

This is the part where you begin the “sales” process and once you get here, there are only three reasons why someone would be sensitive to price:

1) The first reason why a prospect would demonstrate price sensitivity is you have not done a good enough job demonstrating how you are different. A value proposition simply answers the question “Why should a prospect buy from you?” you must differentiate yourself from your competition.

2) The second reason for price sensitivity is that the prospect perceives that the cost outweighs the value. To combat their perceiving the cost as outweighing the value you must walk them through this and build their trust and you take every one of these steps, here's the key ... you’re building trust.

If you educate them on the first problem, and then bring them to the second problem, did you gain more trust in the first step? Yes.

If you get them to the third step, do you have more trust then the second step? Yes.

It's with each step they take, they're putting more and more trust in your hands.

Then, they get rewarded when they take that step, and then they take the next step.

How do you know you have earned their trust?

Because they take the next step.

You educate them, and you ask them to take a step, and they get here, and now they love it.

Every time they take a step, every time they continue that conversation, they're putting more and more trust in you.

With each step, you’re promising more value and then delivering that value. It's a value exchange.

To further crystallize this point let’s think of value in terms of numbers.

You ask for an exchange of a one, and then deliver.

Now, you ask your prospect for a three, and you deliver.

Then, you ask for a five, and you deliver and then ask for a seven and you deliver.

Now, you ask for the sale.

With each step you’re able to ask for a larger increment of trust, because you’ve earned it, not because you’re asking for it in a very smart, intelligent, slick way.

Do they see the value as outweighing the cost?

Well, at this point in the journey, the answer would be, "No, not yet, not until you educate them." When they take the next step, they are saying to you, " They (you) are trustworthy. They are going to get me to my destination. I believe that they are capable and trustworthy."

Because your prospect has to believe the company is capable and the company is reliable. That's it.

This is how every sale is made, there's a journey that leads up to the interview of the company to solve their problem.

Which one do you want to be at this point in this stage, at the evaluation stage?

3) The third reason your prospect might have price sensitivity is they see it as inconsequential, meaning they see that this cannot deliver the performance, the outcome that they want, that buying this would be inconsequential.

"There would not be the outcome I'm looking for." They don't see it being able to deliver it. But if you have done all of the things we have discussed concerning lead nurture then this scenario is not likely.

When your prospect gets to this point, there's a fish on the hook.

You have them on the hook.

Do you want to use cookies?

Do you want to own the fishing pole?

Or do you want to use a hash, which is permanent and you own and control it and you can go anywhere?

Here's the thing, what I have not covered is how long this journey takes and how sales cycles tend to take longer than what is commonly thought.

Keeping length of sale’s cycle in mind let’s say you are competing against me and I'm the person who meets them very early on in the buyer's journey.

And now we are further along nearing the decision stage and I've got a hash and you have a cookie.

You're subject to Google and Facebook, powerful suppliers kicking you in the teeth, stealing your lunch money, or being Mr. Powerful.

And let's talk about competition.

You're competing against me.

I've beaten all the alternatives, so at this point in time, I've beaten the rival.

I've beaten the substitute, the alternative, and I have neutralized the powerful supplier. I've taken care of three of the five forces that we both compete against for profits.

Now, I've got trust, I've got a relationship, I've got frame control, I control the buying criteria.

Good luck beating that.

Here's the part that people fail miserably at. How often should you advertise to them?

Everywhere that person turns, you need to get them.

Imagine the fish on the hook.

They turn left, you need to be reeling, giving them resistance.

They turn right, you’re reeling, giving resistance.

They go up, you’re giving them resistance.

They go down, you’re giving them resistance.

They stand still, you’re giving them resistance.

You need to be reeling that fish in 24/7, 365, every minute, every day, every direction, 360 degrees, up, down, sideways, all around. Be there, in relentless pursuit.

Who's got the most visibility with this prospect? You with a cookie or me with a hash? Me.

Who has the ability to be more frequent? Me.

Who has the ability to be more consistent? Me.

Who's going to always be the most recent? Me.

Who's building retention as repetition, reflection and re-engagement?

Why is all of this so important? . . . . because prospects forget.

Ask yourself this question “You've seen 100 ads in the last 24 hours, name one?”

**In part 3 of Dissecting The Buyer's Journey we will find out how you stay top of mind with your potential customers.**