A large dependency we have to make a sale is on the buyer’s timing. If the buyer is not ready, then selling can not only be ineffective, but highly annoying. Noone likes being sold. Their defenses go up and the tension often creates a barrier that is difficult to overcome.
However, if your marketing accounts for the people who are not ready now but may be later based on their own timing, the pressure from selling is alleviated. They are free to come to the decision to do business with you based on their need and given space to work through their own logic and emotions.
Nurturing the buyer requires a process that caters to the buyer and encourages concrete next steps. If your own marketing merely relies on a buy now type of client, consider casting the net wider with further strategic approaches:
- Observe digital body language. To find out a buyer’s interest, it is important to have real-time feedback of what they are doing with your digital assets. This includes alerts and tracking of their movements with email, newsletters, site visits, landing pages, web forms and related links. This will build awareness of what they are interested in and the content they are engaging with.
- Thought leadership. Your buyers likely need to feel comfortable and learn how your industry, products and results work. Providing compelling content which answers questions that they are thinking but may not have necessarily posed helps them think and focus on what frames their buying decisions. Lead the buyer by helping them think and consider what lies within your own expertise and knowledge in a highly professional fashion.
- Sales engagement. There needs to be a clear signal or trigger that creates sales engagement. Identifying the key behavior or series of behaviors from a buyer requires responsiveness and coordination from your sales engagement. This continuity should be mapped out and your systems should support how your salesperson can take advantage of the right timing. Clear criteria is required and having the ability to move a ready lead to a serious sales conversation has to be in place.
Timing is hard to control from a marketing and sales perspective. We cannot force the buyer to prematurely make a decision to do business. Instead, creating systems and processes that help a buyer experience their decision on their own timing while experiencing your brand positions you when they are ready.
What systems do you have in place to consider buyer timing?
