Determining your buyer’s journey is one of the best ways for an agency to be more successful

A couple of times I tried my hand at direct selling. I didn’t fare too well. Some people will lead you to believe that is the only way to sell, but it isn’t the only way.

One time I worked for a cold call telemarketing company. They sold folks on promotional products. You literally got on the phone and dialed someone in another state whom you knew nothing about, followed a script, and tried to sell them a promotional marketing package. It didn’t go well for me.

Another time I tried to sell (think peddle) alarm systems for a major alarm company by going door to door. I think I was selling for the alarm company, but it might have been for a subcontracted selling company, you know how those things go.

One time, while going door to door with a guy, he ignored the “No Salesman” sign. He claimed it was just a ploy, that it didn’t mean anything. I was stunned.

There is something to be said for overcoming objections while chatting with someone, but this was before we ever chatted with them.

My problem is I tend to see things from the other side. I just never felt like these people were a good target for the product.

You know that if you are going to be in a business, you have to learn to sell. No selling means no work and no work means no money. Web agencies sell an entirely different way.

One of the best ways for web agencies to sell is to pay attention to their buyer’s journey. What are those stages of awareness? We are going to discuss this today.

Two Models of the Buyer’s Journey

Hubspot

The Hubspot model is one that most inbound marketers teach and talk about. Frankly, it condenses the stages to three and simplifies the understanding of the journey. As iMACT’S Tom DiScipio says,

The inbound buyer’s journey is the active research process a potential buyer goes through leading up to their purchase. As we dive in, let’s first personify an example of a potential buyer (or prospect) and craft a story around their journey.

The stages as they define them are Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. From here, they match the stages to a sales or buyer’s funnel and map them as Top of the Funnel, Middle of the Funnel, and Bottom of the Funnel.

Awareness, of course, is when your customer realizes he or she has a problem.  Consideration is when he or she begins to research the problem and how to find solutions. Consideration is the stage when they will consider solutions to the problem including, hopefully, the solution you offer.

All of this translates into Hubspot’s Four piece methodology: Attract, Convert, Close, Delight.

Eugene Schwartz

Eugene Schwartz was a famous copywriter who taught the world how to sell more. He wrote one of the most important copywriting books, Breakthrough Advertising. He tackled the stages of awareness in that book according to Brian Clark of Copyblogger.

Jack pointed out that Eugene Schwartz tackled this in Breakthrough Advertising back in 1966. Schwartz broke down prospect awareness into five distinct phases:

1. The Most Aware: Your prospect knows your product, and only needs to know “the deal.”

2. Product-Aware: Your prospect knows what you sell, but isn’t sure it’s right for him.

3. Solution-Aware: Your prospect knows the result he wants, but not that your product provides it.

4. Problem-Aware: Your prospect senses he has a problem, but doesn’t know there’s a solution.

5. Completely Unaware: No knowledge of anything except, perhaps, his own identity or opinion.

Copywriters tend to dive a little deeper. I think Schwartz addresses the stages a little better. I like that it addresses the pre-aware stage. Trying to sell your solution to someone who isn’t aware of a problem is very difficult. It helps us think about who we target.

Seven Observations

So, thinking about a buyer’s journey, especially for WordPress professionals, I have listed the following seven observations.

1.  No one’s journey is exactly the same

You can ask each of your customers how they got to you and they will each have a different answer. There might be some similarities, but no journey is the same. Compare your own journeys to purchases. This is why some are rethinking how the buyer’s journey works.

There is no reason to throw out the frameworks, but you just have to realize they are not rigid, which leads me to my next point.

2. Use these stages as a framework – it’s fluid

As I said, not every person will have the same journey. We shouldn’t treat these frameworks as a rigid template that we have to force customers into. It is a fluid process as with any journey.

3. B2B and B2C is going to be much different

As website developers, we are selling to other businesses. Be careful about following advice regarding buyer journeys from content aimed at B2C companies.

4. Higher priced products and services will take longer

If you are selling a $10-20K website project, you can expect your buyer to take their time. The bigger the company, the more people to examine the solution. Ultimately, it will depend on the company’s budget.

Smaller priced projects might not take as long. Consider adding products and services that cost less to get a faster purchase.

5. The journey will be different depending on the offering

If you are offering a $10K service, that may slow down the journey and mean more research. If you are offering a $500 service, your customer may be willing to pull the trigger a little faster because the risk isn’t as big.

6. Stay engaged with the client

You may have remembered others saying you need to engage with a client at least seven times to make the sale. The truth of the matter is that the buyer’s journey has completely changed the process. The buyer does a ton of research online. These days, the buyer holds most of the cards.

Consider what Howard J. Sewell says in this article,

The Rule of Seven harkens back to a day when the salesperson was in control, when buyers did little to no research before talking to vendors, and when marketing was simply a string of pitches extolling the virtues of a company’s product. Deliver that pitch a minimum number of times, the theory says, and buyers will be powerless to resist.

Sewell’s advice is to have an effective online presence and “Engaging that prospect in a consistent stream of relevant communication – communication that nurtures, cultivates, educates, and maintains brand awareness – until that prospect is ready to buy.”

7. The market is consumer driven

Your online presence has become the modern-day salesperson. We may have to close leads, but a lot of the process for nurturing is done before they ever contact us. Your customer researches their problem, the solution, and dozens of products by the time they see you online.

Be the company that is willing to provide content that helps them along on the journey.

Wrapping it up

How does all this help a WordPress agency sell a WordPress site care plan? What does all this mean? I think to answer that question we have to evaluate how buyers come to our solution and research where they were in the process when they decided to buy.

It makes no difference which buyer’s journey models you use as long as it helps you inform and define your sales process. As always, our context means everything. It can go a long way in helping us generate leads.

What is the buyer’s journey for your business? Do you know how your customers come to you? How does that inform your process?

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