Sales & Customer Service: Crafting a Sales Process Through Understanding the Buyer's Journey

1. Introduction: Businesses and business people tend to speak their own language, which they have developed around their industry, their product, and their expertise. But buyers and customers are approaching the world from their view and their needs. Bridging this communication gap has been a large part of my work and my motivation. If you are a sales leader with a new or growing team, if you are creating a new sales process, if you're updating how you pitch your customers, if you are preparing to launch a new service or operate in a new market, then this class is for you. Welcome to my class on building sales process through the buyer journey. I'm Rebecca heartbreaks, be a management consultant and my main mission in life is to make business simple. I grew up in a trilingual home, or much of my life was spent avoiding lost in translation moments. When I came to business, I realized the same thing is required, especially in sales and customer experience. I spent 12 years running a small software company and since then have been working with small and medium-sized businesses on building their business models so that they can offer it simply and with maximum effectiveness. In this class, you will learn to build your sales process all in your customer's language. We'll begin with understanding what pushes customers to buy and how that influences the way that they buy. Then we will discuss how they research a solution to their problem. How you can work with them as they make a decision. And we'll wrap it up with how to nurture a long-lasting relationship with those customers. After you have completed this class and the project, it should come naturally to you to approach your sales work with the customers needs in mind first, and adapt both what you do and how you communicate to match those needs. This should change how you approach sales conversations and needs and allow you to become an advocate for your customer, driving your company's internal decisions based on what will be most effective for your target audience. Download the worksheet in the resource section and as you go through each lesson, keep your pen and paper handy to work on the exercises and build up the material you will need to complete the final project. Now, let's get started. 2. Understanding the Buyer’s Journey : When people buy, it's not about you, the seller. It's all incompletely about them. The buyer, after all, the customer is the one taking the action. And that action is to buy without which there cannot be the action to sell. As a salesperson, it is vital that you understand that whole action of buying, including what leads up to it so that your sales process is adequately mapped to the buying journey. The tactics you will learn here will set you apart as a sales leader and give you a competitive edge. In this lesson, I will teach you why it is important to understand the customer and what it means to put yourself in their shoes. Salespeople start with sales rather than the buyer. It means that they are speaking a different language from their customers. It becomes more difficult for the buyer to connect with what you are selling and to understand why it would benefit them. You end up asking your buyer to do a lot more work and many will not be bothered to do it. Imagine being editable, perhaps at a conference or a networking event with five potential customers. And for other salespeople, the customers at the table should not be able to easily distinguish you as a salesperson because you are speaking their language and understanding their problems so well. This is what it means to develop your customer context. I'll give you an example of this. In my life. Early in my career, I found myself in a small bootstrapped company. I was initially tasked with codifying our customer support practices. And once that was done, I was asked to go out and increase sales. I have no experience of sales at that point, but I realized that I did have experience of buying. So that's where I started. I decided to spend time with our customer base and joined to trade associations in their industry. I heard what they were learning, what they spoke about around the lunch table and what they wanted in their work. From that early experience, I have built a customer contexts approach to sales and customer experience built entirely around customer preferences, behaviors, and choices. There is no money in sales. Think about it. You can sell and sell and sell. But at what point do you actually make money? It's when somebody else buys. The money is in the action of buying, not in the action of selling. Before you build a sales plan, understand how your customers buy. Here are three tactics that will teach you to speak your customers language. You can use the jargon removal worksheet in the resource section for this exercise. I'm a management consultant, so the first words I would list our management consultant, I will add managing and business administration. These are often used interchangeably with management consulting. So it's a good reminder that I can't just replace one piece of jargon with another. Then I'll start to describe what it is that I do. Right away, I realize I've used the word management. I will highlight that in red. I have to replace that with something more descriptive. I might say, I work with small businesses to make sure they have a simple way to make decisions for their business. That includes who they hire, how they give them direction, and how they build strategy. This makes me notice that strategy in this context is also a jargon word. So now I want to think of another way to say building strategy. Small businesses must find ways to follow a path to determined goals, what they want to achieve, how they will get there, and what resources they will require. I might also highlight resources as a jargon word. A business might want to think about the specific resources they need. So I might replace that with the list of what I mean by resources, people, software, technology tools, etc. Drop the associations from your industry and join those of your customers so you can network with people you have to bond with, listened to what they're learning at educational events and talking about at the coffee table. When you talk about what you do, use, the language you heard them use, instead of recycling your list of features from your website or brochure. Second, describe your product or service without ever naming it. And get in the habit of talking about it in layman's terms. Think about the language your customers use at work and even at the dinner table. Learn to use that same language to create a connection. Don't separate yourself from your customer by reversing to your product as a starting point. Instead, realize you're in their playgrounds, so to speak, and always start your conversations from their needs to work up to your product or service. Your student action is to write a description of your product or service without ever naming it. You can use the jargon removal worksheets to assist with completion. The buyer journey section of the customer journey worksheet begin with a list of two to ten words that are specific to your industry. These are the words you have to avoid. Challenge yourself to describe your product or service without using these words. For example, if you sell a CRM platform, describe it without using the terms CRM, customer relationship platform, or even sass. If you sell office supplies, explain your work without using the words supply or inventory. It may not be easy at first, but it will get you thinking about your product in a new way. Complete the exercise for your situation. And then the next lesson, we will analyze why customers buy. 3. Analyzing Why Customers Buy: In this lesson, we will analyze what encourages your customers to buy something so that you can insert yourself into the conversation as early as possible. You want to understand what the customers thinking and going through long before they pick up the phone to talk to you. Something we'll have happened in their work that triggered the need for purchase. The difficulty is that it may be something that is not directly related to your product or service, but can still be solved by it. It's important to understand that the buyer's journey for customers begins long before sales begins. It is when they are first confronted with that problem, that change or that concern. By understanding what the customer is going through in those early stages, you'll be able to present a solution for the customer that solves that early problem and helps them understand the full benefit of what you are offering. This stage is about understanding what those initial binding triggers are so that you can meet your customers where they have a need. Your customer is struggling to get invoices paid. More than half of their invoices are paid late and they're never able to keep on top of what is overdue and who is responsible. Because of their lack of organization. Their clients have gotten in the bad habit of neglecting invoices and paying well, after two days, they realized that it's because their software systems are not speaking to each other. They track their clients in one area, invoices in another, and the two do not connect in any meaningful way. The people chasing invoices don't have any insight into who the clients are or what their milestones are. Often information on invoices is incorrect. You offer a CRM platform and you know that amongst its many features, it also allows for payment tracking and easy reminders. If automates the process of creating invoices, updating details when they get paid, and sending reminder e-mails at regular intervals. Your customer, however, is thinking about invoicing software rather than a CRM platform. If they hear you say that you sell a CRM solution, they won't automatically connect that with their need and they won't bother to find out more. Understanding your customer's problem helps you to present a solution even though they aren't using the term CRM. Here are three main types of triggers that prompt a customer to buy a service or product. There is the proactive trigger. This is the buyer being proactive. This is when nothing is broken with the person's current product or system. In fact, things are generally working well for them. However, this customer is somebody who likes to be ahead of the curve. They may have heard or learned something new, which has prompted them to do some window shopping for new solutions in case there's something out there that is better than what they have now, this fire has no urgency, but can be swayed by a better return or a more effective solution. There is the reactive trigger. This buyer is reacting to something. They may have a suspicion that something might be broken. Either it has been a long time since this particular area of business or life has been reviewed, or the buyer is not getting the expected results. Nothing major is wrong. But there is an understanding that things can probably be better. It might be a series of minor complaints or small inefficiencies. This fire may be more reluctant than a proactive buyer because it feels more like a chore to buy something new. And finally, the urgency trigger. This is when something damaging has occurred and the buyer needs a replacement or a new solution to either solve the problem or ensure it does not happen in the future. The spire is in a hurry and willing to buy, but also stressed and possibly angry. They will have a higher degree of fear. Creating a connection and showing that you understand them can make a huge difference to their state of mind as they by facilitating the entire process. Now it's your turn. Create a list of three to five triggers to buy that are not about your product or service, but about the customers needs. What are some problems that you solve for them, either directly or indirectly? What might prompt the need for that solution at their end. With this exercise, you will better understand your customer's mindset when they began to consider a purchasing need that will allow you to speak to their specific concerns and target your solution and your timing to their needs. In the next lesson, we will explore how customers research their solutions. 4. Researching a Solution: In this lesson, we will discuss how customers generally conduct research to find solutions to their problems. In other words, how are they finding the product or service that they need to buy? At this stage of the buyer's journey, the salesperson begins to potentially enter the room. This is when buyers are actively looking at specific companies and products yours included. It's important to understand not only why the customer is researching, but also how they are researching. The more you understand this, the more you can ensure you are front and center of that research, we're finding this stage of the process allows you to be in the right place at the right time. To make the first impression that you want to make. Virus tend to find out about solutions in two main ways. They ask others for suggestions. This may include members of those associations, their colleagues, peers, and other businesses. Or they'll post a question on a social media platform. Ask yourself, are you well-known amongst those people? Do other people, your customers would talk to know that you exist. The other common method of research is to do a Google search to make sure that you're showing up in their results and getting them to click. You have to know what exactly they are searching for. What are they typing into their search engines? It probably reflects their problem in some way. Are you showing up in those results? In the example I gave previously, I told you about how I learned to sell effectively by spending more time with my customers. One important insight I gained was that my customers were using Association, listservs, and forums to get advice on products. Their first step was generally to login to an association bulletin board and ask for suggestions. By joining these associations, I2 could see what people were asking, what others were suggesting, and most importantly, what language they all were using. When your ideal customer is looking for advice? Who do you think they will ask? Do those people know about you? What do you think they will say about your product? A tactic for navigating this scenario and getting your name on those people's minds is to be deliberate about who you connect with and most importantly, what impression you make. Know how to talk about your product in a way that is memorable and we'll come to mind when it matters. This will help you be the resource people think of when their peers ask them for ideas as your student action, get ready to put this to work by answering the following questions for your company. You can use the first impressions worksheet. What are three words you want people to use when they describe your business? What are you doing now to make those words the main way people think about you? What if people are not using those words right now, then what do you need to change to earn those descriptions? When I have to select three words I want people to say when they describe my business. The first one that comes to mind is integrity. The reason for this is I know that what I sell can feel ethereal management consulting. And I want people to know of me as somebody who is selling tangible results, tangible deliverables, somebody with integrity. Another word I want people to associate with me is reliability. Partially for the same reason. I want people to know that I keep a promise. If I say I will call you at three PM, I will call you at three PM. The third word I want people to associate with me is intelligence. By intelligence I mean reasoning, thinking something through. I want people to know that I'm not providing cookie cutter solutions, but that I'm sitting with them and reasoning on their issues and their specific business. I will take the three words and put them in my table. As you come up with the three words for your business, talk to your colleagues about this. Explain out loud on in full sentences what each word means. It's not enough to have the adjective or the descriptor. You need to be sure that everybody, everything is saying, uh, lines that you're all describing these in the same way I learned. Fill in the table asking myself, are people using this particular word now? Do people use the word integrity when talking about me? I'm not sure they use this exact word. Are they using something similar? That's what I might want to find out and put a list in here of the words that they might be using that are related to this. Perhaps they're saying that I'm honest. If they are saying this word to describe me, how can I make sure that they continue to use this word? Here, I might want to list some habits that I could develop. Transparent pricing, for example, specific timing on projects, things that I can do in my business. And then the way I interact with people to bring forward this idea of integrity. And finally, I think about what do I need to change from what I am doing now? If I'm looking at transparent pricing, makes sure pricing is on my website. And I want to repeat this across all three of these words. Once you're done, focus on that bottom row. What do you need to change? This tells you the fixes you want to make, to make sure that you are leading with these three descriptors. With this work. You're taking ownership for your reputation and how people perceive you. In the next lesson, we will discuss what happens when customers are ready and decide to buy. 5. Deciding to Buy: When choosing what to buy, the three things customers really pay attention to are the product, the price, and the level of service. It's important to make expectations clear in order to spend your conversations with the customer discussing the benefits of buying your product or service, rather than the logistics, which is not where money is made. They want to know that the product solves their problem, that the price is lower than their ultimate return. And that the level of service we'll cover any warranties, support, training, and customization that they may need. Remember that they are looking at these factors from their perspective of their initial problem. That is what they most need to address. And even if they are interested in additional features, they will keep coming back to that concern. It's important that you know how your business justifies its price. You have to be familiar with your product features and how they address various customer needs. And you must be able to explain the details of the service agreements and how they will address any customer expectations. You have to be able to get this information across in a simple and clear manner. If you can be clear about expectations, then the process becomes simpler. Ask yourself, are details about product, price and service easy to understand during sales conversations? Let's continue with the example of a business that needs to improve accounts receivable productivity. Can you explain how your CRM software will ensure that invoices get paid on time. How does it make tracking of payments and the problems customer-facing easier? How does it improve the receivables process beyond that one particular knees? And with this knowledge in place, can you appropriately explained how the price, the product features, and the service levels all contribute to achieving those goals. Be clear about expectations that as the salesperson, you can help your customer understand that your service will improve their business functions in many different ways. Here's a helpful exercise in preparing for those conversations. Gather all the information your customers will need about the product, the price, and the service levels. Be ready to get this information into the conversation early and effectively get it out of the way. So that you can easily direct the conversation to the benefits and spend your time discussing those returns. Prepare a simple pitch that says what the product does, how it is priced, and how you support the customer. The challenge is to do this in one to three sentences. Then craft the rest of your conversation with customers around the benefits and returns that they will see. Now it's your turn to understand why people buy your product or service. To do this, prepare simple answers to these questions for your product. How do you price your product, and why? What are the core features and solutions that your product offers? What service level is included in agreements. This information gives you all the elements you need for the sales pitch and that sales conversation. In the next lesson, we will discuss how to close the sale and maintain your customer relationships. 6. Closing the Sale: In this lesson, we will use all of the knowledge and tools you already have to close the sale and we will add what is needed to create long-term, ongoing customer relationships. You already have the sales tools and steps you need to perform for your company to make the sale official. But don't forget that your customer is still part of this relationship and you're still having a conversation with them. From this point forward, you want to make sure there are no surprises for the customer. Everything has to work the way they expect it to. Once the sale closes. Don't forget everything that we've done so far. It is still important to speak to the customer using their language and understand what they are trying to accomplish in their business. This is important in building ongoing relationships rather than just one time sales. The value of each cell increases with repeat business. And you probably have some customer retention goals. To achieve these. Customers need to see the benefits over time well beyond the moment of purchase. Whether your customer retention is premised on repeat purchase or renewal, you will achieve that retention by continuing to have a peer to peer relationship with your customer. Remember that in our example, your customer wanted a more reliable accounts receivable process without realizing it, they needed a CRM to solve that problem. By working with you. They have a better invoicing process as well as all the benefits of a CRM system. Now that they understand that they can see it in action, the things that they want. We'll shift to include additional benefits of the CRM, which are ultimately improved relationships with their customers. Be prepared to continue to address these desires and work with your customer to make the most of your product. To do this, think about what is happening to the customer after you've left the room. Here are some ways to remain part of the conversation with customers for the long term. Continue to network and learn in the same places as your customers. Stay in those associations, attend the annual conferences, attend local events, and stay on their email lists. Find ways to have regular conversations with customers. Think of some natural touch points and their use of your product, as well as ways to interact with them through networking. Have a template that agenda for conversations with customers. What are the standard questions you always want to ask? What is the information that you must extract from those conversations? As your student action, you will create a template that agenda for your customer conversations. You always want to learn what is going on in their world with their work and with any new goals that they have to do this, consider asking them the following questions regularly. What are you working on? What are your goals? What are the obstacles to those goals? What do you think will come next? What would be the perfect outcome? With answers to these questions, you will continue to be part of your customers world and function as a trusted advisor. 7. Final Thoughts: Thank you for taking my class on crafting a sales process through understanding the buyer's journey. I hope you're coming away from this class with a deeper understanding of your customers thought process, of their preferences and of their behaviors, you should feel more connected to your customer base almost as if you were one of them. Your class project will be to complete your own buyer's journey, britain as if entirely from the buyer's point of view. The worksheet in the resource section of this class follows the lessons and offers face to include the material you need to add to your final sales process. I can't wait to see your final projects in the project gallery. And I look forward to questions and comments on the discussion board. Please use these resources to share ideas, to ask questions, and to show us your results. Thank you for your attention, and I'll see you in the next class.