Understanding The Buyer’s Journey Of Today

Is your business tied to using the sales funnel? Awareness. Interest. Consideration. Intent. Evaluation. Purchase. Sounds familiar, right? Well, did you know that your buyers no longer follow a linear path from awareness to purchase? They bounce all over the internet, starting and stopping as they compare features, reviews, pricing, and service options. And that sales funnel you’re constantly referring to as you roll out marketing and advertising is proving to be less and less useful.

The Bottom Line

The buyer’s journey is a messy squiggly line. Your job is to meet them on their journey, wherever they may be. Start by finding out what phase of the journey they are in and begin the conversation at that point. And keep in mind that today’s buyers will be at various points. There’s no longer a one-size-fits-all marketing campaign that will hit home with the masses.

Keep in mind that the traditional sales funnel or sales process assumes the buyer knows nothing and requires you to follow a prescribed set of steps in a very specific order. To the internet-empowered buyer this approach comes off as canned, scripted, and disingenuous. Don’t get me wrong—having a sales process is needed. It prevents you from leaving out important information necessary to the decision-making process and it helps you lead the customer down a metaphorical pathway to a decision. But your sales process can’t be so rigid that you always start at the very beginning with the same information. You have to be able to start in the middle if needed and even backtrack to the beginning if you discover they are lacking pieces of vital information.

What It All Means

In today’s digital-driven world, you have to be able to take off the blinders of traditional marketing. Simply because the buyer’s journey used to work one way doesn’t mean it always will. There are so many opportunities to meet, educate, and entice potential customers today. From your website to your social media, to the keywords you’re using in ad campaigns, recognizing opportunities outside the sales funnel to connect with people is critical to building a successful business.

And if you liked this blog, be sure to learn even more tips in my book, FANtastic Selling. With clear lessons and tips on how you can apply the information in the book to your own experience, I’ll teach you how to develop the skills, behaviors, and attitudes to join the ranks of the truly successful salespeople.

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Categorised in: Digital Marketing, Lead Generation, Small Business Marketing