One of the challenges we have when running a business, and more importantly, when trying to make a sale – is understanding what makes our clients, buy (or not buy), run away screaming (or some such). They have their own reasons which may (or may not) relate to you and the actions you and your business have taken while dealing with them. Combined, these things are yet another complex reason why buying decisions are another angle at Business is Personal.
Personal to them, not simply to you.
Why they don’t buy
Many times, the reason they decided not to buy has nothing to do with you. It’s personal.
Business is Personal to them because their transmission went out over the weekend, or their best friend’s niece is in the hospital, because the basement flooded at home so for the next few weeks, they probably don’t have time to install and configure that software you’re trying to sell them (or it no longer seems important), or they got into an argument with their spouse last night and that RV is no longer important… until the argument is forgotten and the lure of being in the boonies (with a little comfort) is important again, or their daughter got a full scholarship to a college 2500 miles away and now your spouse is a wreck because the reality that their little girl is growing up and leaving the house has hit home and distracted everyone.
For now, that is.
Distraction is personal
The things that change your prospect’s minds, or put off their buying decisions are countless. Most of them are personal. The phone rang and their mother wasn’t feeling well. The teacher called and their son needs to study harder. Some of them are not personal. The boss emailed and they have to go out of town next week. Priorities changed for any number of reasons.
These are not reasons not to buy, or reasons to buy – but they impact your clients every day. Life is quite often more important than your products and services. You might have the best RV in town, the best service department, the best price and the best financing, but today – none of that matters and it’s not your fault. It just is.
It’s easy to get discouraged when this is going on, but that’s the one thing you can’t allow for. You can’t give up. You can’t assume that they changed their mind because your product or service aren’t good enough, or your salespeople aren’t good enough, or your price isn’t cheap enough. There may be occasions when one or more of those conditions are valid, but most of the time – that isn’t the problem.
Distraction is.
People’s lives don’t revolve around your product or service until they do, and then they don’t 19 hours later when the phone rings or that email arrives.
Why they need your patience… and your reminders
Engagement is critical. Nurturing is critical. Both play a role in your business and do far more than keep your name in front of them. They remind your prospects that something you sell was important to them a few weeks ago before they were distracted by something that was important to them at the time.
Seems like a simple thing, but the difference between re-engaging with a prospect, getting the conversation back on track and eventually completing a sale, vs. “unexpectedly” losing a formerly hot prospect is the difference between a re-engagement follow up and waiting around for the prospect to figure out that they were going to buy something that at one time or another was important to them.
It’s work. It’s marketing. And it’s the kind of re-engagement effort that is often the difference between reaching next month’s revenue goals…. or not.
What stage?
A critical aspect of your re-engagement effort is gauging where your prospects are along the buying timeline. It’s not really a timeline though. It’s more like a set of behaviors about-to-be buyers exhibit when they’re at a certain point in the process of buying. Years ago, Perry Marshall and his crew noticed that when someone searched Google for “guinea pig”, it meant they were ready to buy, vs when they searched for “guinea pigs”, they were doing pre-purchase decision research.
Study your buyers’ timelines and use what you learn to create a re-engagement plan. You’ll need communications appropriate to re-engage people at each stage of the purchase timeline.
Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on Twitter, or email him at [email protected].