In marketing, when we’re dealing with customers who buy inexpensive products where they make their decision quickly (usually what we like to call “low-ticket” purchases), we can sometimes get away with talking at our customers, rather than having conversations with them.
But what happens when you are selling “big-ticket” items – products/services that are more expensive and where the customer decision-making process can take several days, weeks or even months?
- How do you put yourself in the best position to capture these purchases when you’re dealing with such a large decision window?
- How do you influence the prospect when they are subject to a range of outside influences from what they read and from the people they speak with during that period?
You have to be in the conversation and build relationships with your customers!
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In B2B marketing, as well as the marketing of big–ticket items to consumers, being involved in a long-term conversation is often the difference between getting and missing a sale. Conversations allow you to learn about the prospect at the same time that the prospect learns about you. Conversations act as a stepping stone to creating a stronger, more trusted relationship between business and consumer.
We often talk about ways to build relationships with all types of prospects in an effort to have them become customers and eventually, hopefully convert them into Best Customers. This can be easier said than done, especially when you offer a product or service that is consumed infrequently or has a long decision cycle.
A few factors stand out that can help marketers build a better framework for long-term marketing. Start by looking through the lens of a customer:
- Begin with research. Customers like to conduct research before making big ticket purchases – and their propensity to conduct research increases with the cost of the product/service. Offer them independent educational content (not selling materials). Give them tips and tricks of things to look for as they are making their decision. Enable them to participate in a Q&A forum where you help provide answers to their specific situations.
- Referral is a key factor. Engage your advocate customers in helping you grow your customer base. Especially after a “moment of truth” (when a customer is in a jam and you solve their problem), ask that customer if they would be willing to recommend you to a friend or colleague. Word-of-mouth referral is still one of the most influential factors in the consumer decision-making process.
- There is no deadline. The decision of when to make a big-ticket purchase often relies on learning enough about the product, its competitors, risks of purchase and key success factors. In addition, the final decision often banks on having the right “trusted advisors” to help sort through the options. While not every B2B or consumer “considered purchase” has a variable decision point (e.g. contract expirations), it is clear that we’re dealing with learning processes and timetables that are much longer than that of a traditional retail purchase.
So, how is the marketer to build a relationship with prospects that have long-term research needs and unclear decision points? It sounds like a marketer’s worst nightmare, but can really be their best friend if they attack the challenge correctly.
When dealing with longer term prospects, relationship is the key. Now, I am sure that everyone has heard that statement before. The problem is that no one seems to know how to build relationships, with prospects having more access to more information than ever before. It feels like marketers are just shooting in the dark, hoping to get information to a prospect at the right time, without knowing what information and what time really matters. You see, marketers have been in the business of communicating at prospects for so long that the idea of having a conversation falls way outside of the box.
Here are four principles that can help guide two-way conversation in your communications and marketing plan for longer-term prospects:
- Ask questions, rather than simply talking. It is clear that you need to build credibility in order to gain permission to have a conversation, but after that point, it is critical that you understand a prospect’s information needs and decision process.
- Evolve out of a “one size fits all” thinking. Begin personalizing and customizing information that you send to the prospect. By personalizing, I mean that you reflect exactly what a prospect told you when providing new information. By customizing, I mean only to provide information that meets the specifications of that prospect. It is wonderful when a prospect actually tells you some of their information needs and gives you some sense of their decision timeline. When you receive that information and simply provide back standard template documents, you’re actually committing marketing malpractice.
- Become a “trusted advisor”. Curate information from the outside, as well is the information that you may have within your organization, and provide that information to a prospect in a centralized location. Give that customer alerts to let them know when new information is available for them. Ask those prospects to rate the information, in order for you to refine your understanding of what information is the most valuable to them.
- Make it easy to purchase when they are ready. If you collected information from an earlier touch point, don’t make the customer enter it again. Small things like these can be barriers to finalizing a purchase. Also, respect the relationship you’ve built with your customer and don’t try to excessively sell them.
At first blush, this approach may appear complex to develop and manage. But depending on the level of personalization and customization that you choose, this approach may be more attainable than you think. You see, every prospect is convinced that his/her needs are “terminally unique,” but in fact the opposite is usually true. After just a little bit, you will find that prospect needs fall into a few categories, and that you can address needs in those categories relatively quickly using information that is already available in your company.
In such diverse industries as insurance, construction, business services and automobiles, this four-step approach has proven consistently to be a Best Practice.
A final advantage of this approach is that it provides you with additional information about the prospect, which can be used to track that prospect through the decision process, and assign ROI and customer acquisition to the series of communications that you use to bring the customer into the fold.
Remember, in order for this approach to succeed, you must be genuinely interested in providing that prospect with the information they need, not the information that you want them to have. By focusing on their needs, you set yourself up as a “trusted advisor,” which is exactly the position you want to be in when a prospect is ready to buy.
Talk less. Listen more. Operate in your prospect’s interest.
Reap the benefits in customers, revenue and market share.