Welcome back. This is module one, lesson one, your customers journey. In this lesson, you're going to learn how to understand the journey that your customers will go through when they are purchasing your product with you. Knowing this is really critical for your planning your effectiveness and to maximize your efforts. So you'll better understand when you should be reaching out to customers, what items are of maximum importance to them, and when and how best to approach them to increase these chances for success. So the first thing that I wanted to reiterate to you is your customer is not looking to buy something and that's what a lot of people approach this process like they approach it like a process of I am somebody trying to sell something to this person, so that you know, I can achieve this metric this number this, you know, whatever it is that you're trying to get, but that's really not how we need to approach this, you need to think about it from the perspective of them, your customer is a person who just needs their problems solved.

So we may understand at a higher kind of level, what kind of problems that we are trying to solve for them. But there's a whole landscape typically, or especially, I mean, if you're selling in to other companies that you need to understand as well, that will make it easier and it will make you more successful. So, just to kind of go into this real quick, here's some real talk. The younger your business is, the more likely the answers that we're going to come up with today are going to be wrong. Or they'll just change fundamentally over time as your business grows. And the point isn't right now to know everything and to get it right.

The point is to get you started thinking about this stuff, knowing what you know, today, making the best decisions you can with the information that you have, and be paying attention moving forward. That's the most Important thing. So a majority of this module is all focused on the worksheets, your customers journey and strategy landscape. Go ahead and download that from the downloads area if you haven't done it already, depending on how early you are, again, you know, you might find some of this stuff difficult to answer, just work through it if you can. And if you're able to get help feedback or advice on how to sort of approach this and get more accurate answers, or just get better insights from what's happening on your customer side of the fence, this is a great time to do that. So this worksheet is your customers journey and strategy and a strategy landscape.

The first thing that we're going to think about as we work through this is your sales cycle. Mainly the timing. Start with this question, how often does your customer purchase the type of thing you're selling is this Something they buy a lot? Or is this not very common for them to make this purchase? Maybe the person that you're selling to has never made a purchase like this before? Do they need special budget approval internally to do so, sometimes people are able to make purchases from discretionary budgets, they might say this amount of money is earmarked each year for, you know, marketing tools and services, for example, and they can spend within certain dollar amounts up to that amount.

If you are outside of that within your industry or with your customers. Oftentimes, you will need to go through an additional process of getting budget approval. That's something that's important to know, before or after. And also budget approval is a typical objection. So if you know that typically your customer doesn't have to get budget approval typically they are allowed to spend for this out of discretionary then you might be able to better address that objection for what is next, what time of year do they typically make these purchases, there's sometimes a year where they're planning and they're more likely to be looking at new tools, new software, new services and new things. There's other times of year where maybe they are very busy, maybe they're going to market they're in production, they're on heavy deadlines, whatever it might be.

You don't want to come at them at a time when it's really not feasible for them to make a decision. It's really good to be able to time your approach and your efforts to synchronize with their from the point where your customer shows true interest. How long does it take for decision to be made. So in my business, it can take anywhere from 90 days to a year, sometimes longer for a customer who's interested in us to actually be ready to purchase in terms of all the steps that are required. We have a very long sales cycle. So for you How long can you reasonably expect it to take from the moment that you establish contact with the right people, so the time where they become your customer, take that into account with your planning.

Considering all this, what times of the year should you be most focused on prospecting? A lot of people don't really pay a lot of attention at work during times of year like the holiday, that may not be a good time for you to be doing a lot of a lot of prospecting and a lot of outreach. Another time of the year. Sometimes that can be notoriously hard is middle or end of summer, a lot of people are out of the office, a lot of people are on vacation. Another time is sometimes even just during the week, I typically don't do anything on Fridays. You're not likely to hear back from anybody.

People are sort of checked out. They're kind of trying to get out of the office. They're sort of wrapping things up. Maybe they're leaving for long weekends or things like that. It just makes things harder. make it as easy on yourself.

As you possibly can. So the next thing, your sales cycle, think about it in terms of your positioning, is what you are selling considered a high consideration or a low consideration purchase. What this means is, is this something that is hard for them to say yes to? Not that they don't want to, but does it require a lot of hoops to jump through to require a lot of changes that require a lot of sign off a lot of legal What does that look like for you? A low consideration purchase is something that's pretty easy for them say yes to, they agree to it all the time. This sort of thing is pretty kind of par for the course for them.

And it doesn't require a whole lot of major thought. Where do you fall in that? It's good to understand. So the next question, How easy is it for them to stop whatever they're doing now and switch to your product or service. So everybody has an alternative. If you weren't using my product, you'd be doing x.

So maybe you're selling a great software. If they're not using your software, what are they using? Is it you know, Google Drive? Is it? post it notes on a wall, you know, what does that look like. And if it's hard for them to switch to you, you can expect a longer sales cycle.

So So let's say for instance, you are, you're selling a critical piece of equipment that is very integral to production. And you're selling it to a company that would need to stop production in order to implement this new critical piece of equipment. That's a very high switching costs because you are actually asking your customer to incur a cost and a potential loss of their organization, as well as a lot of downtime. And there's a whole lot of people they're going to have to get on board with that new piece of equipment, everyone from the people who operate it every day to the people who train on it, and all of that stuff. So it's Not just a new piece of equipment, there's a lot of other stuff that comes with it and what does that look like for you? Next, does what you sell, solve a really integral felt pain?

Does it generate revenue? does it increase productivity? If it's yes to any of these things, these things can speed up the sales cycle, but only if you position it that way. So for example, one thing that I've worked on with this is in the coaching industry, a lot of people who are coaches, executive coaches or business coaches, sometimes have a difficult time explaining their value proposition because they're not necessarily positioning themselves as if they're solving a pain. It's more of a nice to have or it's a luxury. And, you know, I know this because I get approached by coaches a lot in our business, and we oftentimes see it as something sort of, like, oh, that'd be kind of nice, I guess.

But these other things we need over here are much more important and that's what's going to get your attention So if your product is a nice to have, then you need to think about how you position it to make it more directly addressing this intercal felt pain that your customers might be having. If your product will help increase revenue or your service helps increase revenue, definitely highlight that. And if you generate more productivity, if you can link that directly to the pain that they're feeling as a result of the lack of productivity do that any of these things can help you speed up the sales cycle because these are the integral felt pains that our customers feel each day that they are looking for a solution to. Next I want you to consider how you involve others. Who else is involved in the sales decision making process with you and what do they care about and what are their concerns?

It may not be immediately obvious. For some people, let's say you're a coach. Let's go without, again, your coats and you're selling to executives. And this is is something that an executive would purchase personally for themselves, it's not something that their company would buy. You may think just right off the bat, that the only person making the decision is that person but in reality, there are other people who are going to influence the decision of that person, maybe their spouse is a big one. And what does that person care about?

What are their concerns? And what questions are they going to ask of your customer when they're trying to weigh the decision making process when you're not there? So how easy is it for them to stop what they're doing now and switched your product this also goes back to the switching costs but it looks at it from the perspective of the other people sometimes it may be easy for your customer to switch but the other people who are involved in the process are involved with the or who are involved with the product that you're going to be replacing for example, may not be as easy for them to switch and if There's somebody who maybe you haven't considered in the organization who's going to have a difficult time with it, that person is somebody who should be who, who their needs and their objections would need to be addressed.

The other thing to think about is who in the company might be actually openly opposed to purchasing your product? what might they be saying that would deter or would sway other people? When I was in the agency world, there was always a number of agencies who would be brought into pitch and there was usually somebody on the client side who was really vying for us. We had cultivated a relationship with that person and all that that's someone who usually call a coach or champion. And then there was always someone usually on the other side of the table, who was obviously favoriting. Another agency, and they were sort of the person who would tend to play devil's advocate weren't necessarily a detractor, but they had a favorite Who is different than us, they had a different point of view.

And that person, sometimes, you know, their perspective would win. And we wouldn't win the work and other times it wouldn't. But the point is to really understand and be aware of who those Opposing Viewpoints are and what they might be saying. Then another thing to really think about is, does your purchase or does purchasing your product, potentially involved terminating relationships or laying people off? This is particularly true in software, there's a lot of, of companies that are downsizing because the roles that they're removing are being automated by software automated by technology, and in some ways, that's just kind of part of the attrition and the evolution of the work world. But in other ways, it's really important because if you are selling something that would lead to that sort of decision, you need to be very aware of And the effects of that might have and maybe even have some solutions to present for those people who don't want to make those layoffs.

And if you can explain some examples, for instance, about what, how those people were actually able to be more effective in their roles because they were reallocated to doing this other thing that was much more high value or, you know, whatever that might be, that could be a good way to make sure that things move forward smoothly for you. Then the last page here is just about the overall process. What materials do you need to create to support the sales process don't create too much. A lot of people will go overboard with the leave behinds and all this and they make fancy super fancy folders that are printed and they look gorgeous and all this but like, no one actually really reads those. They definitely don't keep them. They kind of sit around on desks as fodder and that's actually not bad.

If that's what you're going after. But I remember actually one time I wanted a job. And I created a little job portfolio when I went in for this interview, and you have my resume work samples and all the things and I purposefully made it Oh, funny shape, so that it wouldn't fit into a filing cabinet drawer. And they had to kind of treat it separately and keep it outside the filing cabinet on someone's desk. And of course, it was very colorful, and, you know, I designed it and people would walk by and pick it up and comment on it and I end up getting the job. But if that's not really what you're going for, or if you're going to have another strategy for leaving a lasting impression, then I don't recommend going overboard creating materials.

How are they interacting with your support materials and your leave behind? So one thing is just to be really clear and know that you're going to send them something that's going to be forwarded around throughout the organization. And you're not going to be there to explain what any of it means. So it needs to sell itself. That's one example. Another is, you know, if you make a presentation, and you're using slide a slide deck, for example, and then you leave them the slide deck, if the slide deck doesn't explain anything, you leave a lot up for interpretation or just to the merits of their memory and what they might remember.

So keep all of that in mind. Are there any steps that could be shortened or removed? So for me in my business, one of the things is when my business partner is with me, at certain stages of the process with customers, it goes much smoothly, much more smoothly and faster. And this is because he can hear things that I don't necessarily pick up on. He has, you know, over a decade of experience and photography and production, he can see things I don't see. He can speak to things I don't know are pain points, he can speak much more technically to some of the roles that I can't.

I'm good at opening the door. I'm good at the relationship. But sometimes when it comes down to really sussing out whether or not we'd be a good potential partner, he is the person who needs to be at the table and having him there shortens the cycle and makes the process easier. So is there anything like that for you? Or is there anywhere that you're stumbling that you could maybe pull someone in for your team to help speak to it? This is common in a lot of technology companies for what they call a sales engineer.

But it doesn't have to look like that for you. So how does that look like? And then lastly, is there anywhere you might have an opportunity to make a deeper personal connection like wow them or add more value. Again, you don't want to go overboard here. You don't want to be sending you know, flowers and, you know, singing dancing candy grams or whatever it is, but you do want to maybe To that extra small thing that leaves a special touch that no one else is going to do or that maybe no one else has ever done. So in some cases, it might be appropriate to send, you know, a quick handwritten note.

Especially maybe if they had you out to the office or maybe you stopped by to visit or you pitched in person or anything like that, you know, a handwritten note is always looked upon Well, I wouldn't always do a handwritten note. Some people will say, you know, any, anytime somebody doesn't want to take your meeting, mail them a handwritten letter, like I don't know about that. But you know, there's a lot of opportunities to connect there. Another way that you can maybe make a deeper personal connection or add more value is, you know, if you're doing discovery calls, or maybe you're doing meetings or something like that. It used to be a good practice or a certain practice people would slip like a Starbucks gift card into like a thank you card. And that was always sort of looked upon nicely because people would say, Oh, this is cool, you know, they bought me a coffee, essentially, you could go one better and maybe do a more interesting coffee shop in Starbucks that stands out a little bit more now that that's become a little bit more common.

And other than that, another thing is, if you shared any personal jokes, or you sort of rebuilt report anyway, maybe you have similarities, or maybe just something, sending them a little thing, you know, kind of harkening back to that nothing about the sale, but like, Oh, yeah, you know, I know we were both joking about this thing. And here's this funny video I found about that, isn't that isn't that funny, you know, is a good way to establish the rapport and the connection that you want. And that is really important to a successful client relationship just moving forward. So I just want to wrap up with some quick advice. One of the things that you'll run into when you're starting a company or just you know, when you're out there hustling and just trying to grow it as people want to help you and not as awesome.

And one of the things they'll ask you for is who your dream clients are people will want to maybe make an introduction, or they'll want to even know if they can make an introduction for you or refer you anybody. And that's something that you really want to take advantage of. If somebody asks you Who are your dream clients, you know, sometimes they're just trying to get a sense of who you work with, or where you're trying to go in your business. But sometimes they really want to know if they have anyone in their network who kind of meets that need. And so, I like to give a kind of a brief overview of what a good client looks like for us, but then I also keep a list that is of clients that I know that I would really love an introduction to that. You know, and these aren't clients that I'm not sure or like, Oh, they sound like a cool company.

Maybe it'd be fun to work with them like I know I would know that they're a really good fit. And I keep it in my phone, you know, on a little note sheet. And sometimes I can pull it out and just kind of refer through and say, you know, do you know anyone from this company? What about here and this is what I'm looking for. And even if they don't know anybody, it's helpful for people out there to know whom you would like to work with. Because they may not know somebody at that moment.

But they may be at a lunch or a coffee next week and meet, you know, the target customer for your dream. Someone on your dream client list and say, Oh, my gosh, I just met this really cool person last week, they have this great thing you should totally hear about it. And that is how businesses really do grow. So you know, people want to help you. They'll ask you and you want to be ready. One of the places I like to make a dream client list is on the plane because you're sort of stuck kind of held hostage Wi Fi is never that great.

You're sort of in the air and that's when sit there and kind of think and Mull things over. And, you know, after I've read the magazine in the back of the seat pocket and sort of Tootle it around, maybe I prepared for the flight and have stuff downloaded. Maybe I didn't. But either way, that's when I say Who do I want to work with right now and what's going really well what do I want more of and that's where I create these lists. So I highly recommend that you do the same. So this is the end of module one.

I will see you in Module Two.