SCORE St. Louis July 2019

From Suspect to Customer The Decision-Making Process

should enlighten them to the features of the product or service. Having a solid nurture campaign can increase sales opportunities by 20% or more. The consideration phase can last weeks, months, and even years. It’s all dependent on you, your follow-up, and the needs of the prospect. During this phase, you want your prospect to chat with your salesperson. Advanced Tip:While you’re giving great information and sales presentations that position your product or service as better than your competitors’, make sure you also give the prospect information on why it’s important for them to take action and not simply do nothing . Many prospects bury their heads in the sand instead of working to solve their problems, but most companies never address the issue of doing nothing — they only address why they are better than their competitors, without realizing they lose far more deals to people kicking the can than to people actually making the decision to use a competitor.

simple verification of facts or terms and last-minute negotiations or next steps types of questions.Answer these questions well, and you’re on your way to having a brand-new customer. By focusing on campaigns that will help you walk each new prospect through their decision-making process, you will be better positioned to not only be on the short list come decision time, but also to be the company that wins the customer at the end of the day. Unfortunately, getting a new customer is only half the battle. Once you’ve acquired your new customers, your job becomes turning them into loyal, repeat customers. Most businesses lose money on each new customer, so ensuring your onboarding routines, repeat purchase processes, and customer retention systems are on point will protect your investment and ultimately provide a positive long-term ROI for each new customer you acquire.At the end of the day, there’s no point in acquiring a new customer if you can’t keep them and ultimately turn a profit. With SCORE, you’re never alone!We offer workshops and seminars each month to help you develop the skills you need to succeed.Visit www.StlouisScore.eventbrite.com today!

You may have heard experts say that people are ready to buy when they are ready to buy, not when you’re ready to sell to them. This is correct, but does that mean you’re at the mercy of the prospect to make a sale? Of course not. Every buyer goes on a buyer’s journey. Some move more quickly than others, but with information, contact, and education, you can greatly influence that journey and ultimately get more customers.

All prospects go through three phases.

1. Awareness

In this phase, buyers don’t even know you exist, so they can’t know what your product is or that they need what you sell. It’s your job to find these people, called suspects, and tell them who you are and what you do.At this stage of the game, you are simply generating leads with the goal of getting some to express interest in your company, product, or service.When you’re creating content to attract these suspects, focus on helping your suspect solve a problem they have. Once someone’s opted in, they’ve taken the first step. In this stage, the prospect now has an awareness of you and your company, but they still aren’t ready to buy because they need more information. In years past, prospects got this from salespeople; now, thanks to the internet, buyers don’t need to chat with a salesperson

3. Decision

Once your company is on the short list for a buying decision, the prospect’s purchase comes down to

2. Consideration

to learn more. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be trying to get your information into their hands early and often. Make sure your content is focused on answering the questions they have. It should show

them additional pain points your product or service can solve; it should tell them about the benefits; and it

2 www.StLSCORE.org

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