Do you sell the way your customers buy?

The ‘ah ha’ moment came to me very early in my selling career. In my mind there was no doubt that organizations needed telecommunications equipment from the manufacturer I represented. My job was simple; find leads and close deals -- my way.

Then one day, a particularly cantankerous buyer on the other side of the table told me otherwise.

As I dove into my pitch he stopped me abruptly and said, “What do your know about me, our problems, or how I go about making buying decisions?” Then he blurted out, “I really don’t care about your company or its products, and I don’t think you care about me or the fifteen thousand people who work here.”

Ugh. What a shocker! Had I been living in some sort of an alternative universe that all new salespeople travel through?

Sitting quiet for a moment, all I can remember thinking to myself was of course my company cared, I cared. Yet he was right. Yes, I believed that my company’s products anchored a position at the center of his universe.

It became crystal clear that I had a self-serving, product-centered approach.

I apologized and asked permission to take a step back and get to know him and his organization. It was like threading wet noodles through the eye of a needle, however his steely gaze turned into a an almost imperceptible smile and he simply said, “Great idea.”

For buyers that go through any kind of “consideration process”, selling is more than a two-step process of finding leads and closing deals. This is just as true for business-to-consumer selling as it is for business-to-business selling.

You are not in charge of the customer buying process. It’s always been this way of course. Still, the Internet and smartphones have made understanding this more acute than ever.

Buying is a like an expedition for most people. It’s a set of activities that’s largely predictable for your particular target audience. Understanding your buyer’s persona and how they make buying decisions is the key. Do that and you’ll sell the way your customer wants to buy, not the way you like to sell!

Here’s a brief manifesto of what I learned with a framework of how to map your actions to your buyer’s journey.

Information is the currency of marketing and sales. The first stage is awareness. In this stage of the marketing and selling process, your buyer is not looking for your company, just a better understanding of their issue and maybe how to best solve if it. Every person who has a problem starts by seeking an education. People may not think of it in this way, yet the reality is that the information they search for address the issues at hand, and teaches ideas and methods to improve the situation, does just that. If buyers like the richness of the information your business provides, they’ll notice and take a deeper look at who you are. When you provide people the right information at the right time, they’ll start listening. Along the way they’ll get to know you, like you, and then trust you.

Buyers can be aware of you and not buy your product or service. In the awareness stage the emphasis is on giving to get, problems and opportunities, and an introduction to your business. Now your buyer has entered the next stage, consideration. Your approach is to provide solution success stories with supporting facts as well as product comparisons, all based on specific needs. Here, a unique value positioning emerges that starts to separate you from your competition. The consideration stage is the middle of the sales funnel and the pivot point on the buyer’s journey as they shift to evaluating solutions. That’s why nurturing the buyer through the consideration process will pay off. Unfortunately companies tend to focus more on the awareness and purchase stages than anything else. All three stages are critical to success.

It’s not the end of the journey, but the beginning of a great relationship. The intent stage -- AKA purchase decision -- is when you move from nurturing to a highly responsive and interactive approach to help complete the purchase. To recognize a clear intent to purchase, you have to understand you buyer’s persona and what triggers them to make a purchase. Determine what actions will help create trigger events to move buyers from consideration to the intent stage and then move them to a purchase. Create tools such as a return on investment calculator and remind buyers of the risks of not acting now. Also, think about modifying your message appropriately for this stage. Once the purchase is made, you’re not done though. Follow-up often to insure customer satisfaction and help them consider buying from you again.

This is how you’ll win hearts and minds over the competition. The trick is to get to know your ideal customer’s persona and understand how your buyers buy. Remember, nobody buys anything from a stranger.

As for that “cantankerous buyer on the other side of the table”; we became friends. He ended up buying a lot and I am forever grateful for the lessons I learned with his help.

Ron Stein is President of FastPath Marketing (www.marketing-strategies-guide.com) and the author of the Rapid Impact Marketing & Selling Playbook. As a speaker, coach, and consultant he works with small business owners helping them to accelerate the path between their vision and the actions needed to reach, win, and keep customers. Ron is the creator of the FastPath to More Customers Now! 7-step marketing system based on more than twenty years as a successful business owner, corporate CEO, business development executive, and salesman. He is also a mentor at two nationally recognized business accelerators. Ron offers one-on-one and small group mentoring, conducts seminars, and consults. He can be reached at 727-398-1855 or Ron@FastPathMarketing.com.