Training Your Customers the Right Way – 3 Ways To Combat the Roller Coaster Sales Cycle
September 17th, 2007 Filed under: Uncategorized — Advertising AuthorEvery week I talk to dozens of business owners and media buyers. The biggest lament I hear from my clients is the large peaks and valleys in their sales cycles. One good month. Three bad months. One good month. Two bad months. They cant figure out how to flatten the peaks in the cycle. I ask every one of my clients how theyre training their customers to buy their product or service. The reply I get most often is a blank stare. Businesses train their employees how to help customers but dont realize theyre also training their customers when to buy. The fact is you as a business owner, manager, or marketer can train your customers to buy your product or service. Without realizing it, you may be training your customers to not buy from you. If youre in a sales cycle that has large peaks and valleys in it, consider the following three ways to train your customers to buy from you in a more reliable timeframe.
1) Stop having sales. You read correctly. Dont have sales. I understand that if people are not buying from you the natural inclination for businesses is to lower prices to try to draw more customers. However, sales train your customers to shop only when theres a sale. If you have sales too often, customers will just wait to buy till the next sale and youll have lower profit margins as a result. Those peaks in the buying cycle start getting larger as a result.
2) Stop focusing on todays buyers. There are four stages to the buying cycle: attention, interest, desire, and action. The people who are in the attention stage are people who may have just purchased a product and not be in the market again for approximately ten months to a year. Though not in the market for your product today, you want them to keep you in mind because you want them to buy from you again when theyre back in the market. The second stage to the buying stage is interest. The people in the interest phase are people who are six to nine months away from making a buy. Though not in the market today, these people are aware of a product you have and are entertaining the possibility of purchasing it. The third stage of the buying stage is desire. People in the desire stage are one to two months away from making a buy. They want the product you have. They are now actively looking at brands, features, and benefits to determine which particular model is the one they should purchase. The fourth stage is action. People in the action stage are less than a month from buying. They want your product now. Your advertising and marketing efforts should be executed with each of these four buying stages in mind. Talk to the future customers in each of these stages of the process because the people who are not in the market for your product today will be in the near or distant future. Be sure each of these buyers knows where they should buy when they are in the market and ready to do so.
3) Stop focusing on transactional buyers. Transactional buyers are only as loyal as your lowest price. Theyll drive 50 miles to save ten bucks, even in an era of three-dollar gasoline. You will get more traffic from transactional buyers but you get a lower profit margin to be able to meet the price at which theyll buy. Transactional customers are one-time buyers. They may never give you a second chance to sell to them. Instead, you must put your focus on your relational customers. Relational buyers will make repeat purchases because they trust you. The relational buyers will not match the traffic of the transactional buyers but the profit margins are larger simply because you didnt have to lower your prices to make a sale. Relational buyers will pay a few dollars more for your products because its worth it to them that they know youll treat them fairly every time. You dont have to work as hard to sell them.
If youre in a sales cycle that has large peaks and valleys and want to flatten them out, train your customers to buy from you whenever theyre in the market. Train your customers that youre there when they need you and theyll be there when you need them. And get off the get off the roller coaster sales cycle.
