Today’s buyers have so many more tools at their fingertips to find solutions for the problems they are experiencing. Thanks to social media influences, the magic of Google and remarketing, they may be aware of problems they have that before wouldn’t have even been recognized. In some cases they may have unfounded fears or skepticism that need to be addressed before they ever engage with you.
Whatever the situation may look like, the buyer journey your best client has gone through with you to engage your solution, similar prospects also go through to solve their issues. Today I’d like to talk about how a few conversations with your top clients can help you design a nurturing process to help your best prospects recognize their need, create urgency to engage and build credibility in your solution. And close more business for you in the process!
Let’s get to it!
- Start with figuring out who are your top prospects, if you struggle with how to profile your client base, here’s a short post on LinkedIn that talks about profiling your clients to recognize how you narrow your focus to serve these folks often and well. And avoid those that aren’t profitable. This will help with creating your perfect prospect profile.
- Once you figure out who the top clients are that you’d like to reproduce, you need to dig into what their approach was to working with you. I would like for you to interview them about their ENTIRE buyer journey. Not just once you met them. I want you to go back in time to when they realized they had something they were working on accomplishing. How did they figure out what they wanted to get done? What turned them on to you? What about your approach or solution engaged them? When were they convinced you were the right resource? Answers to these questions will help you recognize what content you can create to build the relationship. (If you’d like to join me for an upcoming webinar, I explore in more depth about what this is and how to map yours.)
- Create a short survey to ask your prospects you are currently engaged with about how you can help them explore options to their issue – no more than 1-2 questions. Add these questions to your interview process right now and uncover potential objections and obstacles. One of my clients in the mortgage business has a very short survey asking about financial planning, household budgeting, insurance for life and personal assets, wills and trusts, and life/relationship counseling and physical fitness. He asks about these areas to specifically identify referral relationships and personal interests. There are only so many questions you can ask about mortgages and this allows him to bring his prospects great content while they are shopping for a house or waiting for something to happen with their loan processing.
- Ask your clients what their preferred method of connecting is: do they do everything via email? Text message? What social media platform are they engaged on? Not just “on”, but engaged. Are they looking to expand their relationship base? Can you connect them to amazing people or opportunities? How about their kids? I have a mentor who reminds me often – you help someone’s kid and they’ll remember you fondly forever. Know what matters in your relationships.
- Create a nurture sequence of emails that will go out once you engage with a new prospect. Then figure out a weekly content schedule to share. Not quarterly, not monthly, not semi-annually. Weekly. Yes it seems like a lot, but your clients, prospects and referral partners need to see you ‘showing up’ to deliver value to them and their relationships. Also this allows your raving fans to share the insight with others who fit the profile of your perfect prospect. You might lose some and that’s not a bad thing. Remember this is an exercise to engage relationships, not everyone needs to be in your community. Some may choose to just follow at a distance using social media.
Remember that the typical buyer journey involves anywhere from 8-22 interactions with you or your brand (think conversations or meetings with you, content, word of mouth from other satisfied clients, reminders of your referral partner to connect and engage, etc as these interactions.) These interactions can take place via a systematic approach, or an accidental ‘when you think of it or get around to it’ manner. Wouldn’t you rather be in control of the process?
Sales and marketing are the flip sides of the generating new opportunities for your business coin. Helping your buyers recognize all the value you can bring them through your relationship will help them realize why you are the right resource to serve their needs. Create content and engage through email marketing or social media campaigns and watch your sales conversations skyrocket!
If you’d like to explore more about how your approach can better align with the buyer journey, register for our free upcoming webinar, Breakthrough Prospecting Strategies. In this webinar, you will learn how the buying process has shifted, what you can do to leverage referrals and your expertise to communicate your value proposition and help prospects recognize what you can do for them!