We've talked about the different phases of the sales funnel:
- Awareness -> How do you get people to know about you?
- What about -> Do the ones who know you, know what you offer?
- Trust -> How do you get these people to trust you?
- Evaluation -> How can you offer these people something?
- Purchase -> How do they buy/make the purchase?
- Delivery -> How do you deliver your value?
- After Sales -> Repeat customer. Share your work. Testimonial
Everyone you serve goes through these phases. This week's homework is to figure out ways how to bring them along. To:
- Empathise with your potential client to understand what moves them through these phases,
- Design your product and marketing in such a way that it's a smoother ride through the funnel,
- Bonus: convert these concepts into the actions you have to perform and habits you need to build.
"It depends"?
If your initial reaction is "it depends", this (again) is a signal to decrease the different types of people you serve. It's one thing to not put all your efforts into getting as good as possible at serving them specifically. You simply CAN NOT market effectively to different types of people. Because what you should say, as you say, depends!
So, even if you don't truly believe this, pick as small a group that it stops depending and becomes clear for this exercise. Then, afterward, do the exercise for the other groups and see if you can combine the different strategies.
Empathy
There'll always be tension for people to move on a phase in the funnel. You're asking people to take leap of faith to trust you or to purchase something, simply because they haven't experienced it yet.
To understand what they go through requires even more empathy. How do they experience all these phases? What needs to happen for them to go from awareness to trust, or from evaluating to purchasing?
Remember that you are not the one who needs to spend, say, €2.500 on you. They are. How it would be for you is irrelevant. What are the stories they tell themselves? How do they judge the pros and cons? What's save or risky? What are they trying to accomplish?
To design effectively, you need to understand what that design needs to accomplish! But would reduce friction?
Design
Awareness How can you be seen? Where do these folks gather, visit, meet, go? What do they consume, check out? Who do they talk to? Where do you need to be (either physically and digitally) to get your work in front of their eyes?
What about How do you need to frame your work in order to be understood? And what stories are you sharing, so that the ones who need your work recognise it as "I want that"?
Trust Whose opinions do they trust? What do they need to see from you in order to get on their gracious side? Can they get a taste of your work without you giving your main dish away? Is that a picture, a blog, a video, a coffee? Perhaps they trust you as a person, but still think that what you offer won't solve their problems.
Evaluate How and when do you send someone a proposal? You miss 100% of the offers you don't make! When you have a conversation with a potential client, can you listen and offer them what they need without them explicitly knowing that beforehand?
Are you convincing them that they need a solution for their problem? Or are you trying to convince them that you are the best choice when they have already decided that they need a solution like yours? It's easier to be in the second business.
Delivery When sales mostly happen through word of mouth, how can you get your clients to start yapping? Can you design your products and process to be more remarkable so that they trigger conversation? Can you be extra generous, fast or useful than they expect? Or can you show more empathy or personality? Can they involve their peers in their process with you?
After sales What happens after the project is finished? How do you stay in the know whether there is more work for you there? What contact do you have with your clients after the project? Can they help you out even then?
Think about all these phases and design you marketing strategy. Share your design (even if it's still very rudimental)! It will improve over time. But only if you start to move.
Bonus: Actions
Great. You know how to structure your product and what your marketing strategy looks like. Now, what are the actionable things you need to do in order to create it?
I'm sure you can think of many different things you could be doing. Of all these option, which are the ones you will commit to doing in order to make this happen?
Which ones go first? It might take a while before an asset you build starts to pay off. That's why you want to bring them up to a feasible level as soon as you can. So, dive in one by one (or as much as helps that one proceed) instead of doing 5 simultaneously.
Even more powerful than sequential goals, are the habits you build to accomplish them. Remember that it takes about a month to build a habit before it stops requiring will power! So, to make them stick, build these habits one by one.
For stability in your sales output, get stability in your sales/marketing/pr input. What needs to happen weekly in order to have a good average week? Can you develop a point system of activities that creates a good week every time you get to 10 points?
