In today’s sales environment, customers go through a buying prices to make a purchase decision, this is what we call a six-step buyer’s journey.
Every customer goes through a sales funnel like this: a customer learns about a product or reaches awareness; becomes interested; considers the product’s value; develops intent to buy; finalizes their evaluation; then finally purchases and promotes the product through advocacy.
To complement the customer’s journey, sales teams need a repeatable roadmap for guiding customers through that journey that’s both easy-to-follow and concise.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to take customers through the six steps of the sales process and help you streamline your company’s sales.
- Help customers reach awareness about your product.The first step for any business looking to attract customers is helping your market learn about your product. After creating a buyer persona, you’ll want to market your product using proven marketing strategies like using social media and building an online presence. You’ll create valuable leads you can then follow up within the next step.
- Get customers interested in your product.The next step after helping customers become aware of your product is piquing their interest. Ask yourself, “what pain points do my products solve” and “how can I provide value to the customer?” With that information, you can tailor your marketing strategy to highlight the benefits of your product and get your customers interested in using your product.
- Persuade leads into considering the value of your product.Leads that are interested in your product will want to know how valuable a product is to their daily lives. Help them learn more about your product’s value by giving customers the information they need to understand how your product helps them. The goal is to demonstrate how your product solves your customer’s pain points and how much they’ll benefit from using your product.
- Encourage customers to follow up on their intent.At this point, your customer wants to buy your product, but something may be holding them back. They may feel that it may not be the right time to buy the product, they may find a similar product at a cheaper price or they may have just forgotten. Encourage your customers to follow up with their intent by suggesting a call to action. For example, if you’re selling posters, your call to action could be: “Decorate your bedroom and living room in amazing art and place an order on a beautiful poster today!” This call to action demonstrates how customers can use your product and encourages customers to take action on their intent.
- Hold the customer’s hand during evaluations:Right before customers commit to a purchase, they make one final mental checklist, ensuring the product they’re buying fulfills their needs and provides a valuable solution for the cost. To help customers streamline this experience during this stage of the sales process, you’ll want to reiterate the benefits one last time and leave it up to the customer to come to a conclusion themselves. Sales teams that are too pushy can have a negative effect on the buyer’s experience, so keep to a recap and let the customer decide for themselves how your product will benefit them.
- Follow-up with your customersEven after a customer finalizes their purchase, the sales process has just one more step until it’s finished. Follow up with customers by reaching out for feedback or asking them to write a review for your product. Reviews serve two purposes: 1) they let businesses know how customers received their products; 2) they let other customers know how much value a business’s product will bring to them, leading to even more leads.With this information, you can turn your sales team into a driving force for your business. Share this article with other members of your team if you want them to better understand the sales process and increase customer conversion.**Resources**:
- https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-process
- https://www.superoffice.com/blog/sales-process
- https://www.saleshacker.com/sales-process
- https://zerogravitymarketing.com/purchase-funnel
- https://brooksgroup.com/sales-process#what-sales-process
- https://brooksgroup.com/sales-training-blog/how-align-your-sales-process-buyers-journey
